Liberals, NDP in dead heat in Sudbury

Party volunteers scramble for voters as byelection nears

The hard-fought Sudbury byelection — in which a defecting New Democrat MP stirred controversy by running for the Liberals — will go down to the wire on Thursday night, a new poll suggests.

Liberal candidate Glenn Thibeault, who quit Parliament to run for Premier Kathleen Wynne, has the support of 33 per cent of voters, while NDP candidate Suzanne Shawbonquit has 36 per cent, according to a Forum Research survey conducted Monday — a dead heat within the poll’s margin of error. Forum contacted 469 Sudbury adults at random using interactive voice response technology for the poll, with results considered accurate within five percentage points 19 times out of 20. “Getting out the vote will be important,” said Forum president Lorne Bozinoff.

The Liberals and New Democrats have been pouring volunteers into the riding, which the NDP hopes to hold after taking it from the Liberals in the June provincial election.

Ranked third in the poll is independent candidate Andrew Olivier, who ran for the Liberals in June but was rejected by Wynne this time. At 14per-cent support, he’s down from 22 per cent last week.

Olivier has released tapes that he says show two Liberal operatives offered him a job in exchange for stepping aside quietly — an accusation denied by the Liberals and under investigation by Ontario Provincial Police and Elections Ontario. Both organizations have been tight-lipped about their probes. The Star reported last month that police had obtained the tapes Olivier refused to voluntarily hand over.