TORONTO - Poverty and climate change are expected to get a fair share of the spotlight Thursday when Ontario's Liberal government delivers its first throne speech since last month's re-election, kicking off a brief, two-week fall session of the legislature.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has promised an "activist'' government in his second mandate, but said Wednesday the throne speech would detail a plan to build on Liberal efforts in the key priority areas of health care and education.

"There will be no dramatic surprises in the sense that people will know that we remain very much committed as a government to improving the quality of learning for all our children, improving the quality of health care for all Ontarians,'' he said after a cabinet meeting.

"We will once again commit to building on the foundation of progress that we've established in the past four years.''

Sources say the throne speech -- titled "Moving Forward the Ontario Way'' -- will, for the first time in recent memory, make mention of aboriginal issues -- a move that follows the government's decision to establish the province's first standalone Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs.

McGuinty offered no details about just what he plans to do to tackle poverty, but insisted it would involve a government-wide program aimed at helping people improve their lot in life, with specific targets to help motivate everyone to meet the goals.

The government wants to look at "what we might do to ensure that we are in fact breathing life into an order that I would like to think that we've issued as a government: all hands on deck,'' said McGuinty.

"We need everybody at their best if we're going to succeed both as a society and as an economy.''

Social activists, who are pushing for a 25 per cent reduction in poverty in five years, and a 50 per cent cut within a decade, say McGuinty should make the development of a poverty reduction strategy a top priority for his second term.

"The need for action is nothing short of urgent,'' said Uzma Shakir of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario.

The New Democrats expressed doubts that McGuinty is truly committed to reducing poverty, a problem which leader Howard Hampton blames on the Liberals.

"I expect that we're going to get a very superficial throne speech laden with platitudes from the McGuinty government,'' Hampton said.

"The hard reality is they're the people who are responsible for this high level of child poverty and they're the government that has allowed 200,000 manufacturing jobs to die with no strategy, no plan, no initiative to take it on.''

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory urged the Liberals to tackle the province's economy and jobless rate in order to counter the impact of the faltering U.S. economy, the soaring dollar and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs in Ontario.

"Ontario's economy isn't the well-oiled machine it once was,'' said Tory.

"Empty words and empty promises won't fix that. We need to see a real economic plan and some concrete action coming out of the throne speech.''

McGuinty said the Liberal government would introduce some bills and start debates during the two-week fall session, but didn't name any key initiatives that he'd like to see passed before the Christmas break.

"I think it's an important opportunity as well for us to hold ourselves to account,'' he said.

"There is nothing in law that compelled us to return prior to Christmas, but I think we have a responsibility . . . we have to be seen to be there, to be active, to be addressing the issues that are important to Ontarians.''

Members actually returned to work Wednesday to elect a new speaker for the next session in a secret vote, the only secret balloting that ever happens at the Ontario legislature.

Former Labour Minister Steve Peters, who was dropped from cabinet last month, defeated three other Liberals and one Conservative for the coveted post, which comes with a $148,000 salary, a big travel budget and an apartment inside the legislature.

"I say farewell to my Liberal caucus as I assume a non-partisan role, and I'm going to be extremely conscious of that,'' Peters said after accepting the speakers' post.