Former Prime Minister Paul Martin has expressed his personal "sorrow" to David Oliver, the one-time Liberal candidate he dumped during the last election amidst bribery claims.
It has since been revealed that those accusations - levelled by Oliver's NDP rival Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson and encouraged by the NDP party brass - were not true.
The federal New Democrats have since issued their own public apology - and paid a "substantial" financial settlement - to settle a lawsuit filed by Oliver, who ran in Abbotsford, B.C.
However, Oliver has said he wanted to hear a similar apology from Martin and the federal Liberal party for being quick to dump him without checking themselves the truth of the NDP claims.
Martin removed Oliver as the party's flag-bearer when the allegations were first levelled in the final weeks before the Jan. 23, 2006 vote.
"I have zero tolerance for that kind of thing, I acted, and that person is no longer a candidate for the Liberal party," Martin said at the time.
But on Monday, Martin called Oliver to say he was pleased that the NDP had admitted its fault in the political dust-up. "He also express(ed) his sorrow that Mr. Oliver had suffered as a result of those allegations," a source said.
No public statement was issued.
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