Huddled around their leader in the east lobby of the Ontario legislature, Liberal MPPs saw something they had never seen before in the normally unflappable Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Fear.

It was moments after a searing question period and Wynne was still absorbing the jarring news that Pat Sorbara, her deputy chief of staff and campaign guru, ‎had been accused by Elections Ontario of the “apparent contravention” of bribery laws related to the Sudbury byelection.

“Kathleen looked scared, she looked startled,” one MPP confided after Thursday’s impromptu ‎meeting.

“‎I’d never seen her like that.”

Wynne appeared to some witnesses — including a Star reporter glancing through a doorway — to be rattled as she implored her colleagues‎ to circle the wagons around Sorbara and Sudbury Liberal organizer Gerry Lougheed.

Both operatives are being in investigated by Ontario Provincial Police for allegedly offering a job to former Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier in exchange for him clearing the way for then-NDP MP Glenn Thibeault to defect to the Grits.

“She said we should ignore the pack of wolves trying to bring us down. She said she believes Pat and Gerry and we should, too,” the MPP added.

All of which raises the question: why did Wynne risk so much to win a largely meaningless Feb. 5 byelection that would have no impact on the balance of power in a majority legislature?

The victory by Thibeault, whose defection has become a debacle, has political ramifications far beyond Sudbury — or even Queen’s Park.

Both Sorbara and Lougheed might have been expected to be soldiers in Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s crusade to unseat Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a federal election later this year.

Fourteen months ago, Lougheed raised $115,000 in a single night for Trudeau at a swank $1,300-a-plate Sudbury dinner.

Sorbara, a brilliant political organizer who was instrumental in Wynne’s improbable majority election win last June, could have brought her talents to Trudeau’s campaign.

But a senior Trudeau official confirmed Friday that neither will be involved federally.

The pair is tarred by the first scandal that is entirely of Wynne’s making.

Unlike the ongoing OPP investigations into deleted gas-plant emails and the ORNGE air-ambulance service, the latest controversy cannot be blamed on the actions of former premier Dalton McGuinty and his staff.

While Wynne, who last week marked her second anniversary on the job, looked shell-shocked on Thursday, she girded for battle.

To the surprise of aides, she arrived at Queen’s Park on Friday with a 1,680-word statement she wrote herself in pre-dawn hours to deliver to the media at a hastily called 12:30 p.m. news conference.

“I actually don’t feel wounded,” the defiant premier told reporters after reading her prepared text.

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She aimed her fire at Olivier, a quadriplegic who records important conversations and released tapes of his discussions with Sorbara and Lougheed that are now evidence in the police investigation.

“Andrew Olivier had been the Liberal candidate in the general election in June. Despite the fact that we won a majority, in Sudbury we lost to the NDP. In my opinion, we should not have lost that seat,” said Wynne.

That’s why, when NDP MPP Joe Cimino resigned suddenly last November, she immediately began wooing a higher profile candidate.

“I became aware that Glenn Thibeault would be willing to consider running for us. I was very interested . . . once I met Glenn, I was convinced that he was the right candidate for us,” she said.

“It was at that point last November — and well before any conversation with Andrew Olivier — that I decided that this was one of those situations where I would appoint our candidate.”

Wynne reminded reporters Friday that she did not need to apprise Olivier of the situation and “in some ways it would have been easier just to have left him out of the loop.”

“We could have moved ahead without talking with him and he could have read about our decision in the newspaper,” she said.

“That would have been old-style politics. I wanted to be honest with him about what was happening. I wanted him to stay involved.”

The premier’s protestations aside, it is the former high school track star’s fierce competitiveness that landed her in an old-fashioned political quagmire.

“You all know I am going to work very hard to win,” she acknowledged.

Wynne’s enmity toward NDP Leader Andrea Horwath — dating back to a fractious relationship during the minority government years — fuelled her desire to steal back the seat from the New Democrats regardless of the cost.

Horwath expressed bemusement at the premier’s predicament.

“I have no idea what the premier’s motivation was,” she said.

For Wynne, it was all about the win.

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