Cadman allegedly Offered Money

[Topaz]

After listening to the tape we now know that an OFFER was made, it doesn't matter what the offer was because its against he law for ANY offer. Dona Cadman says today that she could tell by Harper's eyes didn't know about the offer but Harper himself on the tapes says he told the two offering the offer that Cadman wouldn't take it. I think maybe Harper is burning the Cadman phone line or e-mail because she's the only one that can get him out of it. I think James Moore is getting boring with his defense for the Cons and he looks lonely without his laptop!

[M.Dancer]

After listening to the tape we now know that an OFFER was made, it doesn't matter what the offer was because its against he law for ANY offer.

Cite please.

[capricorn]

If he files suit then he can no longer answewr any questions about it .

Exactly. Maybe he prefers to keep the opposition parties pounding away at this in the House of Commons so that Canadians can have a good look at how low they will go by constantly invoking a dead man to gain political points.

Got to say, it could be a good move, but it could also backfire.

How can it backfire? The opposition would have continued hammering at this issue in the House anyway. Harper wants a full retraction and apology or a lawsuit will materialize. Harper seems confident that a court action against the Liberals will vindicate him and the Conservatives of any wrongdoing. The longer the opposition attack him on this issue in the House, the sweeter the victory would be for Harper.

[guyser]

How can it backfire?

If he loses.

[M.Dancer]

If he loses.

With the only credible witness dead and his wife standing beside Harper, I think there's as much chance losing as getting a life insurance policy on a dying man.

[guyser]

With the only credible witness dead and his wife standing beside Harper, I think there's as much chance losing as getting a life insurance policy on a dying man.

.....so you're saying there is a chance ? (in my best LLoyd voice )

[M.Dancer]

.....so you're saying there is a chance ? (in my best LLoyd voice )

Absolutely a chance....eventually even a 5000 to 1 longshot will win the triple crown....

[Who's Doing What?]

The only "facts" we have are cryptic statements from Harper and a bizarre statement from the widow. Anyone who speculates on what "really" happened is engaging in "make believe".

Did you miss Harper's own words?

He knew they were offering Cadman a financial package to offset his lost benifits if he died during an election campaign.

[Who's Doing What?]

It's a lot harder to generate scandal against the Tories than the Liberals. Liberal supporters will have to knock themselves out to make this one stick.

It was much easier for the Tories when they were in opposition. Adscam, Shawinigate...these were REAL scandals!

Offering a financial incentive to garner confidence votes in the HoC is not a scandal?

Does Harper have to sacrifice someone during question period for it to be a "real" scandal?

[Wild Bill]

Offering a financial incentive to garner confidence votes in the HoC is not a scandal?

Does Harper have to sacrifice someone during question period for it to be a "real" scandal?

"Whoa, Belinda! Put the coffee on!" - sung (I think!) by Ian Thomas. Or was it Ray Materek. Anyhow, it was certainly Belinda Stronach!

In life as well as politics the Golden Rule is: "Do unto others as they have done unto you!"

[Who's Doing What?]

3 years ago made many posts defending Paul Martin against claims that he was corrupt because of the sponsership scandal and received many similar comments from tories who assumed I was arguing from a partisen perspective.

I don't think anyone shoud rush to judgement in these kinds of cases - especially when there is no evidence - just hearsay and innuendo.

And a tape. Don't forget the tape.

[Who's Doing What?]

Only if you take the niave view that politicians should be jailed when then engage in political horse trading which invariably includes a financial aspect.

Emerson was worse than Stronach. HE crossed the floor before the ink on the ballots was dry. At the very least his riding should have been put up for election again, since people who were voting for a party and not the local candidate were misrepresented when they thought they were voting for a Liberal.

[thermo]

There was no million dollar offer according to the CPC and Chunk Cadman's own words.

I really hope that your spelling of his name was a mistake here.

[thermo]

Emerson was worse than Stronach. HE crossed the floor before the ink on the ballots was dry. At the very least his riding should have been put up for election again, since people who were voting for a party and not the local candidate were misrepresented when they thought they were voting for a Liberal.

I agree 100% - what he did was fraud imho.

[Wild Bill]

Emerson was worse than Stronach. HE crossed the floor before the ink on the ballots was dry. At the very least his riding should have been put up for election again, since people who were voting for a party and not the local candidate were misrepresented when they thought they were voting for a Liberal.

Absolutely! A pox on ALL their houses!

It's not that the Tories are also dishonest. It's the holier-than-thou hypocrisy of the Liberals over it that is most repugnant!

[Who's Doing What?]

Harper's words do not indict him for what is being alleged, only that something was said, and first off, the Cadman family should not be doing interviews with the media until such time that the facts are known, unless Mrs. Cadman was in the room when the discussion took place, it is all heresay. And...until this is resolved Mrs. Cadman should step aside as a CPC candidate.

Only he admits, that as party leader, he gave the go ahead for others to make financially incentive offers to Cadman.

HE didn't know the details but he ok's it all the same.

[Who's Doing What?]

...

Edited March 3, 2008 by Who's Doing What?

[scribblet]

Dona Cadman's full statement

The Star.Com

Mar 03, 2008 01:44 PM

March 3, 2008

Personal Statement by Dona Cadman

I'm a little bit surprised at the level of reaction to the disclosures in Tom Zytaruk's book and I guess that's probably because it was put to rest in my mind, when I discussed the matter with Stephen Harper, 2 ½ years ago. At that time, I recall specifically asking him if he was aware of a million dollar insurance policy offer, that upset Chuck so much.

