Warning that Doug Ford is “even more disturbing to people than we might have thought,” Kathleen Wynne has stepped up her plea to voters to prevent a Progressive Conservative majority win.

Two days after conceding that she won’t be premier after Thursday’s election because the Liberals are doomed, Wynne returned to Queen’s Park to hammer Ford.

“I think there are thousands of Conservatives across the province who really don’t believe that they can vote for Doug Ford,” the Liberal leader said Monday.

“That’s been one of the big things that has changed this election from what we might have thought it was going to be to what it actually is,” she said.

“One of the real disrupters in this election campaign has been that Doug Ford turned out to be, I think, even more disturbing to people than we might have thought.”

Wynne said the rookie Tory leader’s failure to release a fully costed platform should sound alarm bells.

“His lack of a coherent plan, his lack of any substantive policy and just a promise to cut across government and cut across services that people rely on ... has been a very different position than people might have expected,” she said.

Ford, who is now ducking reporters with unpublicized appearances that are not on his official daily itinerary, has limited his exposure to the media since the launch of the May 9 campaign. His tightly controlled news conferences sometimes feature as few as four or five questions from journalists.

In contrast to his freewheeling style as a Toronto city councillor, Ford has denied almost all interview requests. But Conservative insiders, believing a majority government is in sight, insist they are merely playing it safe out of concern Ford will say or do something that could hurt them at the ballot box.

Despite the fact the Tories appeared poised to win the most seats Thursday, Wynne said the Liberals will not release a list of ridings where progressive voters should vote for the NDP.

“You know what? I have a lot of faith in the people of the province to figure it out. They know in their riding what the lay of the land is. They’ll make their decisions,” she said, before heading to Newmarket and Midland to stump for Liberal candidates.

“I hope that, riding by riding, people will look at where it makes the most sense for them.”

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne are criticizing Doug Ford’s Tories for not releasing a full platform ahead of June’s provincial election. The leaders spoke to reporters after a debate on May 27. (The Canadian Press)

Wynne said her unprecedented concession Saturday “allows people to reconsider and think about voting for us in order to prevent what a lot of people are worried about, which is a Doug Ford majority or an NDP majority.”

She emphasized that giving NDP Leader Andrea Howarth a blank cheque also had it risks.

That’s why she and Advanced Education Minister Mitzie Hunter were at Queen’s Park on Monday to implore the NDP to eventually support back-to-work legislation to end the four-month York University strike.

The New Democrats opposed such legislation, which was supported by the Liberals and the Tories, before the Legislature dissolved last month.

In Sarnia, the NDP leader stood firm on her pledge not to use back-to-work legislation in the event of prolonged strikes.

Asked about the ongoing job action at York University, Horwath said she was “confident that if I form government on Thursday, I will end that strike — and I’ll do it without trampling on people’s constitutional rights.”

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She said the NDP would “make sure that we are able to bring good work back to our university and college system. That's one of the problems we now have. Colleges and universities have been squeezed, the workers there are working part-time or working casual, contract to contract.

“It's been weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks that this strike has been ongoing and I’m confident that I can fix it. I can actually resolve the problems that are outstanding and make sure that in the future, we don't have these kind of labour disruptions.”

Horwath said the NDP platform addresses post-secondary funding as well as precarious work, including more faculty-track positions, which has been one of the sticking points in the strike by teaching assistants, graduate assistants and contract faculty at York.

With files From Kristin Rushowy

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