The heat was on at an all-candidates meeting in Leaside where John Tory and Kathleen Wynne finally faced off on the fate of the public education system.

Tory, who is running for premier against Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty, did not waiver in his support for funding religious schools equally while Liberal Education Minister Wynne argued it would divide communities.

"I think it's attacking the social cohesion of this province," she started to say before being drowned out by jeers from some people in the crowd.

When someone yelled at her to just answer the question, Wynn's voice rose considerably.

"We have been rebuilding a system that was undermined by the previous government. If we stop that rebuilding now, this province will not be strong," she said.

Tory shot back that the religious school funding debate was about fairness. He pointed to other provinces who have succeeded in implementing a similar system.

"You have to ask yourself when you hear about the funding of these religious schools as threatening out social cohesion, why have we not read about that happening in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories?"

It was standing room only as crowds watched the debate between the Progressive Conservative leader and Wynne move from education to crime to health care. While Tory may be battling it out with McGuinty, he's also got a tough fight ahead of him to win the Don Valley West riding, where Wynne has been a popular political figure for years.

Tory also has deep roots in the riding. He grew up in the area and went to school in the neighbourhood. He still lives there with his family.

The tension was obvious, especially as Tory twice objected to the way the time keeper was clocking his answer.

"I only spoke for 52 seconds...we have to sort this out," he said.

While the Green Party candidate, Adrian Walker, was present at the debate, the NDP candidate Mike Kenny backed out at the last minute.

Candidates back on the campaign trail

Before the debate, Tory spent time in the area's Flemingdon Park neighbourhood, announcing $100 million a year for ten years to renew the province's poorest neighbourhoods.

Tory said the money would be used to renovate crumbling sites and to build new sites where the old ones are too worn out to repair.

McGuinty was also on the campaign trail in Toronto Sunday.

He targeted the city's ethnic communities by announcing to increase funding for English as a Second Language (ESL) in schools and would increase resources that would help newcomers to the country settle comfortably.

McGuinty also touched on business issues and called for a "time-out" when it comes to domestic take-overs by foreign companies.

"My advice to the federal government would be to take a timeout and conduct some kind of a brief review of where we find ourselves at this point in our history and take a look down the road 10, 15, 20 years out and better understand the long-term consequences of that to our Canadian economy,'' McGuinty said.

"I'd tell them to take a look at what's happening.''

However, McGuinty would not say whether or not he would call a moratorium on foreign takeovers.

"I just don't think we've had an opportunity, collectively as Canadians, to be thoughtful,'' McGuinty said.

"We have quietly presided over this new element in terms of the evolution of the Canadian economy. We should acquire a better understanding of the long-term implications of developments recently.''

In the meantime, NDP leader Howard Hampton spent his day focusing on green energy. He vowed to renew Ontario's power supply with "greener"energy that would still fulfill the province's intense demand for power.

Ontario would phase out coal plants and ban new nuclear facilities from opening if he was elected, Hampton said during a campaign stop in Ottawa Sunday. Instead, he would "significantly" boost renewable sources such as wind, solar and water power.

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV's John Musselman