A Conservative MPP wants Toronto to become Canada's 11th province.

Bill Murdoch, MPP for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound says rural Ontario is fighting a losing battle against what he calls "a Toronto mentality."

He wants residents who live in the Greater Toronto Area to remain part of Ontario, while Toronto becomes its own province.

"There's not going to be a boundary that you can't come across it's not going from Canada to the states," Murdoch told CBC News.

"We'd still be coming from Toronto out to rural Ontario, except we'd have our own province, and we'd have a set of own rules."

Murdoch, who has served as an MPP since 1990, said he is considering whether to introduce a private member's bill on the subject.

Mayor David Miller said on his Twitter account that the "Province of Toronto...an idea whose time has come? MPP Murdoch makes an interesting point."

Miller's spokesman Stuart Green told CBC News the mayor wants to open up a public discussion about the possibility of Toronto seceding from Ontario.

Green said Toronto's fiscal deficit is something "that a provincial status may solve."

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said that while he wouldn't support the idea of Toronto as a separate province, he understands where Murdoch is coming from.

Hudak said Murdoch is making a valid point that rural Ontario is being ignored by the Liberal government, and points to the closure of rural emergency rooms and schools as examples.

Hudak said Premier Dalton McGuinty has shown rural Ontario the back of his hand.

With files from The Canadian Press