Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is leading in the polls and the three other party leaders largely kept their attacks focused on him. One of the most pointed moments of the debate came when Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner put Ford on the spot, directly addressing him about the rates for Ontario Disability Support Program payments.

The other major political parties say this is the worst time for Ontario to find itself in an election, with U.S. President Donald Trump's threatened 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods set to take effect Tuesday.

Ontario voters are headed to the polls more than a year ahead of schedule.

The meeting of the 13 premiers, chaired by Ford, took place the same day as Chrystia Freeland resigned as federal finance minister, before she was set to present her government's fall economic statement.

A decision over whether to expand an obscure dog sport in Ontario sparked division within Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative caucus that saw the premier agree to cancel a new licensing regime before later resurrecting it, The Canadian Press has learned.

Every other day, Derek Moonias drives 15 minutes to the airport in Neskantaga First Nation and fills his pickup truck with cases of bottled water flown in on the dime of the federal government.

Energy Minister Stephen Lecce says energy companies must get municipal support in order to proceed and banned solar installations on prime agricultural land.

Last year, the province passed legislation that would allow the expansion of licences for so-called "train and trial" areas where hunters can bring their dogs to search for, and chase down, wild animals.

Natural Resources and Forestry Minister Graydon Smith says the province wants more people fighting wildland fires and is planning a recruitment blitz ahead of the start of the wildfire season that begins in April.

Ford made the announcement Tuesday and used the opportunity to take a swipe at the provincial Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie.