Did the CBC assume we were going to the polls?

You do have to wonder due to their timing in releasing this story...

Humm... were they perhaps planning to toss this grenade on behalf of their political masters, right in the middle of what was thought to be an imminent election campaign? With their current record of the last while, you do have to wonder.

Of course, futher investigation needs to be made. According to the story though, the PM (then the Leader of the Opposition) already launched an internal party investigation, but found nothing to substaniate the claims. Also, the book quotes Mr. Harper as saying, "Harper is also quoted as saying he told the pair they were wasting their time, and warned them not to push Cadman, saying: "I just, we had all kinds of our guys were calling him and trying to persuade him, but I just had concluded that that's where he stood and respected that."

The Globe & Mail has a much better set of quotes from Mr. Harper, in an excerpt from the book.

More to come, I'm sure.

UPDATE: Commenter "Cool Blue" over at Mike Brock Online made this interesting point...

"By Cool BLue on February 28, 2008 7:16 AM

The CPC has a basic party insurance policy covering anything that may happen while somebody is participating in a party event, I've signed up for it myself when organizing events... the maximum coverage is $1 000 000.

What they may have been talking about was that if he rejoined the CPC, he would then be covered under their general policy."

If that's what's being talked about here, then this is clearly much to do about nothing... most employers have some sort of coverage like this... I know my wife will be able to buy a house if I pop off anytime soon, thanks to my employee death benefits. I'll admit though, I don't have as nice a coverage as that.

UPDATED II: This from CTV's story:

During an appearance on CTV's COUNTDOWN in May 2005, Cadman told Mike Duffy that rumours he had been offered an unopposed nomination in his B.C. riding by Conservative officials, were true.

"The discussions did come up," he admitted on the show. "The talk did come up, yeah."

Cadman said he declined the offer, however.

"That was the only offer on anything that I had from anybody," he added, rebuffing suggestions he made a deal to throw his support behind the Liberals.

"There were no offers on that table up to that point, on anything from anybody."

That quote from Mr. Cadman himself, saying "There were no other offers on that table up to that point". It would lend credence to the comment left on Mike Brock's blog (see "UPDATE" above), as giving him an unopoposed nomination would bring him back into the Party fold, and as such, into the "employee" benefits plan.