Ontario's political leaders will be spending the weekend trying to resolve a bitter budget battle that Premier Dalton McGuinty is threatening to escalate into an election.

All three of the province's major political parties are accusing each other of trying to trigger a summer election that nobody wants.

McGuinty says opposition amendments to his budget bill would gut the legislation --which he says he can't accept.

McGuinty's minority government brokered an agreement on the budget earlier this year to stave off a second election in less than a year.

But on Thursday the Conservatives voted with the N-D-P in the legislature to scrap portions of the budget.

McGuinty says rather than accept the changes, he'd rather take his budget to the people in an election.

The premier accuses N-D-P Leader Andrea Horwath of breaking her agreement to vote for the budget.

Horwath denies that and may have more to say on the budget impasse at a news conference later today.