That is a long time.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2011, with 56% of the vote.
Mr. Speaker, my colleague did not ask a question. If he wants to take his supplementary and actually phrase a question, I will be glad to answer it.
Ethics March 31st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal accusations on this matter are false. The Liberals have been changing their story and changing their attack on this. They have been ignoring the facts. There is a simple fact to this case and that is the fact that I put before, that there was no million dollar life insurance offer made to Chuck Cadman.
The Liberals have made the accusation. The Liberals are wrong. The Liberals will regret that they made that accusation outside the House of Commons.
It is not appropriate in this day and age. When we are trying to attract good people to run for public office, we do not do that by falsely smearing people and attacking them and accusing them of crimes. That is what the Liberals have done, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
Ethics March 31st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the truth is that on this matter, it does not frankly matter what we say. The Liberals will continue to ignore the facts. They are ignoring the facts that are on the table. They are ignoring the facts of what Chuck Cadman himself said about what was offered to him. All that was offered to him by Doug Finley and Tom Flanagan on the 17th was an offer to rejoin the Conservative caucus and to run for us in the subsequent campaign.
I understand, again, if the member for York Centre does not want to believe me. That is in fact what Chuck Cadman said. It is his word. He was a man who lived by his word. The member opposite should accept Chuck Cadman's word because it is the truth.
Ethics March 31st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, as we have said a number of times, no financial offer was made to Chuck Cadman.
The Liberals have said that the Prime Minister was involved in a crime and they have suggested this is some kind of a libel chill. This is not true. The Prime Minister has every right to defend himself from false criminal accusations by the Liberals in the House of Commons and outside the House of Commons. He is availing himself of the right to protect himself.
We have been clear and consistent on this issue and we have been straightforward. There was no financial offer made to Chuck Cadman. The offer that was made was the one I described.
I hope my new colleague from Vancouver Quadra will recognize that her constituents expect her to come to the House of Commons and talk about real issues and not smear people with false accusations.
Ethics March 31st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, first, I congratulate the new member for Vancouver Quadra on her election to the House. She is replacing Stephen Owen who was a great member of Parliament. I know she will do her best to continue his legacy as a great member of Parliament.
On the question, the truth is that nothing has changed on this file. We have made the facts of this case very clear. There was no financial offer made to Chuck Cadman. There was no offer of a million dollar life insurance policy. All that was offered was that he return to our caucus, present himself as a Conservative candidate and get re-elected as a Conservative member of Parliament. This is all that was offered.
Ethics March 14th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, no offer was made to Mr. Cadman, except the offer that Mr. Cadman himself talked about, that is, an offer to return to our caucus, to run as a candidate for the Conservative Party and to have our support for his re-election as a Conservative Party candidate. Mr. Cadman himself said so, and his word should be accepted as the truth.
Ethics March 14th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, there is no cover-up; there are only facts. As I said yesterday, I agree with the deputy leader of the opposition. A few days ago, on television, he said that the fundamental question here is whether a financial incentive was offered to a member of the Parliament of Canada to convince him to change his vote. The answer to that question is no.
Ethics March 14th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, again, the accusation is entirely untrue, and as I have said before, the Liberals do not have to take my word for it or that of the Prime Minister. All we ask is that they take the word of Chuck Cadman himself who, again, when he was asked on CTV's Mike Duffy show if we were making any offer that was inappropriate, said that the only offer was an unopposed nomination. Pressed again on the issue by Mike Duffy, Chuck Cadman said, “Yes...that was the only offer on anything that I had from anybody”.
The Liberals can cite Dona Cadman. Dona Cadman has said that she trusts and believes in the Prime Minister of this country. So do Canadians. When this comes to the light of day in law, the Liberals will be sorry for their false accusations.
Ethics March 14th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, it sounds to me like the Liberals do not like that part of law that allows people to sue other people for making libellous accusations against them.
Perhaps I would ask the member for Kitchener Centre a question. Was she outraged when the leader of the Liberal Party in 2005 issued a $400,000 lawsuit against the leader of the Bloc Québécois himself for false accusations that he said were made against him?
The Prime Minister of this country, just like the leader of the Liberal Party, has a right to defend himself, and that is exactly what he is doing.