New evidence of Tory offer to MP
By Steve Rennie, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - The voice of a cancer-stricken MP who died months after a historic confidence vote came back to haunt the Conservatives on Friday after a three-year-old radio interview surfaced in which Chuck Cadman says party officials made him financial overtures.
In a June 12, 2005, interview on Vancouver radio station CKNW, Cadman said the Tories did, in fact, make him financial offers days before the crucial vote.
"There was certainly some, you know, some offers made and some things along those lines about not opposing me and helping out with the finances of the campaign and that sort of thing. But, again, you know, that's all part of the deal that goes on. It's what happens, especially in a minority situation," Cadman says.
The interview lent credence to claims from Cadman's family that the terminally ill Independent MP - on whose shoulders rested the fate of Paul Martin's Liberal government - told them Tory officials allegedly offered him a $1-million life insurance policy in exchange for his support.
Cadman's widow, Dona - a Conservative candidate - said her husband was livid at the alleged offer, which she said she considered a bribe.
Cadman's daughter, Jodi, also said her late father made a deathbed admission about the alleged $1-million life insurance policy offer and other enticements.
And on Friday afternoon, Holland Miller, Cadman's son-in-law, told CKNW the late MP told him about the alleged Conservative life insurance offer when he returned to British Columbia after the vote.
At the centre of the swirling controversy is a tape released Thursday suggesting then-Opposition leader Stephen Harper not only knew two party officials allegedly made an "offer" to Cadman, but also gave it his blessing.
Author Tom Zytaruk taped an interview with Harper in September 2005 for his soon-to-be-released biography of Cadman. On the scratchy 2:37 recording, Harper confirms party officials made a financial appeal to Cadman.
"The offer to Chuck was that it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election," Harper says.
Harper said while he wasn't optimistic about their chances of persuading Cadman - a former Tory MP who had left the party to sit as an Independent MP - to vote with the Conservatives to bring down Martin's government, he urged two people "legitimately representing the party" to tread cautiously.
"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're saying make that case,' but I said, 'Don't press it'."
Not clear is what exactly the Conservative insiders offered Cadman. The Tories insist that Doug Finley and Harper mentor Tom Flanagan only offered to take Cadman back into the party fold.
Asked what financial considerations Harper was talking about on the tape, and what case did he tell the party emissaries to make, the prime minister's communications director ducked the questions.
In an e-mail to The Canadian Press, Sandra Buckler said the tape - which the publisher of the book was selling for $500 a copy - is an excerpt of a longer interview between the prime minister and Zytaruk.
"We are deeply concerned that an edited excerpt of a taped conversation between Mr. Harper and the book's author is being bootlegged for five hundred bucks a pop by the author. We call on the author to provide Canadians with a complete, unedited audio copy of the author's conversation - from start to finish - with Mr. Harper."
Buckler did not reply to a second e-mail asking her to respond to the two original questions.
That left Tory MP James Moore to fend off questions from opposition MPs and reporters outside the House of Commons. He dodged questions about whether the offer was indeed for a life insurance policy or for the Conservative nomination in the B.C. riding of Surrey North.
"I haven't spoken to Dona or Jodi Cadman. But (what) I do know is that neither of them were in the meeting," he said outside the Commons.
"Chuck Cadman was in the meeting and Mr. Finley and Mr. Flanagan were in the meeting. All three of them said that no offer was made. Chuck Cadman was very clear about that. And he said that in two nationally televised interviews. And I think it's very clear."
A reporter chased Moore as he retreated to the Commons, repeatedly asking him if the offer was for the nomination or life insurance. He didn't answer.
Asked how the Conservatives could have allegedly obtained life insurance for Cadman - who died of cancer two months later - Liberal MP Mark Holland speculated the party could have paid the cost of the policy.
But insurance experts - including one from Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services, a Quebec firm that insures MPs - say it's next to impossible to find a life insurer to provide a $1-million policy for a terminally ill person.
For the second straight day, opposition parties hammered the Conservatives in the Commons.
Outside the Commons, Liberal MP Garth Turner suggested time is running out for the Tories to come up with a credible explanation for what exactly was offered to Cadman.
"The questions have not gone away, and each day more evidence has come forward that this is a serious issue. So, unless the government refutes that very quickly, or comes out with a statement of clarification, then I think we ought to be thinking about bringing these guys down," he said.
Later Friday, Liberal party officials said talk of an election over the issue is "premature."
Turner's remarks came on the first of seven opposition days between now and March 26, triggering speculation the government could face one or more confidence motions on which it could fall.
The Liberals decided Friday not to put forth a confidence motion. But the NDP says it's highly likely they'll use their opposition day next Friday - March 7 - on a confidence matter.
If a no-confidence motion passes, Harper would have no choice but to go to Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean and ask her to dissolve Parliament.
Liberal MPs including Turner - publicly hawkish for an election - and Holland said the party would mull over its options before deciding whether to pull the plug on the Conservative government.
Meanwhile, Liberal MP Paul Szabo - chair of the Commons ethics committee probing the Brian Mulroney-Karlheinz Schreiber affair - said all three opposition parties put forward motions for the committee to investigate what he called the "Chuck Cadman bribery scandal."
Szabo said the committee will deal with those motions on Tuesday.
The RCMP also reiterated Friday they are examining a Liberal party claim that the incident violates Criminal Code provisions on bribery and corruption.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008 ... 70-cp.html
how does that add any proof that he was offered an insurance policy that industry experts say would be next to impossible to ever get . he does not in that interview say he was offered one or that the offer from cpc was illegal .
this is geting rediclous its time the conservatives get a lawyer and sue this author of this book .
CKA Uber 
lol.
