Dona Cadman said Monday she believed Stephen Harper when he told her he didn't know about a million-dollar life insurance policy she alleges the Conservatives offered her late husband, Independent MP Chuck Cadman.

"I recall specifically asking him if he was aware of a million-dollar insurance policy offer that upset Chuck so much," she said in a news release issued Monday.

"He looked me straight in the eyes and told me he had no knowledge of an insurance policy offer," she said, recalling a conversation from more than two years ago. "I knew he was telling me the truth; I could see it in his eyes. He said, yes, he'd had some discussions with two individuals about asking Chuck to rejoin the party, but he'd told them they were wasting their time trying to convince Chuck."

Cadman's statement followed her allegations in a soon-to-be released book that was leaked last week that the Conservatives offered her husband the insurance policy if he voted to bring down the then-Liberal government in May 2005.

Cadman, a B.C. member of Parliament who was sitting as an Independent at the time, was battling cancer and died of it a short time later.

The allegations, which were first made by Dona Cadman in Vancouver journalist Tom Zytaruk's forthcoming book, Like a Rock: The Chuck Cadman Story, have been strongly denied by Harper.

On May 19, 2005, the governing Liberals were facing a crucial vote on a budget amendment. Chuck Cadman's vote would decide if the minority Liberals would survive the confidence vote, or if Harper's Conservatives would force an election.

Cadman voted with the Liberals.

In Monday's news release, Dona Cadman said she didn't regard the matter as a "party" initiative "but rather, the overzealous indiscretion of a couple of individuals … whose identity Chuck never revealed to me."

Cadman said she wouldn't be running as the Conservative candidate in the B.C. riding of Surrey North if she didn't believe Harper.

In the upcoming book, Zytaruk writes that Chuck Cadman was visited by two Conservative party representatives in his office two days before the crucial vote and presented with a list of enticements to side with their party, including an offer of a million-dollar life insurance policy.

The federal Liberals have asked the RCMP to investigate the allegations. They sent a letter to the Mounties on Feb. 28, noting that under the Criminal Code of Canada, it is illegal for anyone to try to influence a member of Parliament by offering financial incentives.