SUDBURY—It’s Premier Kathleen Wynne’s day in the hot seat.

Fresh from being grilled in the legislature over the Sudbury byelection bribery case, the premier testifies Wednesday at the Election Act trial of her former deputy chief of staff, Patricia Sorbara.

Opposition leaders said it’s time Ontarians hear Wynne answer questions instead of evading them.

“I would hope that, tomorrow, the premier starts coming clean for Ontarians to see exactly what role she played . . . in what has become a very odious scandal,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath told reporters Tuesday.

“I hope that the premier will give us answers — we’re not getting them in the legislature,” Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown added.

“We’ve got a sitting premier sitting in trial answering questions about these allegations of bribery. That in itself is astonishing about how far this government has fallen.”

The Sudbury trial is one of two being closely watched with a provincial election looming next June 7.

The second involves two former top aides to ex-premier Dalton McGuinty. The pair have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of deleting documents related to the cancellation of gas-fired power plants before the 2011 election.

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Wynne has waived parliamentary privilege and will be the first premier in recent memory to testify in a court case when she takes the stand in Sudbury.

She repeatedly deflected questions from opposition parties as MPPs returned for the legislature’s fall session this week.

“The matter is before the courts and we really need to let that process play out,” Wynne said after Horwath asked “how far the premier and the Liberal party were willing to go to win the 2015 Sudbury byelection?”

Sorbara and Sudbury Liberal organizer Gerry Lougheed are charged with offering jobs or posts to the Liberals’ 2014 candidate — quadriplegic mortgage broker Andrew Olivier — to exit a 2015 byelection nomination race, clearing the decks for Wynne’s preferred choice — defecting New Democrat MP Glenn Thibeault, now her energy minister.

In addition, Sorbara faces a second charge of trying to induce Thibeault into being the candidate. Crown prosecutors allege he demanded paid campaign jobs for two of his NDP staff.

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Both defendants have pleaded not guilty in the trial that began last Thursday and is slated to continue into October.

“What did the premier know about the offers to Mr. Olivier, what did the premier know about the offers to Mr. Thibeault?” Horwath said.

“What did she say or not say to her operatives both in the ground in Sudbury and her (deputy) chief of staff at the time, Pat Sorbara?”

The Elections Act stipulates that “no person shall, directly or indirectly, give, procure or promise or agree to procure an office or employment to induce a person to become a candidate, refrain from becoming a candidate or withdraw his or her candidacy.”

Defence lawyers have argued that Thibeault agreed to become the candidate before Olivier had conversations with Lougheed and Sorbara, which he taped and made public.

Wynne has previously said such talks were aimed at keeping Olivier involved in the party. He eventually ran as an independent and placed third in the byelection.

If convicted, Sorbara and Lougheed, a wealthy funeral homeowner, face fines of up to $25,000 and maximum jail sentences of two years less a day.

The charges are not under the Criminal Code but under a lesser category called provincial offences.

Sorbara stepped down from her role as head of the Liberals’ 2018 re-election effort after being charged last fall. She was a key architect of Wynne’s 2014 majority election victory.

The February 2015 byelection was called after New Democrat Joe Cimino — who won the long-time Liberal riding in the June 2014 provincial election — quit five months into his term for family reasons.

With files from Robert Benzie

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