Toronto Star Whips Harper and Cronies

Go get 'em:

But who is playing partisan politics here? A prime minister who sues the Liberals while his point man on the justice committee prevents them from asking fair questions? How can Hanger talk about "unsubstantiated scandal" when so many questions remain to be answered? What, for example, did Harper mean when he told Cadman's biographer about "financial considerations" for the dying MP?

Harper and Hanger should know that their outlandish responses only make it look as if they do, indeed, have something to hide.




Harper is Bluffing

See second and third post down for background on the Canadian Bribin' Scandal.

There is no way he sues for libel and though he's still saying he will I've got to believe he regrets it.







Tory/Harper Bribe Scandal Update

Updating this post, we see today that former MP Chuck Cadman's widow, who earlier confirmed claims that her husband was offered incentives in exchange for a favaroble vote while he was dying, says it wasn't Stephen Harper's doing.

With respect to Dona Cadman, and I believe she's being sincere, this doesn't wash.

Going back to the aforementioned post with its link to Harper's 2005 interview, Harper in that interview admitted to knowing about the offer; that it was linked to the desire by the party for Cadman to vote in the party's favor; and that it related to "financial considerations."

Harper was head of the party. How is this not simple?







PM Harper: We Tried To Bribe Him

It's stunning to me that this isn't a much bigger story. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has as much as admitted that members of the Tory party - with his knowledge - attempted to bribe a dying MP. (See post below for background if you need it.)

While researching the mentioned book author Tom Zytaruk interviewed now Prime Minister, then opposition party leader, Stephen Harper. Zytaruk asks him a question about a rumor of an offer being made to dying MP Chuck Cadman. Zytaruk's question is garbled, but it becomes clear what they're talking about as the conversation progresses.

What Harper admits should be enough for him and others to be investigated already. He confirms:

• A meeting between two people who were "legitimately representing the party," that being the Tory party, met with Cadman in 2005 to discuss a vote to bring down the Liberal government.

• Harper spoke with "the individuals" before they met with Cadman (he was against their going, he says, saying Cadman's mind was made up).

• The individuals "were convinced there were financial issues." Later in the interview he says that he told the two men not to press Cadman, saying "You have this theory that it's, you know, financial insecurity - um - uh - if that's what you say make that case, but [car starting]..."

• He later says that as he understood it, "The offer to Chuck, it was, that it was only to replace, uh, financial, uh, considerations he might lose due to an election."

• Staying on the two last points, Harper admits that the Tory Party offered Cadman something related to "financial issues," "financial insecurity," and "financial considerations," in exchange for a vote against the Liberals

• Cadman refused. His daughter now says that her father was enraged, and refused to disclose what had happened because he was dying: "All of this, this circus, would have been happening for the last weeks of his life," she said. "What would they want, cameras around his deathbed? He didn't want that. He was dying."

• Can this be more clear? This is clearly an attempted bribe. Harper's shrugging it off as "only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election," which Cadman apparently feared [add], doesn't make this not a bribe attempt. And remember that Harper was and is the head of the party. That he didn't stop it, and didn't report it when he knew it had happened, makes him complicit.

This is unbelievable. Again - why is this not a story?

National Post writer Jonathan Kay says The Cadman scandal is bogus. I've sent him an email with questions. We'll see.






Canadian Scandal Growing

Later update.

Updating this post, we get more today. 


Background: A soon-to-be released book says that in 2005 respected Tory (conservative) Canadian politician Chuck Cadman, who happened to be dying of cancer at the time, was offered by the Tories a life insurance policy in exchange for a key vote against the Liberals. He refused. His widow has backed the story up. Now his daughter is backing it up and with a very compelling story:

The daughter of former MP Chuck Cadman has backed her mother's claim that Conservative officials offered the terminally ill MP "financial considerations" in exchange for his vote.

Jodi Cadman said yesterday her father had not wanted to publicly reveal a Conservative offer of a $1-million life insurance policy because the political fallout would have overwhelmed him. He was near death from skin cancer at the time.

"All of this, this circus, would have been happening for the last weeks of his life," she said in an interview with Canwest News Service. "What would they want, cameras around his deathbed? He didn't want that. He was dying."

Wow. Harper is on tape admitting he knew about about this. Heads are going to roll.