All eyes will be on the three major party leaders as they square off Sunday in the final debate of the liveliest Ontario election in years.

The stakes are high, with polls showing NDP Leader Andrea Horwath surging ahead of Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford and Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne, premier since 2013, fighting for survival.

Moderated by journalists Farah Nasser of Global News and TVO’s Steve Paikin, the debate will be broadcast from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on CBC, CTV, Global, TVO, CPAC and CHCH.

It is the third debate of the campaign — City hosted a Toronto event and another was held in Parry Sound on northern Ontario issues — and will be the last time the leaders share a stage before the June 7 vote.

Wynne, whose party has held power since her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, was elected in 2003, said preparing for a debate “is always a multi-faceted thing.”

“You are always dealing with two fronts, so we’ll be adapting to that, but at the same time, the message that I am bringing into this campaign, and into this debate, is exactly the same as it was on day one,” said the Liberal leader, who practised with veteran consultant Elly Alboim, her debate coach from the 2014 election.

“I said I was going to build this province up. We’ve been doing that, and we can continue to do that. We know how to do it; we’ve got the plan that will allow us to do it. It’s practical and it’s realistic.”

Read more:

Defiant Ford says no change in strategy despite slip in polls

In provincial election, battle lines drawn over minimum wage and good jobs

Here are the four candidates wanting to be Ontario’s next premier, and what they’re promising

Ford, who had led in every public opinion survey until last week, insisted he does not view Horwath as a bigger threat than Wynne on Sunday night.

“Not at all. I’ll be very frank, I think we’re all three pretty good debaters,” said the Tory leader, who has been doing debate prep at Le Germain, a downtown Toronto boutique hotel on Mercer St.

“It’s going to be a good debate,” he said, adding he will highlight the Liberals’ track record in government and referencing the NDP’s time in office under former premier Bob Rae, from 1990 to 1995.

“The NDP are not competent to run this government. It’s very, very simple,” said Ford.

“We’ve seen 15 years of Liberal regime, but the NDP would be an absolute disaster.

Horwath said she plans to tell the live studio audience at the CBC Broadcasting Centre and millions at home around the province that she alone has a positive agenda for change.

The New Democrat leader said she would stick to touting her party’s solutions for problems like overcrowded hospitals and avoid “the mudslinging we’ve seen between Kathleen Wynne and Doug Ford.”

“I’m going to try to stay focused on that, on the offering of hope as opposed to the fight,” she said.

“Now, that isn’t to say I’m not going to be pretty straight up about disagreeing vehemently with Mr. Ford’s tax cuts for the rich, and that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be extremely critical of Mr. Ford’s lack of transparency around the problems with the nomination meetings, for example, that his party struggles with,” Horwath said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

One leader who will not be on the stage Sunday is the Greens’ Mike Schreiner, who was not invited by the broadcasting consortium because his party does not have a seat in the legislature.

Schreiner, whose supporters lit up Twitter last week with a protest hashtag, #MikeAtTheMic, complained that “unelected, unaccountable TV executives should not be determining something so fundamental to our democracy” as who participates in the debate.

He noted that, like the Liberals, Tories and New Democrats, the Greens receive public subsidies and are fielding candidates in all 124 Ontario ridings.

“The (broadcasters have) still yet to explain why they decided to use different rules than those set by Elections Ontario for public funding of political parties,” Schreiner said. “The net result is a censorship of the Greens and a failure to the people of Ontario.”

Read more about: