You have 39 days to decide how to vote in the Ontario election on October 6. Or there's another way of looking at it: just over 30 more "Countdown Ontario" election notes to read.

The campaigns are ramping up, getting ready for the real campaign start next Wednesday. That's the day Premier Dalton McGuinty visits the Lieutenant Govenor and asks for the writ to drop, marking the official start of an election campaign.

You're forgiven for forgetting that in order to have an election campaign the writs have to be issued – one for each of the 107 Ontario ridings.

All four parties, the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democrats and the Green Party, have been releasing policies and seeking coverage for weeks now. There have also been the inevitable polls – most showing the race tightening. And while we are still in the pre-writ period, each party sends out a release every day that has all the markings of an election campaign that is wrapping up its first month.

It's not as long as that mayoral marathon last year that saw Rob Ford come out on top on October 30 but it's certainly longer than the federal election last spring that lasted about 35 days.

In both those elections, the Conservatives won big in the GTA. Rob Ford won handily in Toronto. Then, in the federal election, Stephen Harper's majority was fashioned right here with big wins in both the 905 and the 416. The surging NDP stole seats from the Liberal Party and took away Liberal votes giving the Conservatives more seats because of the way the votes split between the Liberals and the NDP.

In the coming five-plus weeks it will be interesting to watch and see if the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party can make it three Conservative wins in a row. Tim Hudak unveils his party's tour bus today and then heads to the west side of the GTA for a campaign event "with a family."

As the official campaign draws near, the Liberals hold a majority of seats in the Ontario Legislature. There are 107 seats in total so the magic number is 54 seats. That is what is needed to form a government. Already some observers are predicting a minority government.

For the PCs to get to 54 seats it will need to hold its ridings in rural Ontario and win in the GTA. So that's why both Hudak's events today will be on the west side of the GTA. You can count on Hudak spending a lot of time in Etobicoke (Rob Ford territory) and the eight ridings in Brampton and Mississauga.

The Liberal's Dalton McGuinty is trying for his third win. That would make him the fourth premier in Ontario history to win three times and he'd be the first Liberal to do it.

Back in the day when the Progressive Conservative Party owned Ontario, Leslie Frost, John Robarts and Bill Davis all won three terms in office.

Davis was the last to do it thirty years ago. McGuinty has been taking a few days off and he'll be having "private" time again today.

The NDP have a new leader (Andrea Horwath) and energy but will that be enough to play the spoiler role in this contest?

Horwath has been campaigning hard, travelling around the province and making policy announcements. Today she is back in northern Ontario for the third time this month.

As the newest leader, Horwath needs to get known by Ontarians so it shouldn't come as a surprise that today she renewed her call for more leader debates. Right now negotiations are under way for one televised leader debate. Horwath wants three.

Over the next five weeks Countdown Ontario will be one way for you to get the latest on the campaign in what one observer told me will be the closest Ontario election in 25 years.