 The Liberal party, at this time the opposition party in Parliament, accused the Conservatives of having made a tacit agreement to give the contract to Hugh Allan in exchange for money.In making such allegations, the Liberals and their allies in the press (in particular, George Brown's newspaper the Globe) presumed that most of the money had been used to bribe voters in the 1872 election.The secret ballot, then considered a novelty, had not yet been introduced in Canada.