Kathleen Wynne won't ask 2 Liberals in byelection controversy to step down
Ontario premier won't force them to resign amid allegations 'that I do not believe to be true'
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne accused the NDP and Progressive Conservatives of hypocrisy, and insisted she won't ask her staff to step down as a result of an investigation into bribery allegations linked to a byelection in Sudbury earlier this month.
The allegations focus on Wynne's deputy chief of staff, Patricia Sorbara, and Sudbury-area Liberal Gerry Lougheed Jr. An Elections Ontario report alleged the two contravened the bribery section of the Election Act. Ontario Provincial Police are also doing an investigation.
"If charges are laid in the future, then Pat Sorbara will of course step aside," Wynne said Friday at a surprise news conference. "In the meantime, I will not force someone to resign in the face of allegations that I do not believe to be true."
The report and ongoing allegations refer to an alleged offer made to Andrew Olivier, a former Liberal candidate in Sudbury, to step aside and allow another candidate to run. That other candidate, former federal NDP member Glenn Thibeault, eventually contested and took the seat.
"At no time was I prepared to offer him something," Wynne said of discussions with Olivier.
She said Sorbara merely "made suggestions how he could stay involved" with the Liberal Party.
Olivier has alleged that a job or appointment was offered to him in exchange for not seeking the Liberal nomination. He had previously run for the Liberals and intended to run again in the Feb. 5 byelection. The report appears to clear Wynne and Thibeault.
Olivier released recordings of the discussion he had with Lougheed and Sorbara, as he records all conversations due to a disability.
Wynne calls out 'hypocrisy'
On Friday, Wynne also lashed out at her opposition critics, saying both the NDP and Progressive Conservative parties were guilty of having similar discussions with former candidates as Sorbara and Lougheed had with Olivier.
She brought up the case of Laurie Scott, an MPP from Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, who stepped aside as a PC candidate in 2009 to allow then leader, and now Toronto mayor, John Tory to run in the riding.
She then wondered how Adam Giambrone, a former Toronto city councillor and failed NDP candidate for Scarborough-Guildwood, was selected to run in that riding in 2012.
"They must know the hypocrisy of their position," said Wynne.
She also said members of the opposition approached her staff with offers to step down as MPPs in exchange for appointments. Wynne said she would not name names, but that the offers that came from Opposition members were rejected.
Wynne should step aside if charges laid: PCs
The Progressive Conservatives said if police decide to lay charges against Sorbara and Lougheed, then Wynne must also step aside as premier until the charges are resolved.
"Did she, the premier, direct them to make what sounds like a bribe," asked Jim Wilson, interim PC leader. "If not, she should just say so and remove the bad apples."
PC House leader Steve Clark said Wynne "is disgracing the office of premier with her denials and weasel words."
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said before Wynne's news conference that "she has a glimmer of a chance to redeem herself if she does the right thing and comes clean on what her role was in all this."
Afterward, the NDP put out a statement calling Wynne's remarks "nothing short of appalling."
With files from The Canadian Press