OTTAWA - Five things you may not know about Eve Adams, the controversial Conservative who made a bombshell announcement on Monday that she's defecting to the Liberals:
1. Born Eve Horvat, Adams is the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. She became active in the youth wing of the Conservative party as a teenager. She put her post-secondary school studies on hold at one point after her diabetic father had his legs amputated. "The fact that he simply did not take his diabetes seriously is really what we believe terminated his life in the end," she said in 2013.
2. According to Macleans magazine, the Horvats ran a gas station, pumping fuel and washing windshields in Sudbury, Ont. The family business grew to include stations in southern Ontario, where the family ultimately settled.
3. Perhaps a stickler for high gas station standards, Adams was caught on tape throwing a tantrum at an Ottawa Esso station in late 2013. A Conservative supporter contacted the Prime Minister's Office to complain that Adams had deemed a $6 car wash unsatisfactory and used her car to partially block access to the pumps in protest. "I had never experienced anything like this in 40 years of business," station owner John Newcombe recalled. Adams later apologized.
4. In 2011, Adams — then the parliamentary secretary for Veterans Affairs — was spotted shopping in New York City during Remembrance Day week, an excursion that reportedly upset the PMO. There was another kerfuffle in 2013 when it was reported that in 2011, an election year, Adams' campaign claimed more than $2,500 for child care but also included various beauty products and services, including nail salon visits and whitening toothpaste. Many of the claims were later refused.
5. In the months following the 2011 election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper thought highly enough of Adams to have the newly elected MP escort Prince William and his wife, Kate, around the National War Memorial during their summer visit to Canada.
Follow Lee-Anne Goodman on Twitter @leeanne25
