At this point, eight would be great.

That’s the message from Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne as she scrambles to hold at least eight seats and retain official party status in Thursday’s election.

“We know we’re not going to form (the next) government,” Wynne told reporters at a campaign stop in North York on Tuesday.

“But to have Liberals at Queen’s Park who can be that voice that will allow for practical problem-solving — not having a majority Doug Ford government or a majority Andrea Horwath NDP government — I think is very, very important at this point in our history,” she said.

“We need to continue to build on the momentum that we have in this province. We have a strong economy, we have a compassionate society, but there’s more that we need to do.”

Wynne, the premier since 2013 and leader of a party that has been in power for almost 15 years, stressed that the best-case scenario for the Liberals is to hold the balance of power in a minority Legislature.

But asked by a journalist if she considers “the NDP to be the lesser of two evils,” she was circumspect.

“I think there are risks on both sides. I have also said in the past that the platform, the program, the plan that the NDP has put forward looks, on the surface at least, like there’s much more similarity to what we have put forward,” Wynne said.

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“I have no affinity for what Doug Ford has put forward, but people in this province are going to decide. They’re looking for change and we will wait ’til Thursday, wait ’til the election results, to have the next conversation.”

Wynne would not be drawn into speculating about whether the surviving Liberal caucus would consider a formal arrangement with the NDP, similar to the two-year accord that David Peterson’s Liberals struck with Bob Rae’s New Democrats after the 1985 election.

That deal toppled the newly elected minority government of Progressive Conservative premier Frank Miller — and ended 42 consecutive years of Tory rule in Ontario — despite the fact that Miller’s party had won the most seats in the election.

“I know that it’s tempting to go into the hypotheticals and I am not above wanting to have that conversation, but I really think that it’s counterproductive because we don’t know what’s going to happen on Thursday night,” Wynne said.

In an unprecedented gambit for a sitting premier, Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne on Saturday pleaded with voters to elect as many Grits as possible to prevent a Progressive Conservative or NDP majority government.

“We don’t know what the numbers are going to be. What I will always be looking for is the best way to continue the momentum in this province, to make practical decisions.”

To that end, Wynne is hopeful that enough of the 46 Liberals seeking re-election — and possibly one or two rookie candidates — can hang on to give the party official status.

In London North Centre, Liberal candidate Kate Graham said she hoped voters would “stack Queen’s Park with smart, talented people — progressive voices who will work hard for their communities and who can rise above the partisanship.”

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“I am not asking you to vote against another candidate or another leader, I’m asking you to vote for me,” Graham said during Wynne’s campaign swing through London.

The Liberal leader then barnstormed to Kitchener to try to salvage local campaigns there.

With fewer than eight MPPs, the Liberals would not be entitled to daily questions in the Legislature and would lose funding for researchers and other staff.

The NDP was reduced to just seven seats in the 2003 election, and lost official party status until Horwath won a Hamilton byelection in 2004.

Privately, Liberal insiders concede that at best they might hold a dozen seats in the 124-member Legislature on Thursday.

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