THE BLUE SHAFT MESSAGE RECONSIDERED

It just hit me that the Premier raised the Chuck Cadman issue while he was lambasting the Prime Minister at the Board of Trade meeting which was nationally televised. I thought bringing Buddy the Puffin along was a little over the top but perhaps that was to distract us from the fact that he delivered some really interesting comments about the Prime Minister and the trust factor that have nothing to do with the broken $11 billion promise to Newfoundland and Labrador.

A message way to toxic for any Liberal candidate to communicate was delivered by the Progressive Conservative Premier of this province live to millions of Canadians. It cuts to the Conservatives key issue of trust. People are not solidly sold on the answers provided by Harper, they leave a lingering doubt. That doubt was a scab that William's was only to glad to rip off when he said:

"There is nothing Harper will not do in order to win a majority government... This is a party who purportedly offered a terminally ill MP a life insurance policy to get his vote. How low can you go?"

Purportedly is an interesting choice of words that will have Harpers lawyers squirming. It is an adjective and means reputed or claimed; alleged.

The reference was to an allegation, flatly denied by Harper, that Conservative officials offered an insurance package in 2005 to MP Chuck Cadman, then dying of cancer, to cast a vote that would defeat the then-Liberal government.

Lets no forget that one of the reasons they won the last election was anger at the Liberals in regards to the advertising scandal. It is an issue the Conservatives had hoped to tie up with the court challenge. Yet, here they are faced with it again on national television and than in the hundreds of news reports in papers and broadcasts across the country on the next day. All asking the question, what did the PM really know, can he be trusted? What kind of people would purportedly taunt a man on his deathbed. Lets face it everyone knew he was terminal, he may not have lived to win the next election so reintegration into the Conservative Party would not have been worth discussing.

Harper launched a $2.5 million libel suit against the Liberals for repeatedly alleging he knew of an attempt by Conservative officials to bribe Cadman in 2005. Cadman's widow Dona - a Conservative candidate in her husband's old B.C. riding of Surrey North - says her dying husband told her of a bribe attempt.

She quotes her husband telling her that two unidentified Conservative representatives offered him a $1-million life insurance policy if he would vote with the Conservatives in a May 19, 2005 vote of confidence that could have toppled the minority Liberal government. Dona Cadman has publicly confirmed her late husband's statements; her daughter Jodi and son-in-law Mark have also publicly said he told them separately of the offer.

It was an interesting delivery of a campaign Easter Egg to a national audience, which may have more impact than previously thought.