Despite being at the centre of one of Canada's biggest political scandals ever, Charles (Chuck) Guite isn't that well-known a figure.

Nor is Guite an easy figure to get to know, even second-hand: Ran Quail, the now-retired deputy minister of public works and Guite's former supervisor, said, "no, no thank you" when asked by CTV.ca if he had a few minutes to talk about him.

One thing that is clear is he's known to have a fiesty streak. Guite went after a CTV cameraman while on vacation in Arizona this winter, throwing the TV camera to the ground when approached for an interview.

In his 2002 secret testimony about the sponsorship scandal, he used some rather aggressive language that belied his air force loadmaster background, talking about being "at war" with Canada's "enemies" -- the separatists.

He also admitted to "bending" but not breaking rules surrounding the purchasing of advertising, particularly in Quebec.

Guite lives with his second wife Lucile in a two-storey house about 20 minutes east of Parliament Hill in a quiet suburban Ottawa neighborhood. He reportedly likes fishing and beer.

Born in Dugas, Que. on the Gaspe peninsula, Guite did a short stint in the Canadian forces before joining the public service. He drew a government paycheque of some sort or the other for just over three decades.

Apparently a gregarious, chatty, can-do guy in most circumstances, he stood out in Ottawa. In the 1980s, he became the head of the government's advertising branch.

Guite would routinely wine and dine advertisers, arguing that it never influenced him when it came time to dishing out contracts.

"There's nothing wrong with wining and dining, certainly in that industry," he told The Globe and Mail in 2002.

"It's show biz. ... That doesn't mean that because you buy me a steak and a half a bottle of wine at Hy's, it's going to influence my professional opinion. No way."

According to the Globe and Mail's John Ibbitson, one source told him Guite was known for steering work towards Tory-friendly ad firms during the Brian Mulroney years.

When the Liberals took power in 1993, Nova Scotia MP David Dingwall got the nod from then-prime minister Jean Chretien as minister of public works, minister of supply and services and minister responsible the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

Dingwall was known as a partisan politician, and he got in the habit of dealing directly with Guite on advertising matters.

When Dingwall became health minister in 1996, he was replaced by Diane Marleau as public works minister. Guite told Marleau on her first day on the job that he would be reporting directly to her.

The normal course of things in government is that cabinet ministers set strategic direction for a department. The deputy minister actually administers the department and its programs. As such, there is usually little one-on-one contact between a cabinet minister and a lower-level bureaucrat.

In the course of his testimony to the Commons public accounts committee, Dingwall said he couldn't really remember meeting Guite.

However, Guite said he started bending the rules in 1995 during the Quebec sovereignty referendum - when Dingwall was still in charge of minister of public works. But Dingwall testified he couldn't remember any rule-bending or breaking.

Dingwall's statement is at odds with the committee testimony of Allan Cutler, a long-time civil servant who meticulously documented all the abuses and irregularities he noted while working at public works in the area of issuing advertising contracts. At the time Guite was responsible for determining which firms got the work. Cutler says he saw problems as early as November, 1994.

Cutler didn't have very pleasant memories of Guite, who constantly barked at him using his last name ("he's ex-military," explained one supervisor about Guite's brusque, almost arrogant style).

Guite pushed Cutler out of a job after Cutler started raising the issue of contract irregularities and other related problems. Guite hinted he was acting with ministerial authority. Cutler's union got involved and saved his job; he wound up being shunted to another area and sworn to secrecy.

In any event, despite the best efforts of Guite and other committed federalists, the Quebec sovereigntists came within 50,000 votes of winning the 1995 referendum. That shocked the federal government.

In September of 1997, Chretien and his Quebec lieutenant Alfonso Gagliano, created the sponsorship program to fight sovereignty by raising the federal government's profile in Quebec.

But they didn't create a program in the conventional sense; they added $19 million to the public works budget for "communications priorities."

The administration of this money was handled by the Communications Coordination Services Branch, headed by ... Chuck Guite! From 1997 until he retired in 1999 Guite had full signing authority over the $50 million sponsorship program.

Although Gagliano testified to the Commons public accounts committee he only met with Guite three or four times per year, other testimony has them meeting monthly if not more often.

Quail, the deputy minister over this period, testified that he was essentially shut out of the sponsorship file, with Gagliano communicating directly with Guite.

Guite left the government in 1999. He worked for a time as a lobbyist for ad firms. He was replaced by Pierre Tremblay, a former staffer in Gagliano's office.

Irregularities with the sponsorship file initially appeared in a 2000 internal audit. Auditor General Sheila Fraser took a first look at the sponsorship issue in 2002. Her bombshell report came out on Feb. 10, 2004.

It found that of $250 million spent on the sponsorship program between 1997 and 2002 (former public works minister Ralph Goodale froze the program that year; Martin killed it as one of his first acts upon becoming prime minister last December), about $100 million went to Liberal-friendly ad firms for work of little or no value.

One Montreal ad executive has been criminally charged, and more charges against various individuals may follow in the coming weeks.

Guite's testimony is seen as key to unravelling the entire sponsorship mess. In 2002, he claimed to meet with Gagliano weekly if not more often, but he was vague on the issue of even higher-level political direction. He cited a secrecy oath, an obligation which has since been lifted.

Dennis Mills, a Toronto Liberal MP who leaked Guite's 2002 testimony, claimed it showed Guite was essentially running the show without political direction.

Testimony this week from Isabelle Roy, a former aide to Gagliano, had the minister making some recommendations on which projects should be funded.

With all the conflicting stories, Guite is being seen "as this glass of nitroglycerin: ... if you push him the wrong way, he just might go off," Mike Duffy told CTV Newsnet.

Opposition MPs would like to see him finger Paul Martin over contract irregularities with Earnscliffe, a lobbying firm with close ties to the prime minister.

Liberal opponents of Martin would like to see the prime minister damaged, and Liberal partisans would like to see Guite "carry the can for everything," Duffy said.

Some Liberal MPs are planning on attacking Guite's credibility. "They do so at their own risk. This is a guy who knows where the bodies are buried," he said.