Reevely: Job offers to former Sudbury Liberal candidate show questionable ethics

Olivier released recorded telephone conversations with Lougheed, whom he describes as “a Liberal king maker” and with Wynne’s deputy chief of staff, Pat Sorbara, in which he said he was asked if he wanted a job or an appointment.

And as for Lougheed – who until Thursday was chairman of Sudbury’s Police Services Board, by the by – he claimed he couldn’t have offered Olivier anything because he wasn’t authorized to.

In a scene in an unreleased behind-the-scenes documentary about Wynne and her team, the premier reportedly can not comprehend why the media are so “obsessed” with the Sudbury byelection.

“I have no further comments at this time as this matter is now before the courts”, he said in a press release.

Lougheed meanwhile denies all allegations. It took months for the questioning to happen, because Ms Wynne said her schedule didn’t line up with the OPP’s.

“We heard what Gerry Lougheed said”.

“This has been a very uncommon investigation”, said the statement from the OPP’s anti-rackets branch, which began the criminal probe in January. Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called on the Premier to be honest with Ontarians about whose authority Mr. Lougheed was acting under. Was it somebody in her office?

The premier, who was not a subject of the investigation, said Sorbara and Lougheed were simply discussing Olivier’s future in the party.

Even before Olivier made the recordings public, the opposition Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats had called on the OPP and Elections Ontario to see if the phone conversations broke any laws. “We co-operated fully with the police and we trust the court system to do its work in a fully independent way”. Wynne told him she would use her power as Liberal leader to bypass a nomination fight and appoint Thibeault.

Wynne did say the OPP informed Sorbara’s lawyer that the premier’s deputy chief of staff would not face criminal charges in connection with the byelection.

Kathleen Wynne has maintained Andrew Olivier was never going to be the candidate and the party was just trying to keep him in the fold.

In February, Elections Ontario ruled that Ms. Sorbara and Mr. Lougheed broke the provincial Elections Act, which prohibits offering a person any inducement to not run in an election.

Thibeault won the byelection for the Liberals, taking back the Sudbury riding that they had lost to the New Democrats less than a year earlier.

Morning North host and moderator Markus Schwabe asked them about political integrity – and he questioned Liberal Paul Lefebvre about his involvement with Lougheed.

The rookie MPP also said he didn’t think the criminal charges against Lougheed would turn people off of politics. Brown said. “I think the hard working people of Ontario are disgusted”.