Harper drops Cadman libel lawsuit against Liberals

Actualy I was going to say we now know what the price was for supporting the budget, frees up Liberal party cash, and gives them the ability to get a loan, as oppose to facing millions in legal bills.

That occurred to me as well.

Oh, there can be little doubt that this was the quid to the pro quo. 

What do you say to people, would still vote for such a self serving party, at the expense of Canadians?

Won't even bother mentioning those who vote CONservative, because they are just plain delusional. Well, I suppose that those who vote Liberal are too, but I would say they are either of the self serving type, or gullible.

absolutely correct.

Anybody who would vote Liberal or Tory must be delusional, self serving or gullible and that is giving them the benefit of the doubt.

If this was the price was for supporting the budget, the Liberals sold out cheap again. That lawsuit was a pretty sure loser, so Harper would have dropped it anyway.

Perhaps we are going to see another little goody for the Liberals benefit?

Harper sued the Liberals for $2.5 million in damages, to which he later added another $1 million claim for injunctive relief (whatever that is; I'm getting this from the Liberal Party 2007 Financial Statements (PDF)).

People have assumed that the large amounts were intended to intimidate the Liberals both on the legal front and the financial front (given their precarious state at the time).  I also wonder if it wasn't designed to scare off potential lenders or drive up the interest rate they'd have to pay to finance a campaign.

You're right that the case now looks to have been a loser for them, but if the Libs couldn't afford to defend it, or had to divert resources from other matters to do so, then it accomplished something for the Conservatives, don't you think?  (Although, you're the lawyer, not me, Wilf!)  The Conservatives sure applied a lot of spin after they got that partial report from the American tape expert, to try and force a settlement on the Libs.

Or another possibility is that Harper simply realized it was a loser and wanted to drop it.

Oh sure, but that's not nearly so much fun now is it, genstrike ;-)

I have to agree that [ultimate] loser or not, pursuing the case was of value to the Conservatives.

It didn't necessarily have to be a quid pro quo for the Libs voting with the government- more like a demand that dropping the suit would be a minimum good faith gesture.

Or to put it another way: they knew they couldn't expect to get a significant concession from Harper, but they should get something out of this, so....

What do you say to people in the midst of chaotic economic dowmturn who are so easily swayed by such obvious and cheap theatrics? I don't know. But it sure helps to sustain my deep seated cynicism.

That voter preferences flow back to the Liberals from the Conservatives hardly seems a surprise.