SUDBURY—Premier Kathleen Wynne takes the witness stand next Wednesday in a top aide’s bribery trial that could have political fallout with an election looming.

After years in the court of public opinion, the Election Act case against Wynne’s former deputy chief of staff, Patricia Sorbara, and Sudbury Liberal organizer Gerry Lougheed finally moves into the courtroom Thursday.

Crown prosecutors allege the pair offered jobs or posts to a 2014 Liberal candidate to quit a 2015 byelection nomination race and make way for the premier’s preferred candidate, Glenn Thibeault, now energy minister.

Wynne’s Sept. 13 testimony is expected to be a focal point of the trial, slated to continue well into October.

It’s the first time in recent memory a sitting premier will be on the stand in a case resulting from police charges.

“The date has now been given to me,” she told reporters Wednesday at Toronto’s Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute. “I will be appearing as a witness on that day.”

The premier emphasized her testimony would be similar to what she has said before: that officials were trying to keep the previous Liberal candidate, mortgage broker Andrew Olivier, involved in the party.

“I’ve been very clear about the situation. I’ve been clear in the legislature. I’ve been clear in the public realm, and I will continue to be clear and open about what happened,” said Wynne, who waived her right, under parliamentary privilege, not to testify in the trial.

Opposition parties are pouncing on the case for maximum political gain, with NDP House leader Gilles Bisson noting tapes of Olivier’s conversations with Sorbara and Lougheed are already public.

“They’re pretty categorical,” said Bisson, referring to offers made to Olivier — offers that a judge must now interpret, guided by the law.

“Make no mistake: it is Liberal political corruption that will be on trial,” said Progressive Conservative MPP Steve Clark.

If convicted of the charges — which don’t fall under the Criminal Code but under a lesser category called provincial offences — Sorbara and Lougheed, a wealthy funeral homeowner, face fines of up to $25,000 and maximum jail sentences of two years less a day.

Sorbara, who has stepped aside from her key role in the Liberal re-election campaign, faces two counts of bribery and Lougheed one count. Both have repeatedly maintained they did nothing illegal.

“We look forward to publicly clearing the air of any suggestion of wrongdoing,” said Toronto lawyer Brian Greenspan, who’s representing Sorbara.

With an election set for June 7, 2018, political observers are watching for any impact on Wynne’s Liberals.

“Even if no one’s found guilty in Sudbury, it’s still unseemly,” McMaster University political scientist Henry Jacek said of the case.

That was a reference to the way Olivier, who placed second in 2014 provincial election for the Liberals in Sudbury, was sidelined for Thibeault, a defecting New Democrat MP disenchanted with his federal party.

“It looks like the Liberal party was disloyal to someone who was loyal. The fact he was physically disabled doesn’t leave people with a good feeling at all,” added Jacek, referring to the fact that Olivier is quadriplegic.

“It’s the type of stuff that gives politics a bad name.”

The Liberals were eager to win Sudbury after losing it to New Democrat MPP and former city councillor Joe Cimino, who soon resigned for family reasons. The riding previously been held by retired Liberal cabinet minister Rick Bartolucci.

Olivier, who records conversations because he can’t take notes, supplied the Ontario Provincial Police with tapes of talks with Sorbara and Lougheed and posted links on social media.

In one conversation, Lougheed told Olivier: “The premier wants to talk. They would like to present you options in terms of appointments, jobs, whatever, that you and her and Pat Sorbara could talk about.”

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Another tape has Sorbara telling Olivier “we should have the broader discussion about what is it that you’d be most interested in doing . . . whether it’s a full-time or part-time job in a (constituency) office, whether it is appointments, supports or commissions . . . .”

Police initially laid criminal charges against Lougheed, but not Sorbara, and subsequently withdrew them before the lesser Election Act charges were announced.

“Gerry Lougheed Jr. has consistently maintained that he did not do anything wrong when he spoke to Mr. Olivier or otherwise,” says his Toronto lawyer, Michael Lacy.

“Although it is difficult to understand why the matter is proceeding to a trial, we have every confidence in the administration of justice in this province and the fact that the justice presiding over the case will make a determination based on the evidence and the law and will not be influenced or swayed by politics or uninformed public opinion.”

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