Less than 24 hours before the hotly-contested federal budget showdown, a Conservative MP said he and his MP wife have been offered plum patronage posts in exchange for their sitting out the vote.
At a hastily-convened scrum on Parliament Hill Wednesday evening, British Columbia MP Gurmant Grewal said he's been made such offers before, but this time is different.
"Last time when I was made an offer, I didn't have any evidence," he said, insisting that this time he has an audio recording of the offer from Liberal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and the prime minister's chief of staff, Tim Murphy.
"I was approached early this week by Ujjal Dosanjh and asked to abstain or vote with the government on the budget vote,'' Grewal explained.
"In exchange, I was given an understanding that I would be rewarded in some fashion.''
The offer was made not only to him, Grewal added, but also to his Conservative MP wife Nina Grewal.
Three or four other MPs were said to be the target of similar negotiations, Grewal added.
"At no time did I have any intention of accepting these offers," he said. "I entered these discussions to determine the level to which the Liberal party and Paul Martin were willing to sink to save their government."
Despite the three-time MP's insistence, reaction from the Liberals was swift and unequivocal.
"This is not what happened,'' Martin's director of communications Scott Reid told The Canadian Press. "(Grewal) asked for a post and was told no.''
Dosanjh counters
A short while later, Dosanjh convened reporters to give his own account of what transpired.
Dosanjh said he was approached on Saturday night by a mutual friend who said the Grewals would "cross the floor provided she gets a senate seat and he gets a cabinet post."
The minister said the two met over beer and pizza on Tuesday night, at which point he dismissed the suggestion as inappropriate and directed Grewal to take up the matter of switching political allegiance with Tim Murphy.
"I'm actually offended he couldn't take no for an answer," Dosanjh added, insisting that his party never offered any Conservative MPs anything to lure them over.
Grewal's allegation comes the day after Ontario MP Belinda Stronach left the Conservative benches to sit at the Liberal cabinet table.
Both Stronach and the Liberals have since denied suggestions she, or any other MPs, are being lured across the floor with promises of plum jobs or patronage appointments.
With files from The Canadian Press
