A Few Of Questions On Cadman Affair

According to the "advance copy" of Chuck Cadman's biography, obtained by the CBC, the deceased MP was offered a bribe by two unnamed Conservative party officials, that were trying to persuade Mr. Cadman to vote against the government in a confidence vote:

Cadman, a former Reform and then Canadian Alliance MP, was dying of skin cancer when the crucial vote on a budget amendment came up on May 19, 2005.

The Liberal prime minister at the time, Paul Martin, needed Cadman's vote to stay in power, while Stephen Harper's Conservatives needed the Independent MP's support to force an election.

Two days before the vote, Zytaruk writes, Cadman was visited by two Conservative party representatives — who are not identified — and presented with a list of enticements to rejoin the party before the vote.

A million-dollar life insurance policy was on the list, Zytaruk writes.

"That was on him, so that if he died I'd get the million dollars," Cadman's wife, Dona, is quoted as saying. "There was a few other things thrown in there too."

(Source)

A million dollar policy for a terminally ill man? What underwriter would approve such a policy? According to the book, the offer was made on May 17, 2005. Mr. Cadman died on July 9th. What insurance company would be willing to pay $1M death benefit on a 7 week old policy without launching an investigation on how come such policy was even issued?

Imagine, someone offered you a bribe - a million dollars in $250 bills... But wait a minute, there's no such thing as $250 bills, is there? Well, offering a $1M life insurance policy for a terminally ill man is no different than offering him 4 Tim Horton's bags full of non-existing banknotes. Both are fraudulent and both are more than likely to get anyone involved in jail.

So - shall we believe that some in the Conservative party were creative enough to come up with the whole life insurance policy scheme, but they weren't smart enough to realize that there was absolutely no chance for anyone involved to get away with it? Or maybe we should believe that they thought Mr. Cadman wouldn't be able to see an obvious fraud?

Finally - let's try to remember the political climate back in May of 2005. On May 17 (the same day Mr. Cadman was allegedly approached by the Conservatives), Belinda Stronach crossed the floor to the Liberals. Few days after the vote, Gurmant Grewal claimed that he too was approached by a few senior Liberal MPs; that they were offering him a cabinet position and a Senate appointment for his wife, trying to persuade him to cross the floor. All that was widely discussed in the Parliament and in the media. So if there was an offer made to Mr. Cadman by the Conservatives - why did he choose not only to keep silent about it, but also to deny the existence of such offer in the interview he gave right after the confidence vote?

In the spring of 2005, Stephen Harper sought to vote down the Liberal government, suggesting that following the facts discovered at the Gomery inquiry, the Liberals had lost the moral authority to govern. If there really was a fraudulent life insurance policy offered by the Conservatives to Mr. Cadman, how come he never bothered to remind the Conservatives of their own misdeeds? After all - Mr. Cadman had nothing to lose by then...