TORONTO - Ontario's minority Liberal government will live to fight another day.

The governing Liberals survived their first confidence test in the legislature Wednesday as a crucial vote on their throne speech passed 69 to 37.

The Progressive Conservatives voted against the Nov. 22 speech -- which laid out the government's priorities for the current session -- while the Liberals and the NDP supported it.

If the throne speech didn't pass, it would have triggered the defeat of the government and likely another election.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said he's glad his two-month-old minority government survived.

"I like to think that we're all seized with a sense of responsibility," he said.

"And that while we necessarily have our partisan differences here inside the legislature, there is a general expectation on the part of Ontarians that we will find common ground and we will find a way to move things forward that serve their greater interests."

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath played down her party's role in propping up the government, acknowledging that she had "concerns" about the priorities laid out in the speech.

"But there was one particular piece of that throne speech that gave us a glimmer of hope, and that was the government making a commitment to work with the other parties to get some things done," she said.

"We haven't seen much of the working together part yet."

The Opposition Tories tried to amend the speech with a legislated wage freeze for public sector workers, but their motion was defeated by a vote of 69 to 37.

Tory Leader Tim Hudak said he's "disappointed" that the Liberals and NDP teamed up to oppose the idea, which would have saved the cash-strapped government a lot of money.

"That would have saved us over $2 billion, particularly when we're in a $16-billion hole," he said, referring to the province's deficit.

"I mean, we're simply asking public servants not to get a wage increase next year because families in the private sector are cutting back."

All three parties have indicated that they'd be reluctant to trigger another election so soon after the Oct. 6 vote, which reduced the Liberals to just one seat short of a majority government in the 107-member legislature.

The next confidence test for the minority Liberals will likely come when it tables its budget next spring.