Ex-McGuinty chief of staff is the focus of a criminal probe

This right here isn’t the type of news the Ontario Liberals want on the front page of the Star in what’s likely to be an election year, but here we are. Some newly released police search-warrant documents obtained by several media organizations (not including Toronto Life) contain allegations that ex-premier Dalton McGuinty’s chief of staff, David Livingston, had the boyfriend of another staffer erase the contents of 24 hard drives, possibly in an attempt to cover up information related to the gas-plant scandal. According to the Star, police believe that Livingston, in giving high-level computer access to someone outside Queen’s Park, committed breach of trust, a criminal offence. None of this has been proven in court.

This is the latest in a long series of increasingly serious consequences of the McGuinty government’s decision to cancel the construction of two politically unpopular power plants in the GTA. What once seemed like mere pandering to voters has metastasized into a billion-dollar imbroglio, now involving possible prison time for at least one high-ranking ex-political staffer.

With a controversial provincial budget in the offing, current Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne’s hold on power has never looked so tenuous.