Advice for Ontario’s three party leaders ahead of the televised debate

Let's get ready to rumble — Tuesday is debate day in Ontario.

The Liberal's Kathleen Wynne, the Progressive Conservatives' Tim Hudak and the New Democrats' Andrea Horwath will face off at 6:30 p.m. local time for their only televised debate ahead of the June 12th election.

We went to our expert slate of political consultants for some insight on what advice the leaders are getting. What are their respective advisers telling them?

Kathleen Wynne:

Wynne, as the incumbent premier, will need to be prepared to be attacked and — perhaps — teamed up against.

Political communications consultant Marcel Wieder says that she needs to ensure that her talking points are forward-looking.

"The heavy burden of a decade of Liberal government is a strong argument for change," Wieder, President of Aurora Strategy Group, told Yahoo Canada News in an email exchange.

"She will need to show people why change for the sake of change is not always the best option.

"She will also have to brush Horwath to the side but not in a way to alienate some potential voters that she needs to attract."

[ Related: Why are Ontarians ignoring the Liberal scandals? ]

Sun News analyst and political consultant Warren Kinsella adds that Wynne needs to sound and look like a premier.

"Too often, she sounds like a bureaucrat, and uses bureaucratic jargon. And she needs to tell voters what her top three priorities are," he told Yahoo.

"So far, I couldn't tell you what they might be."

Tim Hudak

Hudak has the most to lose and most to gain during the debate.

While it's important for him to articulately defend his much-criticized million jobs plan, he'll have to be on the attack targeting McGuinty-Wynne Liberals for their record in office.

He also, as explained by political consultant and pundit Gerry Nicholls, needs to improve his likability quotient for the high number of undecideds.

"Polls indicate he is less popular than his party, so he needs to use this debate to create a favourable impression or at least to prove to voters that he doesn't have devil horns," Nicholls said.

Andrea Horwath:

Unlike her two political adversaries, Horwath doesn't have much of a record to be judged on and usually rates high in the likability meter.

What she needs to do — according to Wieder — is justify why she called this election.

"She has not articulated a clear vision and as a result is getting squeezed out of the picture by both Wynne and Hudak," he said.

Kinsella says that if he was advising Horwath, he'd tell her to lighten up.

"Horwath has gone from Happy Horwath to Angry Andrea in the past week or so. If she does that in the debate, she'll be auditioning for the job she already has - Opposition leader," Kinsella said.

"She needs to use the equivalency that the debate provides to talk about her positive ideas. She needs to say that if voters want change - and 75 per cent of them do - she needs to say: 'the Liberals are more of the same. Hudak is change, but radical change. Only New Democrats offer moderate, sensible change.'"

[ Related: Ontario Greens make push for inclusion in June 3 leaders’ debate ]

While the debates are important, experts will tell you that they don't often live up to their hype and rarely lead to a shift in public opinion.

Pollster Frank Graves says that while many people are still undecided, that has more to do with apathy than an inability to choose a party.

"[Debates are a] great spectacle but it is extremely rare for a debate to shift the outcome of an election and I would be surprised if this was an exception to that rule," Graves, President of Ekos Research, told Yahoo Canada News.

Regardless — us political junkies — we're saying 'bring on the spectacle.'

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