Ontary Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak greets supporters at his election night headquarters in Niagara Falls on Oct. 6, 2011.Kevin Van Paassen
Tim Hudak will try to co-operate with his competitors to make Queen's Park work – but the Progressive Conservative Leader says any attempts by the minority Liberals to raise taxes will be met with stiff resistance.
Speaking the morning after his party picked up 12 new seats but fell short of knocking off the incumbent Liberals, Mr. Hudak said the province "voted for change" even if they didn't hand him a majority government.
"No doubt it wasn't the result we wanted. Voters sent a message to all of the party leaders and it was a message of change," he said. "They made it clear they want us to hold Dalton McGuinty on a very short leash."
Dismissing a question about his future by saying "of course" when asked if his job was secure, Mr. Hudak warned it "isn't healthy" to have power concentrated in Toronto area. The city was key to the Liberal win, and Mr. Hudak fared better in the more rural areas of the province.
"It's not healthy for the province to have a government that is overwhelmingly concentrated in the city of Toronto and its nearest suburbs," he said. "We need to turn the progress we made there into seats, and that work starts today."
The Liberals won 53 seats, while the PCs won 37. The NDP hold the balance of the seats with 17.
"No longer can Dalton McGuinty make unilateral decisions without reaching out for support," he said. "Dalton McGuinty will remain as premier as long as he retains the confidence of the legislature and no longer. He should take note in particular that it will be awfully difficult for him to get a tax hike through this legislature."