Your Home, Your Vote: debate day

Ontario’s election race will be heating up tonight, as the three party leaders go head-to-head in a debate. It will be the only debate of the campaign televised province-wide – and you can catch it on CHCH.

It will be the first leadership debate for the NDP’s Andrea Horwath and the Conservatives’ Tim Hudak; the fourth for Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty. Analysts, like communications consultant Allan Bonner, suggest McGuinty’s experience should give him an edge.

“He’s become a calm, cool, collected chair of the board type figure, which studies show, Ontarians want.”

McGuinty will spend the rest of Tuesday afternoon preparing for the debate, after spending this morning at We Day at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

“That’s what We Day is all about: understanding we’re in this together, it’s important that we work together, build together, and dream together.”

We Day is designed to help young people think about ways they can help their local community and the rest of the world.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath spent the morning in Hamilton.

She met with the Hammer City Roller Girls, who presented her with a Steeltown Scrapper jacket.

Horwath says she’s looking forward to having a conversation with the other two leaders in the debate. She says she thinks Ontarians will see three different visions for the future.

“I’m going to go into the debate having a conversation with the voters of Ontario about why New Democrats have put together the platform we have put together. We’ve put together a platform that has addresses the real sense that people have that they have been ignored by their government for a number of years, that they have not been the priority for the McGuinty Liberals and our platform changes that around.”

That battle will take place this evening right here on CHCH, from 6:30 until 8 pm. We’ll have a shorter Evening News, which will end as the debate begins.

We’ll have all the highlights following the debate on our 11 pm edition of the Evening News.

Web note: We’ll have the full debate available for viewing after 8 o’clock. We also intend to have a poll, where you can tell us who you think won the debate.

Video: News Now coverage: