Party leaders squared off on matters of affordability, jobs and infrastructure in northern Ontario at the first debate of the election campaign on Tuesday, with each promising their own solutions to supporting the region.

The leaders of the four main political parties duked it out over housing prices and health care at the debate in North Bay, Ont., defending their records and accusing their opponents of having half-baked plans that would hurt Ontarians.

“You have a lot of choices, a lot of options in this election,” Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, who is seeking to stay in office, said. “You're going to either choose the Liberals that want to take us back, or you can vote for the NDP that want to hold us back. But if you want to get it done, you have one choice, and that's the Ontario PCs.”

New Democratic Leader Andrea Horwath said Ford's plan was constructed of rehashed promises from the last time Ontarians took to the polls.

“Some of the promises that Mr. Ford is making are the same ones that were in his last platform, and he hasn't gotten around to those things, things like Highway 69,” she said.

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca backed Horwath up on that.

“'I've stood here so far this afternoon and I've heard Mr. Ford talk as if he hasn't served as Ontario's premier for the past four years,” Del Duca said.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner, the only member of his party who's ever won a seat at the Ontario legislature, largely avoided their attacks. He promised that as premier, he would revamp Queen's Park.

“We need new solutions to old problems,” Schreiner said. “We cannot afford to wait.”

Schreiner said he'd tackle the issue of affordable housing by building connected communities where people can live and work, and by regulating short-term vacation rentals.

“We have to bring in a registry ... to ensure that we have enough housing supply for people who live in the north,” he said.

Likewise, Del Duca said short-term rentals were worsening the housing crisis and the Liberals wouldn't allow the industry to continue unchecked.

“We can no longer allow the simple forces of the of the free market - as much as I believe in the free market - in the midst of this kind of crisis, to sort through this,” Del Duca said.

Ford didn't draw the same connection between short-term rentals and housing prices, instead focusing on the added income they bring to the homeowners and the business vacationers bring to northern communities.

“We encourage people to come up and spend their money in tourism,” Ford said. “These same people are going to town, and going to the restaurant, the stores and generate more jobs and generate more revenue.”

Del Duca and Horwath also took aim at Ford's record on mental health, while he defended his actions.

Ford said his government invested $30 million to build 224 addiction treatment beds.

But Horwath noted that Ford capped the number of safe consumption sites, which the Tory leader denied.

Horwath said an NDP government would create a more fulsome system to address the opioid crisis.

“We know that we can save lives by making those investments, by being there with rehab beds, with detox beds, with services that support people afterwards,” she said. “Our plan includes transitional housing as well as supportive housing so that when people start to be able to rebuild their lives, they can have the supports and an affordable place to live.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2022.