He looked me straight in the eyes and told me he had no knowledge of an insurance policy offer. I knew he was telling me the truth; I could see it in his eyes. He said, yes he'd had some discussions with two individuals about asking Chuck to rejoin the party, but he'd told them they were wasting their time trying to convince Chuck.

From that point forward.... I didn't regard it as a "Party" initiative, but rather; the overzealous indiscretion of a couple of individuals.... whose identity, Chuck never revealed to me.

It all comes back to my conversation with the Prime Minister.... 2 ½ years ago. I want to be perfectly clear in that regard. Chuck liked, respected and trusted Stephen Harper. I like, respect and trust Stephen Harper. If I didn't believe in my heart, that he was telling me the truth.... I wouldn't be running as the Conservative Candidate for Surrey North.

Dona Cadman

[Topaz]

Dona Cadman's full statement

The Star.Com

Mar 03, 2008 01:44 PM

March 3, 2008

Personal Statement by Dona Cadman

I'm a little bit surprised at the level of reaction to the disclosures in Tom Zytaruk's book and I guess that's probably because it was put to rest in my mind, when I discussed the matter with Stephen Harper, 2 ½ years ago. At that time, I recall specifically asking him if he was aware of a million dollar insurance policy offer, that upset Chuck so much.

He looked me straight in the eyes and told me he had no knowledge of an insurance policy offer. I knew he was telling me the truth; I could see it in his eyes. He said, yes he'd had some discussions with two individuals about asking Chuck to rejoin the party, but he'd told them they were wasting their time trying to convince Chuck.

From that point forward.... I didn't regard it as a "Party" initiative, but rather; the overzealous indiscretion of a couple of individuals.... whose identity, Chuck never revealed to me.

It all comes back to my conversation with the Prime Minister.... 2 ½ years ago. I want to be perfectly clear in that regard. Chuck liked, respected and trusted Stephen Harper. I like, respect and trust Stephen Harper. If I didn't believe in my heart, that he was telling me the truth.... I wouldn't be running as the Conservative Candidate for Surrey North.

Dona Cadman

On the day the story broke Dona said she had talked to Harper that day about a press release, is this the press release??

[capricorn]

Quote from a CBC article:

Libel lawyer Peter Jacobsen said he didn't think Harper has a case against Dion, Ignatieff and Goodale unless he could prove that they were the individuals who published the comments on the Liberal Party website.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/03/03/harper-libel.html

Is information entered willy-nilly on Liberal.ca? Who approves the posting of information on the websites of political parties? Anyone know?

[Slim MacSquinty]

Wow a scandal out of thin air, read the transcript very carefully, then read Mrs. Cadman's statement, what you will find is that they did not ofer Chuck anything for his vote, they talked to him about re-joining the party. There is no vote buying scandal, but two representatives went to try and get Cadman to become a Tory. Surely they were all aware of the MP insurance and benefit package, and the risk he was running of losing them both. It would have been like the elephant in the room.

Perhaps he was mad at the Tories because they insinuated he was voting just because of the benefit package?

There is nothing to the allegation and Dion should have apologized.

I went to the Liberal web site today, it is full of really foolish allegations and many quotes from Mark Holland (who is an idiot) that make vague insinuations, frankly quite juvenile.

[jdobbin]

From that point forward.... I didn't regard it as a "Party" initiative, but rather; the overzealous indiscretion of a couple of individuals.... whose identity, Chuck never revealed to me.

That overzealous indiscretion might have been against the law. We'll see if the RCMP is able to find out who it was and get sworn statements. Perhaps Harper can be helpful in revealing which Tories would have been in contact with Cadman.

[jdobbin]

Wow a scandal out of thin air, read the transcript very carefully, then read Mrs. Cadman's statement, what you will find is that they did not ofer Chuck anything for his vote, they talked to him about re-joining the party. There is no vote buying scandal, but two representatives went to try and get Cadman to become a Tory. Surely they were all aware of the MP insurance and benefit package, and the risk he was running of losing them both. It would have been like the elephant in the room.

In the words of Dona Cadman, her husband told her about a $1 million dollar policy offer based on voting for the Tories. This would have been illegal if true. At the very least, the RCMP need to investigate.

[eyeball]

So I guess this means Chuck Cadman had no justifiable reason for being pissed off? It looks like its going to come down to whether the judgment of a dead man was a questionable one or not, that's convenient.

Unfortunately the truth cannot be discerned by simply looking into a person's eyes so I don't see how this statement from Dona Cadman settles things. Its entirely possibile that she is easily fooled and that Stephan Harper is a convincing liar. In the absence of hard verifiable facts there's simply no way to know.

The point I think needs to be made is how damaging and costly it is in terms of the money and time that's wasted on unprovable allegations of corruption. It distracts the government from simply doing its job and it undermines our democracy, such as it is, by cultivating deep cynicism amongst the electorate. Perhaps the only to stop all this nonsensical unproductive bickering is to simply legalize "bribery" or "horse trading" or whatever else its called and just shrug off all this wheeling and dealing as the cost of doing politics.

[jdobbin]

Quote from a CBC article:

Is information entered willy-nilly on Liberal.ca? Who approves the posting of information on the websites of political parties? Anyone know?

The hired staff make that decision. So, in essence, the Liberal Party of Canada as a whole. It would be hard to sue people individually unless you were able to show they made the statements independent of the website.