Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has called  five by-elections at once – in a major test of her leadership this summer. The writs have been dropped and election day is August  1.

The  Liberals are pulling  out the big guns in a bid to hold on to the two Toronto seats up for grabs, nominating city councillor Peter Milczyn, a member of Mayor Rob Ford’s executive, in Etobicoke Lakeshore and Mitzie Hunter, CEO of city-building organization CivicAction, in Scarborough Guildwood.

The by-elections will happen  in the height of summer –  on a Thursday before a long weekend.

The Tories accuse the Liberals of playing “dirty pool” by scheduling the elections at a time when people will be more concerned with barbecues and holidays than politics.

The PCs have already been campaigning hard, nominating candidates in nearly all of the province’s ridings months ago and running attack ads against Ms. Wynne on prime time television.