Premier Kathleen Wynne is sending a clear signal to her political rivals — within and outside the Liberal party — that she has no plans to resign despite her unpopularity in the polls.

“I’ll be walking in the snow and on the beach, but I’m not going,” Wynne told the Star in a year-end interview Monday.

“I am going to be here through the 2018 election,” the premier said, conceding “of course I feel a sense of responsibility” that her unpopularity could be harmful to Liberal MPPs’ re-election chances.

“I wouldn’t be honest if I said I didn’t feel responsibility — for sure.”

“All the conversations about ‘are the knives out?’ and ‘are people plotting?’ . . . the fact is I’m the premier until either the people decide I’m not the premier or I decide I’m going to step down. That’s how it works.”

Wynne, who led the Liberals to a majority victory in 2014, has watched her personal approval rating plunge in recent public opinion polls due in part to concerns over rising electricity prices.

“We are doing some really hard things,” the premier emphasized, pointing to her successful crusade to get Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other provincial leaders to bolster the Canada Pension Plan.

“We wrestled the CPP enhancement to the ground — that was a big challenge across the country.

“We’ve done difficult things like broaden the ownership of Hydro One and we’re investing in infrastructure that is under construction right now, so people don’t see the results yet of what we’ve been doing,” she said, referring to the controversial sale of 60 per cent of the public transmission utility to bankroll new roads, bridges, and transit.

“We’ve reorganized our student assistance so that (college and university) students in 2017 will have free tuition — kids from low- and middle-income families — and yet that hasn’t started . . . so the kids haven’t got that free tuition yet because they’re just applying now.”

Wynne said Ontarians will soon start to see the benefit of her government’s initiatives.

“The plan wasn’t to make investments so that I’d be popular. The plan was to make investments so we’d see economic growth in the province and people would have jobs and that’s happening,” she said.

Having said that, Wynne, who succeeded Dalton McGuinty as premier in February 2013, is mindful there are others beyond Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath who covet her job.

“The reality of this work is that you’re in these jobs for a limited amount of time. When I come into this building, I feel lucky every day. You don’t get to stay here forever. I certainly don’t get to stay in this office forever,” she said, insisting would-be leadership hopefuls’ ambitions shouldn’t be quashed.

“I hope there are good strong people in the Liberal family who are thinking about a succession plan,” the premier said.

“It would be a really bad thing if there weren’t people who felt that at some point they might want to step into these shoes and take responsibility in this job. So I encourage that.”

While Wynne stressed she has “very cohesive team” — indeed, none of her cabinet ministers is actively gunning for her job — it is widely known some are quietly considering future leadership bids.

Among those most often mentioned as possible contenders down the road: Attorney General Yasir Naqvi; Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca; Children and Youth Services Minister Michael Coteau; Health Minister Eric Hoskins; Finance Minister Charles Sousa; Education Minister Mitzie Hunter; and Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid.

Wynne said such ministerial aspiration is “fantastic because it makes them more engaged and it makes them better people. I don’t have a problem with that.”

The premier admitted she was sorry to lose David Orazietti from her cabinet.

Orazietti, 48, resigned Friday as community safety and correctional services minister, which will force Wynne to call a byelection for Sault Ste. Marie before the end of June.

“Do I want another byelection? No, I don’t want another byelection. Would I have preferred David stay? Absolutely, he’s a great minister and a friend, but he’s also a man with a life and he has to look after himself and his family.”

The lingering fallout of the February 2015 byelection in Sudbury will haunt Wynne in the new year.

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That’s because Patricia Sorbara, her former deputy chief of staff, is facing a trial on Election Act violations related to that contest.

The bribery charges against Sorbara and Sudbury Liberal activist Gerry Lougheed — who deny any wrongdoing — were a low point for Wynne this year.

“I think there are a lot of people who are not part of my world who are happy to see 2016 going out the door — on so many levels, for so many reasons,” she said.

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