TORONTO - Ontario's latest budget is likely to resemble its federal counterpart by offering a little something for everyone in a fiscal blueprint that could also double as the Liberal government's re-election plan, political analysts predicted Wednesday.

The Liberals will need to hit hard in their key priority areas of health care and education, and may also offer some sort of tax relief to Ontario voters, said Greg Inwood, a professor of politics at Ryerson University in Toronto.

"It really has to be a good news budget," Inwood said in an interview.

Inwood said the budget - which is expected to include a minimum wage increase and initiatives to address poverty - will be designed to take the wind out of the sails of the New Democrats, who have taken three urban seats away from the Liberals in byelections since 2003.

"That was pretty sobering for them, and they're worried that might be the harbinger of a breakthrough in other pockets in the province," he said. "It's a measure of some concern for them."

Henry Jacek, a political science professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, said with the Oct. 10 election looming, the Liberals cannot afford to lose any more ground to the NDP with a weak budget.

"There is no sense in an election budget to hold back anything. If you've got it, spend it," said Jacek.

"It's going to be a poverty budget. They've really been beaten up by the NDP."

Premier Dalton McGuinty promised Thursday that the budget would contain help for low-income families, saying there are up to one million Ontario children going to school not ready to learn because they're hungry.

"This compromises their success at school . . . and then it compromises our ability to build a strong, competitive economy," McGuinty said before a Liberal cabinet meeting.

"It's in everybody's interests that we find better ways of addressing the needs of children growing up in poverty. It's not just a moral imperative; it's become an economic necessity."

McGuinty wouldn't say if the budget will include plans to phase in a $2.25-per-hour increase in the minimum wage or end the province's clawback of a federal child benefit for the poorest families.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton said Thursday that the 1.2 million "working poor" in Ontario cannot wait another three years for the Liberals to boost the minimum wage to $10 an hour.

"Working families that desperately need a living wage aren't going to be fooled by a Dalton McGuinty campaign promise," said Hampton.

Opposition Leader John Tory said the Liberals have increased provincial spending by nearly $20 billion in just four years in office, and yet have failed to bring about any real improvement in health care, education or the economy.

"These people don't know how to spend money responsibly and focus on actually getting something for it. They just spend for the sake of spending," said Tory.

"They're really worried that they're having all this spending with no results to show for it."

But McGuinty defended the Liberal's spending habits, and said they had to spend the money to restore service cuts implemented by the previous Conservative government.

"It's not as if we're throwing money out the window here," said McGuinty. "We're investing in order to improve the quality of public services, which were in pretty sad shape when we got the job."

Finance Minister Greg Sorbara also defended the Liberals as "prudent managers," and said they've made great improvements in Ontario schools and hospitals.

"I think that the art of balancing revenues and expenditures is part of the magic of getting ourselves out of what we inherited to a much stronger financial position," Sorbara said after a pre-budget photo-op at a Toronto women's shelter.

McGuinty recently said the province will finally spend $400 million in federal housing money that the government had been withholding on a mix of low-income housing and rent allowances to stop families from being evicted, and promised details in the budget. There are an estimated 122,000 households across Ontario on a waiting list for affordable housing.

Anti-poverty activists said Thursday they're hoping the budget contains increases in welfare and disability support payments.

"We're going to see some important first steps, but what we're going to see is a beginning and nothing more," predicted Sarah Blackstock of the Income Security Advocacy Centre.

"Poverty has not been on the agenda for far too long. What we're hoping is they're going to mark the beginning of an anti-poverty strategy, like the kind we've seen in Newfoundland and Quebec."