It's exactly 20 years since Mike Harris and his Common Sense revolutionaries rolled across this province, sweeping from third party to government.

In a frank, exclusive interview this week, Harris opened up on his years in office, and how the hard work he did bringing this province back from the brink of bankruptcy under the NDP has been forgotten.

On June 26, 1995, Harris was sworn in as premier, triggering a seismic shift from the tax and spend years of Bob Rae. Within weeks, Harris and his Finance Minister Ernie Eves brought in an austerity budget to get the province back in the black.

Since quitting politics in 2001, Harris has rarely talked to reporters about his years in government.

But in a wide-ranging interview, he reflected on those years, recalling his successes in reforming the hospital system, the school system, labour laws-- and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Oh yes,--and balancing the books.

He lamented some of the things he wasn't able to do-- such as selling off Hydro One.

He would have sold off the giant utility to bring private sector discipline to the bloated monopoly, he said.

"If we'd been able to get Hydro One sold--not for the revenue, but sold for running it more efficiently and more effectively--it would have provided greater certainty of supply, at a better price," he said.

"A monkey's uncle could have run this hydro system better than these guys."

People have forgotten his greatest achievements such as modernizing the health system and bringing accountability to the education sector.

His most difficult task was hospital restructuring. Several commissions had recommended consolidation of hospitals, but no government had the courage to do the politically unpopular work that needed to be done.

"There was a lot of turmoil, but I think the results of it have proven to be exceptional in bringing our hospitals--at least the physical plants--up to standard," he said.

Even now, he hears Liberals talking about how he closed hospitals.

"Yes, I closed three hospitals in North Bay," Harris recalled. "We built one brand new one and everyone's ecstatic."

After he left politics, no one defended his legacy.

Yes, he fought with teacher unions, but he brought about significant changes within the school system-- EQAO testing and the Grade 10 literacy test as well as eliminating Grade 13.

He also took on school trustees, taking away their local taxing rights.

"We brought in a brand new curriculum. The old one was way out of date, particularly when it came to math and science," he recalled.

"We were fought at every turn on the way by the teacher unions because we were changing the status quo and they were comfortable with the status quo-- even if it meant an inferior education for our students, which I think it was heading towards if we hadn't taken on that fight and seen it through," Harris said. Premier Kathleen Wynne is fighting with the unions and "accomplishing nothing," he said.

These days, people only remember the battles--not the results.

"No one's explaining the advantages of what we did," he said.

"The Liberals, the NDP, the left-wing media, like to rewrite history instead of pointing out the tremendous advantages of the things we did," he said.

Harris calls Wynne's plan to sell off Hydro One, "an absolute disgrace.

"It's very short-term thinking and it does nothing to improve the management of Hydro One.

"If they would sell 100% off to the private sector and let them run it, I'd say, 'Good going. Nobody could screw it up worse than government.'" he said.

Here is some more of what Harris had to say about the accomplishments of his government and the future of Ontario:

* On transit: "No one gives us credit for the transit expansion. Nothing had been built in 25 years, subway-wise. We started Sheppard. We didn't ask the feds for money. It's not a federal responsibility. It was two-parts province, one-part city.

"The commitment at that time was let's keep on building. And you know Mel (former mayor Mel Lastman), he picked Sheppard.

* Culture: His government built the Four Seasons Centre, and invested millions into the AGO, ROM, and other cultural institutions.

"We got them all going. They were important for Toronto if it's going to be a world class city."

* On Amalgamation: There wouldn't have been a city of Toronto if we hadn't put it together," he said.

"It was a little controversial as well," he joked.

"I'm disappointed more efficiencies weren't found in the six cities coming together, in Toronto in particular."

* Harris says he's, "a fan" of Patrick Brown and says the new PC leader is already doing the right thing by travelling the province, listening to people.

"Be true to the values you believe in and sell them to the people as opposed to doing what the polls say. A couple of years later the polls change and you've already delivered something that was dumb for the province."

* On the province's spiralling debt:

"The cumulative total of it is that Ontarians for the last 12 years or so have felt they were entitled to borrow and spend money and not pay it back--and leave it to the next generation. "It's astounding to me. The total debt, by the time this government is finished, will have at least tripled."