Premier Dalton McGuinty's bid for the majority government he was denied last October will be decided today by the voters of Kitchener-Waterloo in one of two provincial byelections.
   
The Kitchener-Waterloo byelection became necessary when McGuinty appointed veteran Conservative Elizabeth Witmer to a $188,000 a year job as chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.
   
Political scientist Barry Kay at Wilfrid Laurier University says the strategy to get a majority government appears to have turned off voters.
   
Kay says people are not ready to give McGuinty a majority, calling the tactic a ``negative factor'' for the Liberals.
   
The New Democrats made it a close three-way race in Kitchener-Waterloo, and hope for an upset in a riding they've never held.
   
The governing Liberals are expected to easily win the other byelection in Vaughan, retaining the seat vacated by former finance
minister Greg Sorbara.
   
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says Kitchener-Waterloo was more of an Elizabeth Witmer seat than a Tory stronghold, insisting a loss would not hurt his leadership of the party.
   
The opposition parties said the Liberals picked a fight with teachers and recalled the legislature for an emergency session to distract voters from the scandal at the Ornge air ambulance service.

Plus the $190 million cost of shutting down a generating station days before last fall's election to save Liberal seats in the Mississauga area.