The Vancouver Sun has published excerpts from Question Period today when the allegations of bribery of Chuck Cadman were raised by the opposition:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=2a01a5bb-1b7a-4474-86b2-074ef191ef21

The government line is plainly “there were no offers.” Nothing to see here, move along. Peters Politics has a post from May, 2005 that includes the following quote from the Guelph Mercury of May 4, 2005:

“The tense atmosphere was underscored when the Conservatives made a public overture Tuesday to Independent MP Chuck Cadman.

The onetime B.C. Conservative is being guaranteed a nomination in the next election if he rejoins his former party now, said Tory election co-chair John Reynolds.

Cadman has not yet responded to the offer. His vote could be decisive in toppling the Liberal-NDP alliance.”

I guess John Reynolds, according to Harper’s pathetic denials today, was also a bald faced liar. There was at least some sort of offer. The only question now is what was the full deal offered? Does anyone really believe this gang wouldn’t up the ante to toss in a million-dollar insurance policy if that would make the difference to toppling the Martin government?

So, let’s get this straight. According to Reynolds himself, the Tories were already making offers to Cadman by May 4th. That was two weeks prior to the critical vote of May 19th during which Chuck Cadman showed all the integrity his former colleagues lacked. Two weeks. But we’re supposed to believe there were no further offers? Yeah, right.
Then there’s Reynold’s bizarre account of offering Cadman a guaranteed nomination if he played ball. The guy was two months away from his death. An offer could not have been more pointless. C’mon Reynolds, get real, what did you really offer Chuck Cadman? Reynolds, as you may recall, was instrumental in getting Emerson to defect from the Libs before he was even able to take his seat in parliament. Neat trick. No offer there either. Of course not.
Why would Dona Cadman make this allegation if it was groundless? After all, she’s supposedly intending to run as a Conservative candidate. It makes absolutely no sense that she would lie to bring this down on her head for absolutely no good end. There are plenty of people with plenty of reasons to lie about this but that doesn’t include Dona Cadman. I believe her – absolutely. You should too.