Liberals across Ontario will be targeted by 225,000 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in the October provincial election, union leader Sid Ryan said Thursday.

Union members are upset by cuts in the education sector, including fewer school custodians and educational assistants, Ryan, the president of CUPE Ontario, said in Toronto on Thursday.

'Where we can find a Liberal, we'll be going after them. We don't believe the Liberals deserve our support.'—CUPE head Sid Ryan

Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberals immediately dismissed the campaign as baseless and blatantly self-serving, pointing out that Ryan is preparing his own election campaign for the New Democrats.

But Ryan rejected those suggestions. He said the union has high hopes of defeating the Liberals in close ridings like Hamilton, Windsor, North Bay and Oshawa — where he himself will likely run.

"We will be targeting Liberals in every riding," Ryan said, adding the union will use members on the ground as well as advertising to defeat the Liberals.

"Where we can find a Liberal, we'll be going after them. We don't believe the Liberals deserve our support."

After promising to restore public education following their election in 2003, Ryan said the Liberals have instead quietly forced school boards to choose between balanced budgets or cutting custodians, educational assistants and secretaries.

School boards were forced to cut 500 support staff last year, while a CUPE analysis of board budgets this year shows 60 per cent of Ontario boards are poised to cut another 575 support positions to balance their budgets this year, he said.

"The premier has fashioned himself as the education premier but he's presiding over unprecedented cuts in the school board system," said Ryan.

Ryan just campaigning, education minister says

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne said she's not daunted. Although Wynne is in a tough battle with Conservative Leader John Tory to keep her own Toronto seat, she said people will see this campaign for what it is.

'This is obviously at least partly personal for [Ryan]. He knows very well that we've been working with boards and we've put new money into the system.'—Education Minister Kathleen Wynne

"It's clear that [Ryan] was launching his election campaign," she said.

"This is obviously at least partly personal for him. He knows very well that we've been working with boards and we've put new money into the system.

"We haven't had labour unrest and we haven't had a government fighting with the education sector. We are better off now than we were three-and-a-half years ago. We'll be re-elected because of that."

But Wynne said she knows boards are feeling a budget crunch, and the province is talking to them about "where the pressures are."

Still, she noted three-quarters of boards have fewer and fewer students to look after each year.

"That's a reality we have to confront," she said.