TORONTO

Ontario’s embattled Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault got emotional Tuesday when insisting he won’t resign his cabinet post.

Choking back tears, Thibeault acknowledged that the Sudbury byelection bribery scandal has taken a toll on him and his family.

A day after a Crown prosecutor said the Sudbury politician allegedly “sought certain benefits” as a condition to run in the 2015 provincial byelection, the former NDP MP called the comments “disappointing and hurtful.”

“If anyone has ever had to explain to a nine-year-old why you’re not a bad man, it’s not an easy conversation,” Thibeault said of the talk he had with his children about the scandal. “But I will not be resigning.”

Federal prosecutor Vern Brewer made the comments Monday outside a Sudbury court.

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s former chief of staff, Patricia Sorbara, and Liberal fundraiser Gerry Lougheed have been charged with bribery under the Elections Act.

The Crown alleges they tried to induce candidate Andrew Olivier to step aside so Thibeault, a defecting NDP MP, could run as a star candidate in the riding. The pair are also charged with allegedly offering Thibeault an inducement to run in the byelection.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

Thibeault denied Brewer’s accusations and said he was neither offered nor asked for anything. Winning the byelection, much less a cabinet position, was never a sure thing, he said.

“I was even working on my resumes at some times because you know what, I put it all on the line for this,” he added.

Deputy Premier Deb Matthews fired back at both opposition parties, raising instances where their MPPs have resigned to let their party leaders run for a seat in the legislature or had been promoted to leadership positions through alleged backroom deals.

“They’ve been playing the high-and-mighty card and I just thought, ‘You’ve got some explaining to do, too’ on those particular cases,” she said.

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown dismissed Matthews’s accusations, saying the focus should be Thibeault, who is “under an ethical cloud.”

“These are ludicrous, pathetic smears,” he said. “We have an OPP charge to the heart of the Liberal party ... They can’t say what’s happened is right, so instead of actually answering legitimate questions that the public deserves to have answered, (the Liberals) resort to smears.”

NDP Deputy Leader Jagmeet Singh accused the government of “flinging mud” to distract from the scandal.

He called on Thibeault to step down as the case moves through the courts.

“(This) cries out for, at the minimum, stepping aside pending the outcome of these allegations,” he said.

sjeffords@postmedia.com