A legal battle between Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Progressive Conservatives is ramping up, with the Tories filing a notice of intent to defend a $2 million defamation suit.

“We’re prepared to fight it out,” Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod said Thursday, challenging Wynne to drop the suit and “stop playing little games behind the scenes with lawyers.”

Wynne is suing MacLeod, PC leader Tim Hudak and the party for remarks linking her to an OPP investigation of the premier’s office regarding the deletion of government documents in the $1.1-billion scandal over power plants cancelled just before the 2011 election.

MacLeod challenged Wynne to take her record to the voters.

“If she’s not prepared to do her job, then we should go to an election and fight this out at the ballot box, not in a courtroom.”

In a letter to Wynne lawyer Mark Freiman of Lerners LLP, the Conservatives say “the statements about which your client complains are clearly within the recognized privileges protecting freedom of speech, particularly where it concerns matters of importance within a necessary and vital public debate.”

Acting for the Conservatives, lawyer Robert Rueter charges the Liberals “intensified” media coverage of the remarks made by MacLeod and Hudak by repeating them in an open letter signed by the premier on March 30.

“Our clients are not responsible for any republication of the purportedly defamatory statements as a result of the release to the public by your client of her open letter.”

Hudak has charged Wynne “oversaw and possibly ordered the criminal destruction of documents,” while MacLeod has tweeted a comparison between Wynne and former U.S. president Richard Nixon of Watergate infamy.

Wynne’s office said she will not drop the lawsuit, which is being funded by the Ontario Liberal Party with any proceeds going to charity.

“Mr. Hudak, Ms. MacLeod, and the PC party still have an opportunity to do the right thing — apologize and retract their comments. If they do, this action will not be pursued further and damages will not be sought,” said spokeswoman Zita Astravas.

The OPP anti-rackets division is investigating former Dalton McGuinty chief of staff David Livingston for breach of trust, alleging Livingston obtained a special password enabling the holder to erase computer hard drives in the dying days of the McGuinty administration last year and gave it to a non-government employee.

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That password was valid until March 20, 2013, about five weeks after Wynne became premier on Feb. 11. Livingston has denied any wrongdoing.

In a 111-page document used to obtain a search warrant, police claim that password was used by Peter Faist, the boyfriend of Livingston deputy Laura Miller, on a handful of computers on Feb. 6 and 7, 2013. Other computer hard drives from the premier’s office are now being examined to see when they were accessed using that special password.

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