TORONTO - A Progressive Conservative government won't eliminate the health-care tax if elected on Oct. 6, party sources said Friday, despite earlier suggestions that the premium was a greedy tax-grab that should be scrapped.

There will be more announcements about how the Tories plan to bring down costs for families ahead of the party's convention next weekend, a campaign source said, but getting rid of the health tax is not one of them.

Leader Tim Hudak had so far failed to take a firm position on what he planned to do with the controversial tax, despite berating Premier Dalton McGuinty for years for introducing the tax in 2004 despite a campaign pledge not to raise taxes.

Earlier this year, his office put out a release saying he would not abolish the health-care premium which brings in $3 billion a year, but four days later, the PC leader backtracked and said eliminating the tax was one of the options on the table.

Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello said the latest flip-flop is more evidence that Hudak is reckless and cannot be trusted.

In his first major campaign policy announcement Thursday, he promised to remove the eight per cent provincial portion of the HST from hydro and home heating bills to save a typical household $275 a year -- a move already promised by the New Democrats.

But he never committed to eliminating it all together, because of a $4.3-billion "poison pill" in the form of money that would have to be paid to the federal government if it was scrapped.

"He spent most of his career as leader opposing these initiatives, and in two days he's reversed himself twice," Pupatello said.

"Hopefully people will see you cannot trust what he's saying -- this rookie leader really doesn't get it."

These announcements, she added, make it look like "he is more in agreement with our policies than he is opposed."

New Democrat Peter Kormos blasted the reversal as the kind of flip-flop voters are tired of hearing.

"They seem to be wanting to out-do the Liberals when it comes to flip-flopping," he said.

"The Liberal credibility is shot, and the Conservatives are rapidly squandering any modest amount of credibility that they may have acquired."

He declined to say where the NDP stood on the health tax, however, noting that party Leader Andrea Horwath will release her platform in "due time."

The health-tax stance is the latest in a series of promises showing Hudak's vision for Ontario if he were to win the upcoming provincial election.

The Tory leader also vowed to scrap the Liberal government's $7-billion green energy deal with South Korean giant Samsung and to stop offering huge premiums for wind and solar power.

He's previously said a Conservative government would let people opt out of time-of-use pricing for electricity.