If there’s one thing Sudburians don’t need, it’s the rest of Ontario calling us out for voting Liberal last week.

The people of Sudbury decided — at least 10,626 of about 65,000 registered voters did — to elect former New Democrat MP Glenn Thibeault to Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government.

Remember, it was the rest of the province that gave Wynne and the Liberals a majority last June. Both Sudbury and Nickel Belt ridings went orange then. This byelection, thousands of Sudbury voters, some displeased with byelection shenanigans but adopting an "if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em attitude," as well as thousands more die-hard Grits and Thibeault fans, sent a member to Queen’s Park.

Thibeault will, no doubt, do a decent job for Sudbury in the Legislature, as he did for six years in the House of Commons, as a member of the party of Jack Layton and Thomas Mulcair.

But he will do it with the label "turncoat," by which he will always be known by some, and under the stench of scandal that hangs over his government.

The Liberal chickens came home to roost last week in a shocking manner, as most developments in this byelection have occurred.

The very day Sudbury was voting, the Toronto Sun, acting on information from The Sudbury Star, dropped a bombshell. It obtained an information to obtain (ITO) a production order, filed by the OPP in Barrie’s Ontario Court of Justice. In it, an investigator with the OPP’s anti-rackets squad said she believed two Liberals had committed a crime in relation to the byelection.

Const. Erin Thomas sought the order to obtain audio recordings from Andrew Olivier to back her belief that Wynne sidekick Pat Sorbara and Sudbury fundraiser Gerry Lougheed Jr. had negotiated appointments with Olivier, which is prohibited under Sect. 125(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada.

Olivier ran in the June 12 election for the Grits, losing by 966 votes to New Democrat Joe Cimino, who resigned six months later.

Olivier intended to seek the nomination again in a byelection, but was asked in December to step aside by Lougheed, Wynne and the premier’s deputy chief of staff, Sorbara. Wynne was set on appointing Thibeault, who was defecting from the NDP. She and her cabal believed the seasoned politician, with the authoritative voice from his radio days, had the best chance of snatching the riding back from the NDP.

Lougheed and Sorbara suggested Olivier seek a job or appointment from Wynne for stepping aside, and Olivier has recordings of those conversations. Now, apparently, so does the OPP.

The OPP said references by Sorbara and Lougheed indicate Wynne had the ability to secure an office for Olivier if he complied.

Crown attorney Nick Devlin said in the production order that it is a crime to negotiate "in any way about an appointment to any public office or government job."

Thomas said she believes Lougheed’s and Sorbara’s reference to Wynne’s authority threatens the appearance of the government’s integrity.

The OPP must now determine if there’s evidence to support charges being laid against Lougheed and Sorbara (no recording exists of Olivier’s conversation with Wynne) and, if there is, if it’s enough to even try to win convictions. All three Liberals firmly deny doing anything wrong.

There have been calls for Sorbara to quit as Wynne’s aide and Lougheed to resign as chair of Greater Sudbury Police Services Board. Both should do the honourable thing and step aside until the OPP investigation is complete.

It might take the edge off the cynicism most Ontarians feel about their government. Although it’s probably too little, too late.

carol.mulligan@sunmedia.ca