IN MAY 2005, the government of Paul Martin was careening toward its doom.
The worst revelations of the Gomery inquiry were still fresh and the Conservatives, newly unified and fired by righteous indignation, were desperate to bring Mr. Martin down before Canadians’ outrage faded.
The Liberals, desperate to avoid rough justice from the voters, played for time. They made a deal with the NDP to support their budget and lured Belinda Stronach to leave Peter MacKay and the Tories and cross the floor.
Bizarrely, the budget vote was so tight that it would be decided by one vote: the Independent MP for Surrey North, Chuck Cadman, a maverick with a ponytail who was dying of malignant melanoma.
Conservative heavyweights Tom Flanagan and Doug Finley went to see Mr. Cadman on May 19 to try to persuade him to vote to bring the Liberals down, even though the Conservatives weren’t really ready for a campaign.
In Mr. Flanagan’s book, Harper’s Team, he wrote that their effort was "an example of how the passion of politics lead to decisions that later make you scratch your head."
That night, on Mike Duffy Live, after Mr. Cadman voted with the government, he told Mike Duffy that Mr. Flanagan and Mr. Finlay had offered to readmit him to the Tory caucus and that he had received no other offers.
This week, though, we learned that he told his wife, daughter and son-in-law that two Tories, not necessarily the same fellows, had made another offer two days earlier.
On May 17, they offered him a $1-million life insurance policy, he told his family, at which point he asked the Tories to leave. His daughter said she burst into tears when he told her.
On the same day, elsewhere in Ottawa, the Liberals were doing their best to buy a little insurance from another MP from B.C.
British Columbia Liberal MP Ujal Dosanjh arranged a meeting between Tory MP Germant Grewal and Tim Murphy, Mr. Martin’s chief of staff.
We know that they were trying to lure Mr. Grewal to cross the floor to the Liberals, because Mr. Grewal was wearing a wire, apparently in a sting operation, with the knowledge of Mr. Harper.
Mr. Grewal asked to be made a cabinet minister and have his wife put in the Senate. Mr. Murphy said Mr. Martin had forbidden him from offering a reward outside of politics but let on that the party would lay out "a welcome mat that has a lot of nice comfy fur on it." (Wink-wink. Nudge-nudge.)
Mr. Dosanjh went further, telling Mr. Grewal: "In fact, cabinet can be arranged right away."
On Thursday, Mr. Dosanjh told reporters in Ottawa that Mr. Harper might have been involved "in a criminal offence" if Mr. Cadman had been offered a bribe.
When I reminded him that he himself had tried to lure Mr. Grewal across the floor, he grew visibly angry.
"I did not," he said. "I am sorry, you should go check your record."
So here we have a politician trying to deny something for which there is clear evidence on tape.
The Tories are equally vociferous in their denials now, but we can take their denials as seriously as we take Mr. Dosanjh’s.
Mr. Harper previously denied offering $50,000 to nominated Tory candidate Alan Riddell to step aside to make way for Gomery whistle-blower Allan Cutler. When the party decided not to pay up, Mr. Riddell took them to court and a judge ruled that such an offer had been made.
And there is a tape of Mr. Harper discussing this insurance offer with journalist Tom Zytaruk, whose upcoming book about Mr. Cadman reveals the bribe story.
Mr. Zytaruk asks: "I mean, there was an insurance policy for a million dollars. Do you know anything about that?"
Mr. Harper: "I don’t know the details. I know that there were discussions."
Later, he says: "But the, uh, the offer to Chuck was that it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election."
This is significant, because Mr. Cadman privately told Mike Duffy before the budget vote that he was inclined to vote with the Liberals because if there was an election, then he might not be an MP upon his death. That would mean the life insurance benefits his family received would be cut in half.
Did the Tories, knowing that he wanted to look after his wife and daughter, offer to help?
Nobody can doubt that Mr. Cadman privately told his family that the Tories did that. The Cadmans have no reason to lie. And why would Mr. Cadman make up a story like that, a story that was very painful to the people he loved the most?
There’s a lot about this story that doesn’t make sense. What insurance company would write a million-dollar policy for a dying man? Even if some wealthy Tory could find a way to do it, would it really be worth a million dollars to bring the government down? Why did Mr. Cadman deny receiving any offers publicly and tell his family another story?
There is little hope that we will get to the bottom of this, but the consequences are potentially grave. The ethics committee has decided to investigate, and the Liberals have called in the Mounties.
Offering an MP an inducement to change his vote is a serious crime, punishable by a year in prison. Offering a life insurance policy to a dying man in exchange for his vote is monstrous.
When Ms. Stronach crossed the floor, Mr. Harper made a comment that showed he was aware of the danger of going too far in his efforts to bring down the Liberals. The source is philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, but Mr. Harper attributed it to his father: "Be careful when you fight a monster lest you yourself become a monster."
( smaher@herald.ca)
Nobody can doubt that Mr. Cadman privately told his family that the Tories did that. The Cadmans have no reason to lie. And why would Mr. Cadman make up a story like that, a story that was very painful to the people he loved the most?
http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1041148.html
