The Ontario election has taken a sizzling turn.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has challenged Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath to a barbecue cook-off.

Burned by an online poll that suggested more Ontarians wanted to have Horwath as a guest at a backyard barbecue than him, Hudak raised the steaks, er, stakes in the Oct. 6 campaign.

“I’m mad about this ... I’ve got to tell you, I never comment on polls,” the Tory leader joked on TSN Radio’s The Mike Richards Show on Thursday.

“I am very upset about this latest poll that says people would rather have Andrea Horwath, the NDP leader, than me for a backyard barbecue,” he said.

The Ipsos-Reid online survey found 37 per cent preferred Horwath to 32 per cent for Hudak and 31 per cent for McGuinty. The poll of 8,391 Ontarians was conducted Friday through Tuesday and is accurate to within 1.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

“I am laying down the gauntlet, I’m throwing down the gloves, I’m saying I’m going to challenge Andrea Horwath and Dalton McGuinty to a barbecue contest to see who people would rather have,” said Hudak.

“I just don’t believe this poll. Once they taste my ribs, once they taste my pulled pork, I think I can turn them around,” he said.

“Don’t believe the polls till you have the pulled pork.”

Hudak has a Bradley smoker and a Weber barbecue at his home in Niagara and prides himself on his smoked pork butt.

“I like to think — unless my wife is just being nice to me — that I can cook up a mean smoked barbecue or on my Weber barbecue straight up.”

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