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The campaign for tomorrow's Ontario election is in its final day.
Will Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal party stay in power? If so, with a majority or minority?
Will John Tory's Progressive Conservatives pull a huge upset? Or has the faith-based schools issue doomed them to defeat?
Will Howard Hampton's New Democratic Party hold the balance of power in a minority parliament?
Will Frank de Jong's Green Party finally win a seat or at least score a significant percentage of the popular vote?
What do you think? What do you want to know?
We're very pleased that Mr. McGuinty, Mr. Tory, Mr. Hampton and Mr. de Jong have all agreed to participate in an online debate and to answer questions from the readers of globeandmail.com.
We have asked the four party leader to begin with a brief opening statement on why Ontarians should vote for them and their parties.
The leaders' opening statements and their answers to your questions appear at the bottom of this page.
Dalton McGuinty has been Premier of Ontario since his Liberal Party won the 2003 provincial election.
He has been the Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party since 1996 and an MPP since 1990.
Before entering politics, he was a lawyer in Ottawa.
John Tory, Leader of the Official Opposition, was elected Leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party in 2004.
The former lawyer and CEO John was originally elected as an MPP for the riding of Dufferin Peel Wellington Grey in a by-election.
He is running this time in Don Valley West in Toronto.
Howard Hampton has been the Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party since 1996.
The former labour lawyer has been MPP for Kenora-Rainy River since 1987. He was Minister of Natural Resources from 1993-95 and Attorney General from 1990-93 in Ontario's first NDP government.
Frank de Jong is Leader of the Green Party of Ontario.
Besides his interests in environmental issues and politics, he has been active on the issues of nuclear weapons, pro-choice, Ontario's old growth forests, and Central America solidarity.
He has run federally four times. This is his eighth shot provincially.
Editor's Note: We will follow the same rules for this online debate and discussion that we do for our regular live online discussions: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question. Questions may be edited for length, clarity or relevance. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions or comments that include personal attacks on the four leaders or other commenters, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.
Jim Sheppard, Executive Editor, globeandmail.com: First of all, thanks to Mr. McGuinty, Mr. Tory, Mr. Hampton and Mr. de Jong for taking the time to speak to our readers the day before the election and to answer their questions. Let's get the debate started with this question:
Why should Ontario voters vote for you and your party on Election Day?"
Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty: Four years ago, Ontarians chose change, and we've been working hard to deliver that change.
Today, in Ontario, there are more Ontarians working than ever before.
Under the Harris Tory party, hospitals were closed. Nurses were fired by the thousands. Wait times weren't even being measured.
Today, we're building hospitals. We're hiring 8,000 nurses. We plan to hire 9,000 more. Today, we're not only measuring wait times, but those wait times are slowly, but surely, coming down. Half a million more Ontarians now have a family doctor. And we have a plan to get family doctors for 500,000 more.
Then, there's the environment.
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