SAULT STE. MARIE, ONT.—Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne says every time former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris opens his mouth it helps her campaign.

Wynne was reacting to comments made on CTV’s Power Playwhere he praised his own record and condemned the “scandal plagued” Liberal government for its failure to balance the books.

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“I think my record of over a million new jobs by cutting taxes and regulation and red tape and bringing balance budget, I think that record is a pretty good one. And I, personally, it wouldn’t bother me to be compared to that record,” Harris told the political program.

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Harris was interviewed from Ukraine where he was observing the election.

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After touring Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School Tuesday, Wynne said she hopes that Harris keeps inserting him into the election campaign.

“Because Mike Harris reminds all of us of what it was like during those years when he was premier; the discord in our education system, 26 million learning days lost because of the strikes, because of the conflict that was in every school,” she told reporters.

Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne talks about the importance of maintaining a strong education system after touring Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School in Sault Ste. Marie Ont.

Wynne said she is in provincial politics today because of the chaos created in the education system under the Harris government reign and warned that the Hudak Tories are promising to be even worse.

“So from my perspective every time Mike Harris talks about what he did, that further motivates me to make sure that doesn’t happen again because (Tory Leader) Tim Hudak is putting proposals that would do more damage, that would affect more of the employees in our schools, that would affect more children’s lives than even what Mike Harris did,” she said.

“If people like Mike Harris they are really going to like Tim Hudak.”

Hudak, who was a cabinet minister in the Harris government, says if elected premier he would reduce non-teaching positions by 9,700. Hudak would also eliminate 9,000 teaching positions by increasing class sizes and stopping the expansion of full-day kindergarten.

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On Power Play Harris said Ontario is alone in not tackling the deficit and the debt.

“I think it’s the only province or state or country in the world I know of that’s going backwards on deficit and debt. Everybody else, I think, understands the problem of running up deficits and debts and leaving these to future generations,” Harris stated.

“For some reason or another Ontario is the odd province out, which perhaps explains why we’ve lost so many private-sector jobs, Why we, credit rating gets downgraded, why we’re now a have-not province. So, I understand they don’t want to talk about that record,” said Harris, who was premier from 1995 to 2002.

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