Wynne tells court she was aware of meeting with candidate

Denies giving cabinet position to NDP

Premier Kathleen Wynne denied in court that she promised a New Democrat MP a cabinet position to get him to leave his party and run for the provincial Liberals.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has testified in a Sudbury court and stated that in December 2014 she knew one of her top advisers and a party fundraiser were meeting with Andrew Olivier to see how to keep him in “the Liberal family.” She appeared on Day 5 of the trial of two high-ranking Liberals charged with bribing potential candidates ahead of 2015 byelection.Pat Sorbara, formerly Wynne’s deputy chief of staff, and Sudbury businessman Gerry Lougheed, Jr., the Liberal fundraiser, are charged with bribery under Ontario’s Election Act. They are accused of offering a job to would-be candidate Olivier to withdraw his Liberal candidacy in a 2015 byelection. Party brass wanted Olivier to make room for Glenn Thibeault, who defected from the federal NDP, won the byelection for the Liberals, and is now the province’s energy minister.
Wynne herself is not facing charges and her lawyers sent Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown a letter demanding he retract comments they say suggest the premier is standing trial.
Sorbara is charged with a second count of bribery, accused of offering Thibeault incentives to become a candidate. Olivier was the Liberal candidate in the 2014 election, losing by just over 1,000 votes to NDP candidate Joe Cimino. Cimino resigned shortly after the win, citing personal reasons, which prompted the byelection. Conversations with Sorbara and Lougheed — recorded by Olivier — were publicly released three years ago and form the basis of the bribery charges for which Lougheed and Sorbara are on trial now. Wynne described the Dec. 11, 2014, phone call with Olivier as “circular” and “awkward” and said “he was not forthcoming.”
Four days later, Olivier held a news conference revealing that he was being pushed aside for a star Liberal candidate.
Wynne told the court that Thibeault was one of several potential Sudbury candidates for the byelection.
She testified she “didn’t know anything about” Thibeault when she heard he might defect, but thought it was an “intriguing” idea to have Sudbury’s New Democrat MP jump ship to her party.