Raising the spectre of Mike Harris, a feisty Premier Kathleen Wynne warns that Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak would “cut, cut, and cut,” decimating Ontario.

In a combative speech Saturday to about 1,000 Liberal partisans at the party’s annual general meeting, Wynne painted a gloomy scene if Hudak wins an election that could come this spring.

“He would cut investments, cut pensions, cut jobs, cut growth — and he would cut Ontario’s economic recovery off at the knees,” she thundered at the rally.

“We’ve seen this movie before. It was a slasher film from the 1990s starring a guy named Mike Harris, and the last thing Ontario needs is a sequel.”

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Mindful that Harris — premier from 1995 to 2002 and Hudak’s mentor — is a favourite villain of Liberals, Wynne continued in that vein to cheers from the throng at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

“As a matter of fact, Tim Hudak and I both got our start in politics thanks to Mike Harris. Tim ran provincially to help support his far-right agenda and I got involved at the local level to fight everything he stood for. I’m still fighting,” she said.

As she did Thursday night at a Liberal fundraiser that netted the party $3 million, Wynne criticized Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his “wilful, ideological indifference to the retirement income crisis.”

“It is somewhere between offensive and inexplicable to ask that people who have worked hard all lives to be rewarded with a retirement that takes them out of the middle class. That might be Stephen Harper’s way — it’s not our way,” she said.

“We need to strengthen the Canada Pension Plan to give people a fair shot at a decent living when they retire.”

Because Harper has refused to enrich the retirement savings scheme, which maxes out benefits at $12,000 a year, Wynne is proposing an Ontario pension plan, which will be a cornerstone of the Liberals’ re-election platform.

Even though it is a policy borrowed from the New Democrats, who have propped up the minority Liberals for the past two years, she also took aim at NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“It would be a mistake to place Ontario’s economic recovery in the hands of the NDP, who are suspicious of business, untested in governing, and who openly refuse to articulate their plan for our province,” said Wynne.

NDP House Leader Gilles Bisson, who observed the premier’s speech, said he found the attacks “kind of odd,” given that the Liberals have adopted so many New Democratic policies in order to stay in power.

Bisson suggested Wynne seemed “much more comfortable” taking aim at the federal and provincial Conservatives.

PC Party president Richard Ciano, who attended the event, said the Liberals are employing a “strategy of deflection” to take away attention from the scandals during their decade in power.

“It was a strange speech. She’s beating a drum about winning an election but at the same time doing everything she can to placate the NDP and avoid an election,” he said, noting the Tories want a vote soon.

Wynne’s rhetoric did resonate with party members.

Andrew Olivier, who is running for the nomination in Sudbury and hopes to make history as Ontario’s first quadriplegic MPP, said he was very excited by what he heard.

“This is something I’ve never experienced before, the rally … was just mind-blowing,” said Olivier, who was a teen hockey star when he was paralyzed during a game in 1994.

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He got some good news from Wynne, who promised an open Liberal nomination in a riding that has been held since 1995 by retiring veteran Rick Bartolucci.

There had been rumours that the Grits would appoint Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk to run, but the premier promised not to install a candidate there.

Olivier and Elise Idnani are vying for the key seat, which New Democrat candidate Joe Cimino hopes to wrest away from the governing party.

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