Scandal Brewing

We may have a pretty serious scandal brewing in Ottawa; certainly very bizarre.

In a soon to be released biography of the late Independent MP Chuck Cadman who famously kept the Liberals government alive in 2005 by voting for the budget, it is alleged by none other than Mr. Cadman's widow that two Conservative Party officials offered him a 1 million dollar life insurance policy in exchange for voting against the budget. For a man diagnosed with a terminal illness, this was a pretty tempting offer. And just to add another curious twist to it all, Mr. Cadman's widow in currently running in her husband's old riding... for the Conservative Party.

But things get more serious. The CBC has been given this evening a scratchy tape where the unmistakable voice of Stephen Harper is admitting to Cadman's biographer Tom Zytaruk that two party officials had indeed met with Cadman and offered him some sort of money deal.
"The offer to Chuck was that it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election" said Harper.

He doesn't mention anything about a million dollar life insurance policy, but it is nonetheless cash, which is clearly illegal.

So where will this thing go? Nobody knows. It could turn out to be a fabrication, in which case we'd have a second edition of the infamous Gurmant Grewal tapes. Most likely, it will simply disappear and be shelved for lack of evidence and new revelations. If it were to have legs though, it could be a killer to the government.

The big thing is that amazing tape. Steven Harper's voice playing on a scratchy recording and telling a biographer about a money offer to Cadman, making sure to ask beforehand "this is not for publication?" I couldn't have thought of anything more damaging to Mr. Harper at this time; Maybe Stéphane Dion will start believing in god!

Anyhow, regardless of what transpires, there are a few mind-numbing questions that need answering:

-why is Dona Cadman, a Conservative candidate, alleging in a book (and confirming again today) that the Conservative Party tried to bribe her husband? What does she gain?
-how on earth could a life insurance policy been found for a terminally ill man? Was it really a life insurance policy or just a plain money offer?
-how can the Conservative Party deny an allegation coming from one of its own candidates? against a tape recording?
-why did Dona Cadman wait three years to release that information? Was this all planned in advance to try to hurt the Conservative Party?

The affair is all so bizarre. I mean, I'm not a great believers in conspiracies, but just smells so awfully odd. For tomorrow, at least, we'll have to see how Stephen Harper defends himself against his tape recorded admission that money was offered to Chuck Cadman. Things will only keep getting more interesting.