MITCHELL, Ont. - Premier Dalton McGuinty insisted Monday he was not taking the outcome of Wednesday's election for granted, despite another poll showing he's about to become the first Ontario Liberal leader in 70 years to win back-to-back majorities.
As McGuinty was on a Thanksgiving Day swing through some crucial ridings in southwestern Ontario, the latest Canadian Press-Harris-Decima survey showed the Liberals clearly in majority government territory while support for the Progressive Conservatives had dropped slightly.
"We're not taking anything for granted,'' McGuinty told reporters after a speaking to about 100 supporters in a barn at a hog farm in Mitchell, near Stratford. "There's lots of time left for voters to make up their mind.''
During an earlier campaign stop in Cambridge, McGuinty predicted the Liberals would win the local riding _ currently held by Conservative Gerry Martinuk _ and then went even further as he fired up supporters.
"When we win these ridings, and when we win government, we're winning more than just government,'' McGuinty told cheering supporters crowded into the O'Keefe Cottage Cafe.
McGuinty made a similar prediction later during the stop in Mitchell _ part of the Perth-Wellington riding where local Liberal John Wilkinson faces a serious challenge from the Conservatives _ but insisted he wasn't counting his chickens before they hatch with his campaign speeches.
"That's the same close that I've made to my stump (speech) for 30 days now,'' he said. "This is not over until the last ballot is cast.''
However, NDP Leader Howard Hampton on Monday warned McGuinty that voters don't like to see leaders acting like an election is over before they've actually cost their ballots.
"I've got news for Dalton McGuinty: That kind of arrogance, that kind of taking the people for granted in Ontario doesn't wash,'' said Hampton.
Still smarting after the latest series of attack ads from Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, McGuinty also said he was proud of having run a positive re-election campaign.
"People are responding more and more to the notion of running a positive campaign,'' he said. "There's no place for negativity.''
McGuinty also dismissed suggestions from his Conservative and New Democratic rivals who claimed the Liberals would have to raise taxes in order to keep all their election promises, something they had to do in 2004 after promising not to raise taxes in the last election campaign.
"The reason we won't have to raise taxes is because we're not hiding a $5.6 billion deficit, and everybody can count on our numbers because they've been approved by the Auditor General, unlike the last time,'' he said.
But McGuinty wouldn't respond directly when asked if he would resign this time if he had to again break his promise not to raise taxes.
"We're not going to raise taxes,'' he repeated.
McGuinty continued to hammer away Monday at Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory's proposals to fund faith-based schools and to phase out the unpopular Liberal health care tax of up to $900 per worker, which brings in over $2.6 billion a year to provincial coffers.
"The Conservative plan to take $3 billion out of public health care is wrong,'' he said. "It's going to compromise our capacity as a caring society to care for one another in times of need.''
McGuinty defended his proposal to give Ontarians another holiday, in February, saying more time to spend with family is more important than anything else.
But instead of spending Thanksgiving with his family, McGuinty was campaigning hard for re-election Monday, with another event scheduled later in London in hopes of holding on to the London-Fanshawe riding, which is considered a tight, three-way race.
