Friday was the deadline to enter the Ontario PC leadership race and, even though the contest has been somewhat wired for Tim Hudak, a field of four MPPs has emerged – Hudak (the frontrunner), Randy Hillier (think right…then walk a few more steps right), Christine Elliott (Jim Flaherty’s wife), and Frank Klees (Jaine Klees‘ husband).

I’ll be back at some point during the race with website reviews but for now, here’s what’s making news so far:

-Stephen Taylor has interviews with Christine Elliott and Tim Hudak.

-Taylor also reports that Randy Hillier has proposed dropping the “P” from PC. I haven’t seen a public confirmation anywhere, but Hillier’s “A Conservative Leader for a Conservative Party” slogan would certainly imply that.

–Hudak has the early lead on the endorsement front, with 12 MPPs backing him, compared to 2 for Elliott and Klees, and none for Hillier.

-Of note, Rob Nicholson and John Baird have gone against their Cabinet colleague Flaherty, and are supporting Hudak.

-In the “media buzz” department, things are surprisingly close – Hudak has been in 301 google news stories, Hillier 288, Elliott 277, and Klees 269.

-Looking at “blog buzz”, Hudak (155) tops Hillier (141), Elliott (128), and Klees (91).

-Looking at their websites’ Alexa rank over the past month, Hillier (1.6 million) and Hudak (2.1 million) have the top sites, with Elliott (4.0 million) and Klees (7.5 million) further back.