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For the first time, Mr. Carson reveals how Mr. Flaherty, who died last month after becoming one of the country’s most successful finance ministers, nearly didn’t get a chance to earn that reputation.

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Harper was quickly “disabused” of the idea by his staff, and instead the prime minister served notice of a libel suit against the opposition Liberals and their then-leader, Stephane Dion, over the Cadman affair.

Details of the behind-scenes discussions are contained in 14 Days, a book by Bruce Carson, who served as a senior aide to Harper from 2004 to 2009.

The brief crisis occurred in February, 2008. Cadman was a former Canadian Alliance MP who had turned Independent.

Cadman had been the deciding vote in a 2005 non-confidence motion in the House of Commons that kept Paul Martin’s Liberals in power — to the dismay of Harper’s opposition party. Cadman died of skin cancer two months after the vote.

Later, when Harper himself had been prime minister for two years, a political firestorm erupted as it was revealed a Vancouver journalist was about to publish a book claiming two senior members of the Conservative team had offered Cadman a $1-million life insurance policy to bring down the Liberals back in 2005.

The book’s author quoted Harper from a brief interview that suggested that, as opposition leader, Harper knew about an offer by his team.

When the story broke in 2008, Harper’s office immediately released a statement categorically denying the allegation, saying that at “no time” had Harper directed a party official to make “any kind of financial arrangement with Chuck Cadman.”