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The Liberals are trying to stay out in front of the investigation(s) into just who promised what to whom as Premier Kathleen Wynne appointed Glenn Thibeault the party’s candidate in the current Sudbury byelection.

Wynne’s people and Thibeault came out Monday with similar statements about co-operating with Elections Ontario, which is looking into whether former Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier was offered a job of some sort to step aside in ex-MP Thibeault’s favour.

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Wynne, her deputy chief of staff and campaign manager Pat Sorbara, and Thibeault have interviews scheduled with investigators and they want everyone to know they’ll be helping the investigation in any way they can because, they say, they’ve done nothing wrong.

Here’s the nut of the Wynne statement (officially from Liberal party executive director Simon Tunstall):

We’re glad Elections Ontario is taking this seriously so there will be no doubt that the allegations are false. We welcome the opportunity to tell Elections Ontario directly what we’ve said all along – that after the Premier told Andrew Olivier that he would not be the candidate, Patricia Sorbara re-iterated the Premier’s decision and discussed ways Olivier could remain involved in the Party or in matters related to his own personal and stated interests, such as accessibility issues. Any suggestion that anything was offered in exchange for any action is false. Andrew Olivier had already been informed that he would not be the candidate. Not only were no specific offers made, but such an offer would have no utility because the Premier exercised her prerogative as Ontario Liberal Party Leader to name a candidate, as per the Ontario Liberal Party constitution.

And here’s Thibeault:

Especially given the false information disseminated by the NDP, Sudbury deserves to know that Elections Ontario is doing a full and complete review. I’m confident they will find that the allegations aren’t true. The Premier has been clear no specific offers were made to Andrew Olivier and that makes sense because an offer would have no use – the Premier had already told Andrew Olivier he would not be the Liberal candidate.

Right. This is problematic in two ways.