Only weeks before she sat beside Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to announce her defection from the Conservatives, Eve Adams sat down with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a last-ditch attempt to stay in his party, CBC News has learned.
Sources tell CBC News Adams met with Harper on Jan. 5 to get his blessing to run for the Conservative nomination in the new riding of Mississauga-Malton, west of Toronto.
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The meeting happened in a hotel room in the Toronto area.
Conservative sources said Adams assured Harper she wanted to get past her previous nomination issues and would bring new members to the party if he let her run.
According to sources, she also assured the prime minister that she and her fiancé, Dimitri Soudas, were finished.
The sources said Harper leaned towards Adams and told her he knew Soudas was sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for her. He then informed her that the party's national council deals with nominations and, with that, the meeting was over.
Soudas, Harper's former communications director, was kicked out as executive director of the Conservative Party in March 2014 for helping Adams in the nomination battle for the riding of Oakville-North Burlington. Soudas had agreed he wouldn't get involved in the race because it gave Adams an unfair advantage.
On Jan. 29, Conservative Party president John Walsh sent a letter to Adams saying she wouldn't be allowed to run for the party in the next election.
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"I communicated clearly that our party takes our nomination rules and procedures seriously, and we made a commitment to run fair and open nominations, and any misconduct from candidates, including caucus members, would not be tolerated," Walsh wrote in a news release.
Sources tell CBC News Soudas helped to broker the deal between Adams and the Liberals.
In a tweet Monday, Soudas said, "Fully support Adams's decision. She is smart, hard working & caring."
Senior Liberals on Monday were saying that Soudas's role in the party will be limited to helping Adams in her campaign in the next federal election.
"To clarify: Soudas will not have a formal role in the LPC but he, like her whole family, is supportive of @MPEveAdams's decision and her run," spokeswoman Kate Purchase tweeted.
A tweet from Gerry Butts, Trudeau's principal adviser, was more direct:
"Conspiracy theories are fun. But @D_Soudas role with LPC is to put up lawn signs on @MPEveAdams campaign. That's it, that's all folks."
In an interview with CBC News last year at the height of the controversy over his departure from the party director job, Soudas said, "I'll rip up any contract that says I can't help my family. I will breach any contract that says I can't help my family."
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