Like a Rock: The Chuck Cadman Story, could be required reading for anyone who wants to try to understand the current running saga about what Cadman was or was not offered by whom, to vote for or against the Liberals, back in March, 2005.

I have now read the book and talked to Tom Zataruk, the author – a Trinity Western University graduate who, along with a reporter's elegant, yet understated, competence, has a quiet and fairly-deeply-imbedded Christian faith.

As a veteran reporter at Surrey Now, a CanWest community newspaper, he covered Cadman from the time the late MP's son, Jesse, was knifed to death at a bus stop a couple of miles from his home. He followed Chuck's transition from a former rocker with a responsible and technically-sophisticated day job at the Insurance Corporation of BC, into a Reform/Alliance/Conservative/Independent member for the Surrey North riding.

Because of his own faith perceptions, I believe, Zataruk was able to catch the interesting relationship between the Cadmans and their neighbour-pastor Dan Nicholson.

Chuck did not claim to be religious, but he was willing to listen to Dan. One of the last stories in Like a Rock tells of Dan visiting Chuck, at his request, and cautiously but pastorally asking him if there was any reassurance he could offer him about spiritual matters – like forgiveness.

Chuck apparently looked to Dan quizzically and asked him if he thought God would forgive him for voting with the Liberals, that fateful May 19, 2005.

For the record, Dan gave him positive reassurance – not absolution, because in Dan's evangelical tradition, he knew it was not his to give.

*  *  *

Not so incidentally, Dan, who later moved from Surrey to a new pastorate in Abbotsford, later underwent quintuple bypass surgery. So he probably had some time to think about his own mortality, as those who have that kind of surgery are occasionally given to do.

*  *  *

Zataruk's book catches very nicely the nature of Cadman and his work. It speaks movingly of Chuck and Dona weeping together on the steps from their garage into their house, after attending at the hospital the night of Jesse's death.

From there, it traces the various factors that motivated him to get something done about youth violence and crime – something that would bear attention to the victims, as well as the offenders.

The foreword is written by former prime minister Paul Martin. In it, Martin, with a striking absence of irony, says the book should do much to dispel the political cynicism surrounding Cadman's decision to vote with the Liberals.

Irony, I suggest, because, from this corner, it would appear that the story of Dan's and Chuck's last conversation indicates, in a rather playful fashion, that voting with the Liberals was only in small part related to politics. It tends to bear out the view that, no matter what some conservatives might have hoped, Chuck was not going to vote with them that day – both for the sake of his family and in line with his constituents' wishes.

And yet, from that day forward, a conciliation process continued, between Chuck's former party and his supporters in the 2004 election – a process which resulted in Dona, his widow, continuing as the Conservative candidate in Surrey North for the next federal election. Further, Dona continues Chuck's high personal regard and respect for Martin's Conservative prime ministerial successor, Stephen Harper.

*  *  *

Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006). He can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.