Premier Dalton McGuinty must be wondering how he can recover from his breathtaking plunge in the polls, but he has a few things going for him.

The Liberal premier has fallen from seeming assured of a third successive election victory in 2011 to being in danger of losing government, mainly because he failed to prevent insiders living high on taxpayers' money while running up an unprecedented deficit this year of $24.7 billion.

He needs to switch voters' attention to other issues, and this will not be easy.

The abuse of public funds was so clear that McGuinty would be wasting time trying to convince voters that he was not ultimately responsible, and the best he can hope for is that those who remember it will believe his new controls will prevent it happening again.

He also will get a break, because all parties when in government permitted such abuse, although on a lesser scale, and many voters have concluded this is what all politicians do.

McGuinty needs to continue insisting that he is not responsible for the economic recession, which has some truth, because it is happening all over North America.

The big issue will be what he has done to prevent it worsening, and with luck he soon may be able to point to some examples of where the province's investments have saved jobs.

One issue with which McGuinty has to come to grips is reducing the cost of the of the public service and not merely promising to review all its spending and consider forcing civil servants to take days off without pay, as New Democrat premier Bob Rae did in the 1990s.

The Liberal premier also may be able win back some ground. He has had friendly relations with public sector unions, because he caved in to pay raises for them that were generous on the eve of a recession.

The unions owe McGuinty, and he would score a coup if he could persuade them to give back something substantial. Although it is a long shot, they might do this, knowing the alternative would be an extreme-right Progressive Conservative government that would not even leave them with tea breaks.

The premier can promote himself also by reminding the public of former Conservative premier Mike Harris, who refused to speak to unions and cut many public service jobs. But McGuinty barely needs to do this, because Harris keeps returning to public view with his support of the new, far-right Conservative leader, Tim Hudak, and comments, as well as many letters in newspapers warning against him.

McGuinty has been accused of dithering when issues are contentious, but he could counter this by pointing to his actions that include refusing to fund more faith-based schools, which offends many non-Christians, and launching full-day kindergarten, despite warnings it is too expensive.

McGuinty also has one topic on which he can clearly differentiate himself from the Conservatives and this is that he has brought in far more laws to protect residents than any other premier in history. These include banning smoking in workplaces, enclosed public places and cars in which children are passengers, which will save many lives.

McGuinty made Ontario the first province to ban pit bulls and ordered elementary schools to remove junk foods such as potato chips and pop from vending machines and replace them with healthier snacks.

His government has also required bars and liquor stores to post signs warning pregnant women that alcohol can cause birth defects.

Students using school buses and infants in car seats are safer because of laws McGuinty brought in, and his latest bans drivers using hand-held cell phones except in emergencies.

McGuinty has never collected them in a package and said this is what his party has done that protects people, because he is worried the Conservatives, who opposed many, will accuse him of interfering in people's lives and creating a nanny state.

But the Liberal premier could fight an election on the theme his party cares for people, and there might be a lot of grateful votes out there for him.