James Moore

[Ethics, March 6th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised that my colleague did not have that section of the Criminal Code memorized after sponsorship, but that she had to read it, fair enough.

The only offer made to Chuck Cadman was for him to rejoin the Conservative Party.

However, while I have a brief moment here in the House, I do want to thank my colleague, in spite of her heated words here in question period, which I know is the nature of question period, for demonstrating her confidence by standing down on the budget and letting it pass the other night.

[Ethics, March 6th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the type of offer the Liberals have been talking about from the start, an offer of a $1 million to Chuck Cadman, is not a real accusation. The only offer made to Mr. Cadman was to express our desire to see him rejoin the Conservative Party and to run as a candidate for our party. That is the only offer that was put on the table. Mr. Cadman said so himself.

[Ethics, March 6th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, we are concealing nothing. We are simply saying that there were three things on the table when an offer was made to Mr. Cadman: first, that he join the Conservative Party; second, that he run as a candidate for our party; third, that we would help him win his seat again as a Conservative candidate. That was the offer.

That is my answer, and it is what the Prime Minister, Tom Flanagan, Doug Finley and Chuck Cadman himself said.

[Ethics, March 6th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, we have answered that question already. However, for the benefit of our Bloc Québécois colleagues, I will just say that if Mr. Cadman had said he was going to join the Conservative Party as a member of our caucus, he would automatically have been the candidate in the riding of Surrey North.

I have what he said in English only.

I want to say this very clearly, again. When he was asked by Mike Duffy, “Conservatives were prepared to offer you an unopposed nomination if you would vote with them and also help you with the funding and so on”, Chuck Cadman said, “That was the only offer on anything that I had from anybody”.

[Ethics, March 6th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, that is wrong, wrong, wrong. Conservative Party rules regarding nominations for the 2005 campaign clearly stated that sitting members of the Conservative Party would automatically be candidates for our party.

The opposition party's accusations are therefore completely false. The Liberals are constantly making up scandals to parade in front of Canadians. The fact is that our party agrees with the statements made by Chuck Cadman himself, who said that no such offer was ever made.

[Ethics, March 6th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party is just wrong on this. He does not have to take my word for it. In the Globe and Mail, on page A7, on July 15, 2005, it was reported that Chuck Cadman was in fact planning on running again. The Leader of the Opposition is in fact wrong on this.

What has been demonstrated here by the Liberal Party is the old saying: “If you have the facts, argue the facts; if you have the law, argue the law; if you have neither, pound the table”. The Liberals can pound away. We stand by Chuck Cadman. We stand by the truth.

[Ethics, March 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, there was no offer of a million dollar life insurance policy. To make the argument and to say that is entirely not credible. Chuck Cadman had terminal cancer. He passed away a couple of months later. The idea that such an insurance policy could be gotten is in fact ridiculous. No offer of that kind was made at all. The only offer made to Chuck Cadman was our desire to have him rejoin the Conservative caucus, run as a Conservative candidate and that is the simple fact of the case.

The member for York Centre can try to spin and deflect, but unfortunately, he is operating without any of the facts. We are operating on the word of Chuck Cadman and we know that is as solid as gold.

[Ethics, March 5th, 2008]

Option C, the Liberals, Mr. Speaker.

Global Television again had an interview with Chuck Cadman. All I ask is for the Liberals to believe the words of Chuck Cadman. He was asked, “You had a meeting with the prime minister prior to the vote, did he ever offer you a deal?” “No, absolutely nothing. There was never any deal offered, nothing asked for”. “And the same with Harper?” “Yeah, the same with Harper”.

[Ethics, March 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, there are two things here. First, there was no such offer. Second, the police and the RCMP have their own mandates and are independent of the government. They carry out their mandates independently of our government and every government in this country. The offer my hon. colleague is referring to was never made.

[Ethics, March 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, that is silly. What we have said, I will say again. The Liberals try to avoid the central fact of this. The central fact is obvious and is clear and it is before them. Nothing illegal or inappropriate happened here whatsoever.

All that was expressed was our desire to see Chuck Cadman run as a Conservative, to defeat the Liberal government at the time and to present himself as a Conservative in the subsequent campaign. That is all that was offered to Chuck Cadman.

It is clear that if my colleague has any evidence to the contrary, he would say it outside of the House of Commons, but again he does not have the courage to do so because he does not believe his own story.