LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR
PM Harper has a lot of explaining to do about this Affair..
Update: March 4 10 am: PM Harper give notice to the Liberals and Party Leader Spephan Dion that he will sue for Libel if the Liberals would not retract from their Website their post claiming that the PM had knowledge of the supposed Bribery and it did took Place..Cadman widow in a subsequent interview, said that Harper, then an opposition Leader met with her after the vote and assured her that no offer was made..here is the details of the Update..
A biography of Cadman, to be published this month, charges that two Conservative party officials offered Cadman, who was critically ill with cancer, a $1 million life insurance policy if he voted against the then-Liberal minority government in a confidence vote on May 19, 2005. If he had voted with the Conservatives, the government would have fallen, forcing an election.
Background: Chuck Cadman was a British Columbia MP who remained Independent after the Re-Uniting of the Conservatives, who split up into splinter Parties after the debacles of Elections past. During the Confidence vote in Paul Martin minority Liberal Government in May 2005, his vote was crucial for the survival of the Government, thus arising to the Scandal that the Conservatives, in the opposition at that Time was trying to lure the Independent MP to their side to defeat the Government triggering an Election with an alleged Offer of a $1 Million in Life Insurance Policy. Cadman voted for the Liberal, thereby assuring the survival of the Government for another few months..Cadman died July 9. 2005, less than two months after the vote.
Now the Liberal Party, the main opposition, who have been propping up the Minority Conservative government to avoid an early Election nobody wants, is re-examining it’s strategy of supporting the Government and instead openly musing of toppling it as the Members find it hard to support the Government after the allegation.
The allegation was supported by Cadman’s widow, who herself now is a candidate for the Conservative Party and was also echoed by his daughter, which also followed her Mother’s statement that her father told her of the same before he died and added that she so proud he didn’t not take the offer...
Confronted with the allegation PM Harper, who had an Interview with the Author of the Book which script been released in Advance, even suggested that he knew of the offer but has this to say:
And an interview with the book's author, Vancouver journalist Tom Zytaruk, Harper, who was opposition leader at the time, even suggests he knew of the offer.
Asked about the insurance policy, Harper said, "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."
All personalities involved in the allegation do not deny that they had been meeting with the MP, but denied about the offer of Life Insurance Policy or any monetary incentives..(pls note that according to the experts in the field of insurance, Chuck Cadman at the time was uninsurable for having terminal cancer)
It is considered an offence under the Criminal Code to offer a politician an inducement, financial or otherwise, to influence him or her.
The Opposition Liberals already written the RCMP to look after the allegations and the Force will review the contents of the letter and will make up the decision to proceed with the investigation or not...
For more of the Brewing Scandals check the pages of the Toronto Star
And for those who may have doubts that the tale maybe too good to be True how about this column by tom walkom
