TORONTO

Incoming met outgoing Monday as Kathleen Wynne was shown around her new office by its soon-to-be former occupant, Dalton McGuinty.

“The big news is she’s keeping the paint colour,” McGuinty joked.

Wynne, who won a third-ballot victory over Sandra Pupatello over the weekend to become Liberal leader, said she hasn’t yet scheduled her swearing-in.

“We’re just working out all of those details now. It’s all in the works right now,” she said.

“We’re going to work it out and I’ve said Feb. 19 we’re going to be back in the legislature.”

Officials later said Wynne is not expected to meet with Lt.-Gov. David Onley — where she will be invited to form a government — until the end of the week. She will lead her first caucus meeting Tuesday.

But how long the minority legislature can survive is unclear. Wynne had reached out to both opposition parties, suggesting she’s prepared to talk fiscal responsibility with Tory Leader Tim Hudak and social programs with New Democrat Andrea Horwath, but neither responded enthusiastically to her overtures.

“There was an initial disappointment because the first comments I heard from the incoming premier were that she wants to build on the Dalton McGuinty agenda,” Hudak said.

“I think we’ll be looking for a very different direction in this province so hopefully I’ll be able to convince her of that.”

And Hudak defended the aggressive ads his party released targeting Wynne immediately after her election.

“I’m going to use every opportunity I have to get this message across — we’re on the edge of a cliff,” he said. “People are concerned about the debt, they’re concerned about the fact that Ontario has fallen behind when it comes to creating jobs.”

Wynne controls 53 seats in the legislature while the combined opposition parties hold 54. Those numbers allowed the PCs and the NDP control committee hearings in the last session and haul Liberals before them to answer pointed questions on the Ornge air ambulance scandal and the $230 million cost of relocating two gas plants.

Those uncomfortable hearings led directly to McGuinty’s decision to prorogue the House when he announced his surprise retirement last October. Horwath said Monday that she’ll ensure Queen’s Park peace but only if Wynne calls a public inquiry into the gas plant fiasco — and suggested it’s a prerequisite to any deal to put off an election.

“She has a pretty basic choice,” Horwath said of Wynne. “We can either take it out of the legislature and find a place for people to get their answers, or we can go through the process inside the legislature. That’s her decision to make.

“I’ll be raising over the next couple of days some other things I think we can achieve, but this I think is a primary matter.”