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Olivier, Shawbonquit go on offensive against Thibeault

The final debate before the Feb. 5 byelection in Sudbury was a fireworks-filled affair, featuring some tough exchanges between the main candidates, and plenty of action from everyone else.
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Ontario goes to the polls to elect a new provincial government June 12. File photo.
The final debate before the Feb. 5 byelection in Sudbury was a fireworks-filled affair, featuring some tough exchanges between the main candidates, and plenty of action from everyone else.

All 10 candidates crowded on stage at College Boreal -- Jean-Raymond Audet (People's Party), Andrew Olivier (Ind), Paula Peroni (PC), Ed Pokonzie (Ind), David Popescu (Ind), David Robinson (Green), Suzanne Shawbonquit (NDP), Glenn Thibeault (Liberal), James Waddell (Ind.) and John Turmel (Ind).

The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce's Geoff Jeffery moderated, and did an admirable job keeping things under control under difficult circumstances in front of a big crowd.

It was Shawbonquit who set the tone early when she quoted a speech from 2009 that heavily criticizing the Ontario Liberal government. Whose speech was it?

“It was Glenn Thibeault himself,” she said, a reference to Thibeault's six-year tenure as Sudbury's NDP MP before leaving the party in December to run for the provincial Liberals.

Shawbonquit later raised some eyebrows herself, however, when she needed to have a question repeated, and when she said the NDP has an amazing track record of “balanced budgets,” without explaining to which government she was referring.

Olivier also took aim at Thibeault, who was passed over when Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne appointed Thibeault the candidate in Sudbury, so he launched an independent bid for the seat.

“Who can be trusted to have the back of Sudburians?” Olivier said. “We need to have someone to represent Sudbury first.
“Do we choose dirty politics? Or do we choose openness and accountability?”

Olivier, who says he was offered a job or an appointment if he withdrew his candidacy, was asked again about the ethics of recording private conversations. He turned two of those recordings with prominent Liberals over to Elections Ontario, which is investigating his allegations.

“I guess I'll have to answer this questions for the rest of my life,” he said, explaining again that he records all conversations because, as a quadraplegic, he can't take notes. He had no intention of releasing them, he said, but was forced to do so when his integrity was questioned.

He had to defend himself, he said, “when people think you're a liar … This is private information. I just don't give it away.”

Thibeault defended his decision to move to provincial politics, saying he could have made an easy decision to cross the floor in the House of Commons, but instead entered a race where voters would decide immediately on whether they agreed with his decision.

“The last six years, I've represented the people of Sudbury to the best of my abilities,” he said. “I put it to the people. If people don't like what I did, they can vote against.”

He also made reference to attack ads directed at him sponsored by the Steelworkers, saying he doesn't believe they reflect most members of the union.

“The USW I know raised $1M for the United Way,” Thibeault said. “The USW I know is a positive force for this community.”

This story will be updated.

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Darren MacDonald

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