... at Queen's Park, across Ontario and elsewhere.

* Cabinet met today for the last time before the Liberal leadership convention. One minister said it was “emotional” inside the cabinet room, given that it was also the last cabinet meeting with Dalton McGuinty as premier.

* Premier McGuinty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper were at a Toyota auto plant in Cambridge this morning to announce a $16.9 million investment in the production of hybrid Lexus SUVs.

The government notes the investment will sustain 7,000 jobs at the plant, support auto parts manufacturers across Ontario and create an additional 400 new jobs.

* Ontario might be getting a new provincial park. The 1,917-hectare Carden Alvar park has been proposed as a natural environment class provincial park 29 kilometres east of Orillia in the Township of Carden.

According to the Environmental Registry, “the proposed park is situated on the Carden Plain, an expanse of limestone bedrock that supports some of the highest quality alvar habitat in the world. Alvars are globally rare habitats featuring areas of flat exposed limestone or marble rock with shallow soil.”

A Crown land use amendment has been proposed to designate the property as a provincial park.

* Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Debbie Amaroso is looking for a renewed commitment that Ontario Lottery and Gaming headquarters will remain in her city. She has written to Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and plans on sending another letter to the new Liberal party leader later next week, the Sault Star reports.

The Crown corporation was decentralized and moved to Sault Ste. Marie more than 20 years ago.

* Tourism Minister Michael Chan took centrestage at Toronto’s historic Horseshoe Tavern Wednesday afternoon to announce the province is developing a strategy that will help promote the live music sector to boost concert attendance and position Ontario as a “premier global destination” for concerts.

“We are proud to showcase Ontario on the world stage for live music,” Chan said in a statement.

“Home to globally diverse music, a variety of venues, a thriving festival scene and our internationally celebrated talent — our artists and our industry — Ontario has what it takes to compete as one of the world’s top live music destinations,” he said.

According to the government, spending by tourists on music events totalled $4.1 billion in 2010 alone, representing 36 per cent of total tourist dollars spent in that year.

* The Ontario PC party may have broken new ground, releasing an attack ad that attacks attack ads.

The Tory ad, released on YouTube, warns that “American-style attack ads” will soon be run by the Working Families Coalition, warning darkly that it is a “well-funded organization” that is run by “union leader Pat Dillon" and funded by unions “looking to get something from the Ontario Liberal government.”

The tagline is: “So next time you see a Working Families ad, remember, million-dollar smear campaigns don’t come for free.”

Dillon announced earlier Wednesday that the Working Families Coalition is releasing two television ads to remind people about the “dangers of Tim Hudak and his right-wing agenda.” The ads will air on most television networks across Ontario, he said.

"Over the past weeks and months we have seen Tim Hudak release a series of policy papers that are nothing more than paths to poverty," Dillon said in a release. "These papers advance an American Tea Party style agenda that pits Ontarians against each other and does nothing to move our province forward."

Quote of the day

"It’s been a real honour and a joy and a privilege to serve Ontarians. I’ll never have a job as good as this and I’m going to squeeze as much out of it as I can, to the very last drop.”

- Premier Dalton McGuinty, on his way into his final cabinet meeting Wednesday.

Tweet of the day

- Energy Minister Chris Bentley, who has said he won't run again in his London West riding, starts planning his summer.

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