Tape Appears To Show Stephen Harper Knew About Alleged Financial Bribe For MP’s Vote
Posted February 28, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was one of the most dramatic moments in recent history on Parliament Hill. It was May 2005, when an otherwise obscure independent MP named Chuck Cadman (left) carried the fate of an entire government on his shoulders. Cadman was the Member of Parliament from BC who held the balance of power as a vote in the House of Commons decided whether the Liberal government would fall, triggering a federal election.
Cadman eventually sided with the Grits and his vote was the difference that kept them in power. Two months later, the man at the eye of the storm died of cancer. But it now appears Cadman has come back to haunt the Conservatives again and it has some politicians calling for an RCMP probe.
It started when the late politician’s widow told an author writing a book about her husband that the Conservatives sent reps to his home before that famous vote to offer him a $1 million life insurance policy if he’d side with Stephen Harper, who was then in opposition.
The allegation created an explosion in Ottawa on Thursday, as MP after MP stood and demanded to know if the story was true. “Not only was it morally and ethically wrong, but it was against the law!” thunders Liberal leader Stephane Dion. “Again, I ask the prime minister, what was he thinking?!”
Harper insists he knew his people were talking to Cadman but maintains there was never any kind of financial inducement offered. “Chuck Cadman himself, on national television, the day of that historic vote, also indicated that the story is not true and so I wish everybody would accept his word.”
But late Thursday a tape made by author Tom Zytaruk surfaced that appears to show Harper talking about the offer and asking his people not to press Cadman too hard. That would directly contradict his defence in the House more than two years later. The tinny hard-to-hear tape is clear enough when it comes to apparently affirming Harper did, indeed, have some knowledge of the alleged life insurance offer.
It was made outside Cadman’s home after the Conservative leader arrived to pay his respects to the man’s widow. “The offer to Chuck was that it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election,” Harper is heard to say. Of those who made the offer, the future prime minister was also clear: “They were legitimately representing the party.”
Here’s how Harper summarizes his instructions to those party operatives: “I said, ‘Don’t press (Cadman), 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.”‘
All this is emboldening his critics. “The reality [is] that the holier than thou Stephen Harper … is not the person that he was telling them that he was,” proclaims Grit MP Robert Thibault.
This story is further complicated because while the widow Cadman swears every word is true, she’s also running for the Conservatives in her late husband’s riding.
The Liberals, who were reeling from the sponsorship scandal back when the vote was taken, now see a chance to turn the tables on their opponents. They’ve demanded the RCMP look into the allegation, an incident they’re calling “a criminal offence.”
Tape Transcript
Here’s what’s on the tape Zytaruk had with Harper in 2005.
Zytaruk: “I mean, there was an insurance policy for a million dollars. Do you know anything about that?”
Harper: “I don’t know the details. I know that there were discussions, uh, this is not for publication?”
Zytaruk: “This (inaudible) for the book. Not for the newspaper. This is for the book.”
Harper: “Um, I don’t know the details. 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 and I knew why and I respected the decision. But they were just, they were convinced there was, there were financial issues. There may or may not have been, but I said that’s not, you know, I mean, I, that’s not going to change.”
Zytaruk: “You said (inaudible) beforehand and stuff? It wasn’t even a party guy, or maybe some friends, if it was people actually in the party?”
Harper: “No, no, they were legitimately representing the party. 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 don’t press it. I don’t think, my view was, my view had been for two or three weeks preceding it, was that Chuck was not going to force an election. I just, we had all kinds of our guys were calling him, and trying to persuade him, I mean, but I just had concluded that’s where he stood and respected that.”
Zytaruk: “Thank you for that. And when (inaudible).”
Harper: “But the, uh, the offer to Chuck was that it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election.”
Zytaruk: “Oh, OK.”
Harper: “OK? That’s my understanding of what they were talking about.”
Zytaruk: “But, the thing is, though, you made it clear you weren’t big on the idea in the first place?”
Harper: “Well, I just thought Chuck had made up his mind, in my own view …”
Zytaruk: “Oh, okay. So, it’s not like, he’s like, (inaudible).”
Harper: “I talked to Chuck myself. I talked to (inaudible). You know, I talked to him, oh, two or three weeks before that, and then several weeks before that. I mean, you know, I kind of had a sense of where he was going.”
Zytaruk: “Well, thank you very much.”