TORONTO - The Toronto Maple Leafs were dragged into the political arena Wednesday as debate over the Ontario budget got heated.

It began when Opposition Leader Tim Hudak went on the attack against Tuesday's budget, mocking government assertions that most families are better off financially under the Liberals.

"That's right up there with the likelihood of the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup in 2011," Hudak said in the legislature.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, sitting in for an absent Premier Dalton McGuinty, couldn't resist taking his own shot at Hudak, also using the NHL club's lengthy Stanley Cup drought as a reference point.

"I'll make one prediction," Duncan told the legislature. "The Toronto Maple Leafs will win a Stanley Cup long before he's premier of Ontario."

The Leafs haven't hoisted hockey's most coveted trophy since 1967.

Speaker Steve Peters continued the hockey metaphors when politicians from all sides of the house erupted into shouts after Duncan's remarks.

"I am feeling much like a referee in a good hockey game between the Leafs and the Senators right now," said Peters. "If this persists, we're going to have to start sending members to the penalty box and perhaps issuing game misconducts."

The name calling and partisan shots didn't let up outside the legislature, where Duncan noted it was Hudak that first dragged the Maple Leafs into the budget debate.

"When you lead with your chin...," Duncan said with laugh, not finishing his thought.

Duncan alternately refers to the Harris-Hudak or Hudak-Harris government to point out to voters that Hudak served in the cabinet of former Conservative premier Mike Harris.

However, the Liberal finance minister had a new name for Hudak on Wednesday after the Tories cancelled a conference set for next month in order to help Prime Minister Stephen Harper's federal Conservatives get re-elected May 2.

"Junior Hudak took orders from Mr. Harper to cancel his policy convention, so we won't get to find out about their plan," said Duncan. "It's probably empty anyway, other than cuts to health care and education."

However, Hudak said the Liberals increased spending so much that Ontario's debt has grown to $241 billion, which he warned is the real threat to continued health and education funding.

"Dalton McGuinty is on the verge of doubling the provincial debt, which took all the previous premiers 135 years to (accumulate)," said Hudak. "It's actually breathtaking."

Duncan said in the budget that it would take until 2017 to eliminate the deficit, which was $16.7 billion for the year just ending, but Ontario's debt is projected to top $300 billion by then.

"I'm worried about it," said Hudak. "As a dad I worry about the kind of debt this government is putting on the back of my daughter."

The New Democrats were also concerned by the soaring debt under the Liberal government, and said backing off corporate tax cuts would be one way to start addressing the problem.

"There's no doubt the debt is considerable, and I think that speaks to the government's choices around the corporate tax giveaways," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. "Let's face it, over $2 billion every single year for the foreseeable future as a hit to the revenue stream is pretty significant."

There were no new corporate tax cuts in Tuesday's budget, but it did continue with cuts announced in previous provincial budgets.