Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath gestures at the government benches as the Sergeant at Arms waits to eject her from the Legislative Chamber during the PC government's introduction of the Efficient Local Government Act at the Ontario Legislature on Sept. 12, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — A Progressive Conservative MPP is accusing Ontario’s NDP leader of pushing her in the legislature, and says Andrea Horwath should take anger management classes.

Horwath flatly denied the accusation by Donna Skelly and the Progressive Conservatives say there is no video of the exchange.

Wednesday’s typically raucous question period ended in stunned silence as Skelly rose in the legislature to detail her complaint. As she asked Speaker Ted Arnott to rule on whether Horwath breached privilege, muttered boos could be heard from the opposition benches and Horwath repeatedly shook her head.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Skelly called Horwath an “angry woman.”

“Andrea Horwath crossed the floor and came up to me, yelling and screaming, and pushed me,” she said. “I think she was saying, ‘You disgust me, you disgust me.’ ”

Skelly said Horwath got so heated that the clerk had to escort her back to her chair.

“I think she needs to probably consider some anger management. She’s clearly an angry woman, when you see her across the hall,” Skelly said.

“That’s absolutely not the truth,” Horwath said of Skelly’s description of the exchange.

The PCs say the incident happened while bells were ringing before a vote, so it was not caught on the legislature’s cameras. Energy Minister Greg Rickford said he witnessed the incident and saw Horwath “storm over with a red face.”

The NDP says Tory MPPs were blocking a camera in the legislature that was recording Horwath’s speech, and she went over to call Skelly out about it afterward.

Horwath said she “walked over, tapped her on the shoulder, like you would do in any normal situation when somebody’s got her back to you, and (Skelly) went ballistic.”

The NDP leader refused to say how hard she tapped Skelly, instead calling the entire issue a diversion by the government.

“This is silliness. The bottom line is this: This government is acting in a way that is hyper-partisan, completely chaotic, and diverting from what is important here in this province,” Horwath said.

It’s the latest in a string of finger-pointing and accusations levelled by the Progressive Conservatives and NDP since the Ford government was sworn in last summer. At the end of July, question period spun out of control as Premier Doug Ford and Horwath started a shouting match over accusations that a New Democrat MPP mocked a Tory MPP’s accent.

At the time, the Tories started protesting all questions from the NDP, but then ultimately capitulated when they could offer no proof that an NDP member had, in fact, mocked a PC member.

The Liberal and Green MPPs called the matter the latest example of a new low in decorum at Queen’s Park.

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