Blast from the Past

Chuck Cadman - there's a name we haven't heard in a while. In a time warp back to one of the most exciting and bizarre weeks in the history of Parliament, a new book ads to the insanity that was May 2005:

The widow of former B.C. MP Chuck Cadman says two Conservative Party officials offered her husband a million-dollar life insurance policy in exchange for his vote to bring down the Liberal government in May of 2005.

Unlike Mr. Grewal, Chuck Cadman wasn't in the habit of taping his private conversations so there's no firm proof, but Harper's comments in the book are...to put it midly...interesting. It certainly sounds like he was fully aware of the gist of the meeting, if not the specifics:

"Of the offer to Chuck," [journalist Tom Zytaruk] quotes Mr. Harper as saying, "it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election, okay. That's my understanding of what they were talking about.

"I don't know the details," he said. "I can tell you that I had told the individuals — I mean, they wanted to do it — but I told them they were wasting their time. I said Chuck had made up his mind he was going to vote with the Liberals. I knew why, and I respected the decision, but they were just, they were convinced there was, there was financial issues and, there may or may not.

"They were legitimately representing the party," Mr. Harper confirmed. "I said 'Don't press him, I mean, you have this theory that it's, you know, financial insecurity, and you know, just, you know, if that's what you say make the case,' but I said 'Don't press it.'."

A million dollar bribe sure sounds sexy but even minor compensation for "financial insecurity" in exchange for a vote would be blatantly illegal. And is Harper going to be able to come out and say that one of his own candidates is a liar? I'm not sure this will go anywhere but you can be sure that Harper will be answering some uncomfortable questions in the coming days.