As the spectre of a spring election looms, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals are launching a campaign-style blitz targeting the New Democrats’ seats in Toronto.

Liberal volunteers will be out in force at several subway stops along the Bloor-Danforth line Wednesday morning, distributing 20,000 pamphlets warning NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is “too risky in uncertain times.”

On one side of the “compare-and-contrast” flyers, a grim-looking Horwath is depicted against a gloomy black backdrop with a large question mark.

“No plan for jobs and the economy. Nowhere on the minimum wage. No plan for pension security,” the flyers proclaim, accompanied by recent passages reprinted from the Star and the Globe and Mail that criticize the New Democrats for not taking a stance on major issues.

On the other side of the piece, a beaming Wynne is hailed as “strong and balanced” and touted for “a strong economic plan that’s working, with 100,000 jobs created in the last year” and “raising the minimum wage with a balanced plan that is fair to workers and predictable for businesses.”

As well, the party advertising notes the premier is pushing “an enhanced pension plan and secure retirement for everyone.”

Interestingly, considering where the Liberals are handing out the flyers, there is no mention of transit funding, perhaps the biggest area of contention between the governing party and the NDP.

Horwath, whose caucus has propped up the minority Liberals for the past two years, said last month that she could not support Wynne if the spring budget imposes on “any new taxes, tolls or fees that hit middle-class families.”

That was a salvo at the premier’s scheme to raise billions of dollars for transportation infrastructure to tackle gridlock in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

With the ads, the Liberals are specifically aiming at NDP MPPs Jonah Schein (Davenport), Rosario Marchese (Trinity—Spadina), and Peter Tabuns (Toronto Danforth).

The Grits have high hopes of winning back Davenport, which they held until 2011, in an election that may come as early as May.

There is no mention of Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak in the ad.

In the 107-member legislature, the Liberals have 49 seats, including Speaker Dave Levac, the Conservatives have 37, and the New Democrats have 21.

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