The Campaigner debuts: Your daily Ontario election guide

So there's an Ontario election in 31 days. This is your guide to get you through it — it's called The Campaigner.

We'll be publishing daily at 12 noon right up until election with a mix of headlines, fact checks, trends, ridings to watch and insight from our reporters on the road to help you navigate the weighty world of politics, provincial parties and their campaigns.

Let's get started.

Headlines

• 6 factors that will decide the Ontario election Why you should read this: It covers the key themes that will play out during this election campaign. Analysis by our Ontario provincial affairs reporter Mike Crawley.

• Party leaders to square off in 1st debate ahead of Ontario election Why you should read this: The first debate between the party leaders could set the tone for much of this campaign.

• Liberal Windsor West candidate Rino Bortolin is apologizing for losing his temper and swearing during a federal Liberal party meeting in March. Why you should read this: Bortolin, who is also a city councillor, is the subject of a complaint to the City of Windsor's integrity commissioner.

The moment

There's a lot riding on tonight's debate: it's the first time Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne will debate her political rival PC leader Doug Ford face-to-face as part of Citytv's leaders debate in Toronto. The NDP's Andrea Horwath will also take part.

The Green Party's Mike Schreiner was not invited to the debate.

The faceoff comes after a particularly nasty weekend between the Liberals and the PCs, with the Liberals putting out one anti-PC press release after another. The releases prompted Ford to drop Tanya Granic Allen as a candidate over "irresponsible" comments and disavow support from a Quebec man alleged to be a white nationalist.

Expect many sharp barbs back and forth between all three leaders and the potential for things to get ugly — after all, Ford suggested one of the debates should take place "outside the jail" where top Liberal aide David Livingston was sentenced to four months for his role in the gas plants scandal. 

Riding to watch

Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte, population 100,788

This is the new riding where former PC leader Patrick Brown was supposed to run. But some PCs there are ticked off with how the party treated Brown. His replacement, Doug Downey, doesn't live in the riding — he's a lawyer from Orillia picked by the party and plopped in. Some resigned from the local riding association over the appointment.

Others have threatened to vote for another party (like the Trillium Party) so it will be interesting to see if the PCs can keep a stronghold on the region without their local man Brown at the helm.

Poll tracker

The latest numbers from the pre-campaign trail show the Progressive Conservatives are growing their wide lead over Kathleen Wynne's Liberals. Get the full breakdown.

Where they are

• Ford: Citytv leaders debate in Toronto (6 p.m.)
• Horwath: Youth town hall in Toronto (1:25 p.m.), Citytv leaders debate in Toronto (6 p.m.)
• Schreiner: Youth town hall in Toronto (12:30 p.m.)
• Wynne: Announcement in Toronto with Minister Michael Coteau (9:25 a.m.), Youth Town Hall in Toronto (2 p.m.), Citytv leaders debate in Toronto (6 p.m.)

For more Ontario election coverage

• Ontario Poll Tracker | The latest developments
• Vote Compass | See how your views compare with the parties' platforms
• Complete election coverage | Links to all our stories
• Help CBC track political ads on Facebook | Learn how here