TORONTO -- Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says federal Conservatives are using the province's new sex-education curriculum to bash Liberal candidates, which she calls a deplorable tactic that hurts kids.

Wynne says Tory candidates in some Ontario ridings are trying to use the sex-ed debate as a wedge, and she hopes parents understand that it is not a federal issue.

She says the fact that Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have all the momentum heading into Monday's federal election shows the Conservatives' tactic is not working.

The sex-ed issue is especially contentious in Wynne's own Toronto riding of Don Valley West, home to many immigrant families who strongly oppose the first update to Ontario's health- and physical-education curriculum since the mid-1990s.

The premier says the unfortunate part of the Tories' behaviour is that students really need the information in the updated curriculum.

Wynne has said in the past that there is a strong element of homophobia in the opposition to the sex-ed curriculum.