Why?

The Conservatives held a press conference today announcing that two experts had ruled the incriminating "Cadman tape" to be "doctored". The two men, both paid by the Conservative party, filed an affidavit in the Ontario Superior Court asserting that the recording in which Stephen Harper admitted to financial offers having been made to Chuck Cadman had been edited by its author.

At first glance, this expert ruling would seem to clear the Prime Minister and vindicate the Tories in this whole "Cadman affair", but in reality, it's not worth much at all. The only thing the experts are saying is that there have been edits to the recording. But this does not mean that the PM's words have been artificially fabricated or moved around on the tape to misrepresent the event as it actually occurred. In fact, the Conservatives have refused to say if any edits were made to the relevant part of the tape in which the Prime Minister talked of "financial considerations". This suggests that there were none.

The affidavits filed by the Conservative "experts" are part of a court injunction to stop the Liberals from using the tape as evidence in their defense against the Prime Minister's defamation suit. This is a common procedure, and we can assume that the Liberals will also have a group of hired "experts" who could very possibly end up claiming the exact opposite of the Conservative "experts".

But all of this raises a simple question: why? Why did the Conservatives choose to bring back the "Cadman affair" long after it had died away by holding a press conference to call in question the value of the tape recording? They could easily have made that argument in court without anyone noticing, but instead, they invite all the media to watch James Moore speak of the "expert" findings, thus catapulting the affair right back into the spotlight.

Daniel Lessard, of Radio-Canada, gave the following answer: "I feel like being cynical by saying that it's a desperate attempt by a desperate party in a desperate Parliament where everyone should go on a holiday because they don't have anything intelligent to say!"

That may be a little too harsh, but on the whole I agree! It's the beginning of summer, people are sick of politics and MPs are ready to take a break. This press conference is irrelevant, and probably just a symptom of the general level of frustration and acrimony on Parliament Hill. I don't think that the Conservative thought about what they were doing, and at the moment, I don't know how much they really care!