Chuck Cadman's daughter is backing claims her mother has made about alleged enticements the Conservatives offered the late MP as he was dying in 2005.
Jodi Cadman told Â鶹´«Ã½net's Mike Duffy Live that the late Independent MP did indeed tell several of his family members about enticements the Tories had allegedly offered him in 2005 in an effort to influence his vote. Cadman said she believes her father didn't go public with his account of the enticement claims because he wanted to spend his final days peacefully.
Jodi Cadman's account supports her mother Dona's statement to Cadman's biographer about a meeting the Independent MP had with two Conservative representatives two days before an important parliamentary vote in 2005.
Cadman's daughter says her father told her, on his deathbed, about an offer of an insurance policy and other enticements in exchange for his vote on a 2005 budget vote.
"My father told me directly that he had been offered a million-dollar life insurance policy by the Conservatives," Jodi Cadman said.
"He didn't give me any more information than that. I don't have names, dates, where it took place. I wish I did. I wish I had asked him more about it."
Cadman said she believes her father was "offended" by the alleged offer.
But Jodi Cadman said her father didn't explain to her why he turned it down at the time. She has said, however, that he probably didn't blow the whistle on Conservative inducements because he wanted his last days to be peaceful. She has also said her father, who died in July 2005, knew it would be difficult to back up the claims without any evidence.
Cadman said on Mike Duffy Live that her father also told her husband and mother separately about the alleged offer. Cadman said she did not initially want to come forward with the information. She said she's speaking out because people had questioned her mother's veracity.
Meanwhile, a June 2005 radio interview with Chuck Cadman surfaced Friday. In the interview with Vancouver radio station CKNW, Cadman said the Tories had offered him financial support in the days before the crucial budget 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 told CKNW.
Election triggers
Cadman biographer Tom Zytaruk has written about the matter in his forthcoming book, "Like a Rock: The Chuck Cadman Story." Cadman's widow, Dona, told Zytaruk the late MP told her he was angered by an offer from Tory officials, which she claimed included a reference to an insurance policy.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, then opposition leader, was asked by Zytaruk in 2005 whether he knew anything about the allegations that an offer had been made.
"I don't know the details. I know there were discussions," Harper replied in the taped conversation, two months after Cadman's death.
Harper also said the discussions included talk of money.
"The offer to Chuck was that it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election," he told the author, adding that he thought Cadman had made up his mind how he would vote and there was no point trying to sway him.
The prime minister's communications director Sandra Buckler, in an email to The Canadian Press, said the tape 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," said Buckler, referring to the tape, which the publisher of the book is selling for $500 a copy.
Conservatives have suggested the tape may have been tampered with, a charge Zytaruk denied.
The independent MP's vote, had he sided with the Conservatives, would have triggered an election. In the end he voted with the Liberals, preventing a summertime election and keeping Paul Martin's minority government in office.
In an odd twist, some Liberals are suggesting the Cadman affair could now trigger an election. Liberal MP Garth Turner said Friday the Tories need to come up with a proper explanation for what was allegedly 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," Turner said.
Later Friday, Liberal party officials told CP speculation of an election over the claims is "premature.''
Ethics questions
The chair of the parliamentary ethics committee says allegations that Conservative officials offered to bribe Cadman could have serious consequences, and the committee will look into the matter early next week.
Paul Szabo said the committee has received motions from the Liberals, Bloc and NDP asking members to probe allegations by Cadman's wife Dona that her dying husband was offered the insurance policy in exchange for his vote.
The committee will decide on Tuesday whether to look into the issue, Szabo told Canada AM on Friday.
"It's up to the RCMP to determine the veracity of the allegations that are there and whether or not it would warrant an investigation," he said.
But added: "We will deal with that on Tuesday to determine whether the committee should proceed, but we won't be doing any work should the RCMP actually open up a criminal investigation."
If an offer was made, the law was broken, Szabo said.
"Absolutely. It doesn't matter whether you did it or not, if you just made the offer, the attempt, that's equally serious."
If there was even an offer to compensate Cadman for election costs, as Harper said in 2005, there would be ethical considerations, Szabo said.
"That is going to be problematic as well," he said.
"You're talking about financial considerations still for the purpose of inducing a member to do or not do something -- for instance affecting their vote. It's one of the reasons you have to look at it."
Under parliamentary rules, MPs found guilty of "influence pedaling" can lose their seat and be banned from running for five years, and even face financial penalties, Szabo said.
He said reputations are at risk and the ethics committee needs to take action on the Cadman accusations as soon as possible.
"It's one of the reasons I thought we should look into this matter quickly to dispel as many of the elements of the allegations as possible so there wouldn't be any unintended consequences to the good names and reputations of people who may be somehow associated, but wrongly," he said.
The allegations could also end up becoming a police matter. The Liberals have already called on the RCMP to investigate.
Patrick Monahan, the Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, told Â鶹´«Ã½net late Friday afternoon that the allegations, if true, are serious and police will need to conduct a careful investigation, should they decide to proceed. He said that if someone did offer a politician a life insurance policy in an effort to influence a vote that would cross a legal line.
But Monahan was careful to point out, "That's not really consistent with what Mr. Harper seems to be saying on that tape."
CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said it's very likely the ethics committee will call Cadman's widow and daughter to testify on the matter.
"It could also be possible they might even call the prime minister since he seems to be involved in this," Fife said.
"So all of this is up in the air but you can be sure of this, the opposition parties smell blood here, smell scandal, and they're going to take the best advantage of this that they possibly can."
Dona Cadman told Â鶹´«Ã½ on Thursday that she stands by her comments in the book, reiterating that Conservative officials offered rewards to her husband if he were to help bring down the then-minority Liberals.
Asked if she considered the offer a bribe, Cadman, who is now a Conservative candidate in her husband's former Vancouver-area riding of Surrey North, said, "Yes, in a way."
In question period in the House of Commons on Thursday, Harper denied the claims of a possible bribe, saying "There is absolutely no truth (to it)."
But Liberal Leader Stephane Dion accused Harper of authorizing the offer.
With files from The Canadian Press
