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The claim is based on groundless speculation in a March Maclean’s magazine article by a Western University professor and policy researcher at a left-wing think tank closely tied to the Liberals.

The professor wondered how the then-three Conservative candidates vying to replace Patrick Brown would replace billions in lost revenue if they made good on a promise to scrap the federal carbon tax.

It was a fair question.

But instead of asking the candidates, the professor speculated about possible ways a PC government would make up the shortfall he imagined.

He concluded the Tories would cut spending rather than run a deficit, considered no other real options and guesstimated the shortfall would result in the Tories “cutting roughly 40,000 job from the public service.”

Despite making clear he was not trying to predict “what the Tories would do,” rather to “examine their options,” his assumption was good enough for Wynne.

Days later she tweeted “The Conservatives’ plan to kill carbon pricing and rush to balance the budget will put as many as 40,000 public sector jobs at risk,” turning speculation into fact. “That means higher class sizes, longer waits for health care and fewer community supports.”

That same baseless conjecture has now shown up as fact in the Liberal campaign’s attack ad, including Wynne’s own gratuitous speculation job cuts would hit teachers and nurses.

There’s some irony in that Wynne cut funding to hospitals who in turn cut nursing jobs across the province over the past several years. And that the Liberals have a track record of making and breaking promises around election time.