On the eve of Thursday’s budget that could spark an election, Premier Kathleen Wynne urged Liberal MPPs to “get your signs ready”

With Finance Minister Charles Sousa introducing an Ontario pension plan, increasing taxes on people earning $150,000 and up, and ending a tax break for large corporations to bring in an additional $50 million, Wynne quietly rallied her troops Wednesday.

In an unscheduled 10-minute gathering just before question period, the premier told MPPs she wanted to clear up any confusion that might have lingered from a fractious Grit caucus meeting Tuesday.

Some Liberals had left that closed-door session believing Wynne wanted to engineer her minority government’s own defeat to better control the timing of an election some feel is inevitable.

There was grumbling from MPPs about “unelected advisers” whispering in the premier’s ear that it’s better to hit the hustings immediately rather than wait to see if the NDP, which has propped up the Grits for two years, will join the Progressive Conservatives in toppling the government.

But the next day the premier privately assured MPPs she would not spark a spring campaign — despite public suggestions otherwise — and wants to continue governing.

She stressed to them she was only trying to convey to them the importance of “being ready” in case the Liberals are defeated in the house in May.

On Tuesday, Wynne had complained behind closed doors that NDP Leader Andrea Horwath refuses to meet with her to discuss Sousa’s budget.

Minutes after the private meeting Wednesday, the premier publicly aired her frustration with Horwath.

“I have been trying to get a meeting with the leader of the third party since February to have a conversation about how we might work together to pass the budget,” Wynne said in the legislature.

“My hope is that she will agree to meet with me so that we can look at a path forward. I know that (Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak) has no interest in working with us,” she said.

Early Thursday, Horwath put out a surprise statement saying she would not be commenting on the budget until Friday, ditching the traditional same-day news conferences given by all major party leaders offering reaction.

With all eyes on Horwath's verdict, the NDP leader appeared reluctant to make up her mind just yet.

On Tuesday, Wynne had insisted to skittish caucus members she was doing everything she could to avert a campaign, but may have no choice but to go to the polls in June.

Veteran MPPs — including two who served in the ill-fated government of former Liberal premier David Peterson when he called an early election in 1990 — implored her to find a way to work with the NDP.

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“I was in this very room in 1990 when Peterson decided to go early and we got killed,” one minister reminded his caucus mates on Tuesday.

“We must make sure there’s no poison pill in the budget that the NDP could never support,” said another long-time MPP in the meeting.

Sources say Sousa’s budget should indeed be palatable to New Democrat supporters, if not NDP MPPs.

As first revealed by the Star, income taxes will be going up for the top 2 per cent of earners — about 260,000 Ontarians.

There will be no change for those making less than $150,000 — or 98 per cent of Ontarians. The new tax change will mean a $650 million annual boost to provincial coffers.

As well, big corporations making more than $15 million a year will see taxes on their first $500,000 of income rise from 4.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent, which should bring in $50 million.

The new revenues will be earmarked for public transit and infrastructure.

Thursday’s budget will also contain $11.4 billion for major hospital expansion and redevelopment, according to CTV. Forty hospitals across the province will receive the money over 10 years, the report says.

Borrowing a long-held NDP proposal, the Liberals will unveil details of an Ontario pension scheme designed to bolster the Canada Pension Plan

With an election possible, Wynne is shoring up support wherever she can.

On Wednesday, she poised for media cameras at a Toronto fire hall to announce the government was expanding the list of cancers that could be considered work-related to make it easier for those afflicted to get benefits.

Breast cancer, multiple myeloma, and testicular cancer have been added to the list and prostate cancer, lung cancer, and skin cancer will be phased in by 2017.

Seven years ago, the province said brain cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, colorectal cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, some forms of leukemia, esophageal cancer, and ureter cancer could be considered work-related for firefighters.

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