Protesters planning massive rally at Ontario Liberal leadershi conventionQMI AGENCY

FIRST POSTED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2013 10:21 AM EST | UPDATED: SATURDAY,

JANUARY 19, 2013 10:35 AM EST – TORONTO SUN

Ontario Federation of Labour president, Sid Ryan. (Aaron Hinks/Toronto Sun files)

With the Liberal leadership convention in Toronto only a week away, protesters are planning to give the party "a

wake-up call."

The Ontario Federation of Labour says a protest scheduled on the Saturday of the convention at Maple Leaf Gardens

"promises to be the largest the party has faced since taking office in 2003."

Six candidates are vying to replace Premier Dalton McGuinty at next weekend's convention.

"This rally isn't simply education workers, and it isn't even just labour, it is as widespread as you can image," OFL

president Sid Ryan said in a statement Saturday. "The Ontario Liberals have tried to out-Tory the Tories by pursuing

a destructive austerity agenda of cuts and by stripping people of their fundamental labour rights. They have lost the

middle ground and alienated millions of voters who are demanding fairness from a government that betrayed them."

According to the OFL, over 100 buses from across the province are scheduled to join thousands of protesters who

will be thronging to the rally by foot, transit and car. It says that more than 100 community groups and labour unions

are expected to converge for a massive protest against "the Liberal government's cuts to public services and

suspension of democratic rights."

"Recent polling shows the Liberals trailing both other parties in public popularity. It is hard to imagine them being able

to recover, regardless of who is elected next weekend," said Ryan. "People from all walks of life will be demanding a

completely different course for Ontario - one that puts people first."