The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
There was something oddly symbolic about a gesture at a news conference in Sudbury Wednesday. Hours after Kathleen Wynne announced a byelection for Feb. 5, she spoke to reporters at a local hotel. Positive and upbeat, the premier was pleased to be in Sudbury. The city looked Christmas-card pretty under fresh snow.
Wynne introduced Glenn Thibeault, former New Democrat MP, as the best man to represent Sudbury at Queen’s Park. Thibeault seemed nervous and had every right to be. For six years, Sudburians sent him to Ottawa under the NDP banner. Many are angry at what they see as betrayal.
Taking to the podium, Thibeault dropped his pen. Wynne swooped in, picked it up and handed it to him. It was a small movement, but to some indicative of how tightly Thibeault is being handled by the premier.
After hand-picking the former United Way executive director, Wynne and party brass are doing everything they can to ensure he doesn’t drop the ball. It has nothing to do, they say, with Wynne and powerful Sudbury Liberals wanting a member they could quickly promote to cabinet.
It’s about pressing Sudbury issues that need Thibeault’s attention — the expansion of Maley Dr., an arterial road; the four-laning of Highway 69; infrastructure for the Ring of Fire mineral belt. These are the same issues Wynne appealed to voters with in the June election when Sudbury elected NDP MPP Joe Cimino, who resigned less than six months later.
Even with a majority, progress cannot be made on these imperatives unless Sudbury has a Liberal MPP, said Wynne.
Problems facing Sudbury and the North are so immediate, it was essential to bypass the nomination process, discard former Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier and set an impossibly early byelection date.
For the rest of this column, click here: http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2015/01/12/wynnes-actions-snub-sudbury-on-free-choice