Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty says he will make students healthier if re-elected by banning trans fats from school cafeterias.

McGuinty said the Liberals have helped curb childhood obesity since coming into power in 2003 by banning junk food in schools and requiring 20 minutes of daily exercise.

Campaigning in Toronto, the Liberal leader said he will build on that strategy by ensuring all school menus conform to the Canada Food Guide.

The Liberals also plan to expand high school intramural sports.

McGuinty says if he is re-elected on Oct. 10, he will introduce the Ontario Fitness Challenge to improve the fitness and co-ordination of children in Grades 1 to 6.

Experts say physical inactivity costs Ontario's health care system about $1.8 billion each year.

McGuinty afraid of voters: Tory

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, meanwhile, lashed out at McGuinty on Wednesday, accusing him of ducking real voters and campaigning in a political bubble.

Campaigning in Ottawa, Tory said McGuinty is afraid to talk to real people because of his party's record.

Tory said McGuinty snubbed a woman on Tuesday who wanted to discuss the controversial religious school funding issue and he ignored a cancer patient last week at an Ottawa hospital who said the Liberal leader hasn't helped his cause.

"Those people don't get inside Dalton McGuinty's political bubble,'' Tory said in a speech to about 50 volunteers.

"He goes from one sanitized photo opportunity to the next, avoiding contact with anyone who might happen to disagree with his sorry record as the premier of this province.''

Unlike McGuinty, Tory said he has been listening to voters, softening his stance on his pledge to fund faith-based schools. After receiving little support from voters for the proposal, Tory agreed to put it to a free vote.

While campaigning in Toronto on Tuesday, an angry voter confronted Tory, accusing him of flip-flopping on the issue.

Later Wednesday, Tory said a Conservative government would hire a full-time doctor recruitment specialist to ensure doctors stay in Ontario.

Meanwhile, the longest serving member in the Conservative caucus says with Tory's religious schools funding plan, the best his party can hope for on election day is a minority government.

Norm Sterling said a free vote on the issue is a moot point now because it will likely fail.

Sterling says he will vote against the proposal unless his constituents tell him otherwise.

NDP calls for culture minister's resignation

The New Democrats on Wednesday demanded Culture Minister Caroline Di Cocco step down amid reports a hospital in her Sarnia riding will cost twice its original price tag.

The Bluewater Health Hospital, a so-called P3 project that was built and will be maintained by the private sector but funded and managed by the Ontario government, was supposed to cost $135 million.

But an Aug. 14 letter to Di Cocco from Health Minister George Smitherman now pegs the cost at $276 million.

Three weeks after receiving the letter, Di Cocco was quoted as saying she didn't know the facility's final cost. She also said her campaign preparations kept her from seeing Smitherman's letter.

Di Cocco suggested it was just speculation that the hospital could reach nearly $300 million.

Campaigning in Oshawa, NDP Leader Howard Hampton said Di Cocco either knew or ought to have known the facility's true cost.

"In my view ... it's not an acceptable answer to working families across Ontario to say, `I didn't know, I didn't read the memo,''' Hampton said.

"Either Ms. Di Cocco is incompetent or she's not telling the truth.''

With files from The Canadian Press