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The Liberals alleged that Harper knew of this offer and Cadman’s vote against the budget of the Paul Martin government in 2005 would lead to a no-confidence vote that would have brought down the minority Liberals. Cadman would not be running for re-election. In fact he flew to Ottawa to vote in May 2005 shortly after undergoing chemotherapy treatment for melanoma. He ended up voting with the Liberal government, supporting their budget and allowing the party to survive the no-confidence vote tabled after the budget. Cadman died in July of that year.

Harper’s initial claim was for $2.5 million, but later increased it by $1 million for “misappropriation of personality.” He proceeded to sue the Liberal party itself, but initially filed notice of libel against Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, deputy leader Michael Ignatieff and Liberal Party house leader Ralph Goodale over allegations that he knew about the bribe. The criminal code forbids bribing a member of Parliament.

“I have every right, as does my family, to defend our reputation, and the Liberal party will, as I said, come to regret engaging in this illegal and untruthful behaviour,” Harper said at the time.

The Liberals said the lawsuit was a tactic to keep opposition MPs from looking into “alleged improprieties” of the government. It was the first time a sitting prime minister sued the opposition.

In February 2009, after Michael Ignatieff took leadership of the Liberals, the two sides said they had “settled all issues” and agreed the case will be dismissed without costs.

Scheer called Trudeau’s threatened lawsuit “an intimidation tactic” aimed at silencing the Conservatives, who have been demanding a thorough, independent investigation of the affair.

With files from the Canadian Press and Postmedia Network files