Just how much help did Prime Minister Stephen Harper get when he sang The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” at an Ottawa arts gala with cellist Yo-Yo Ma earlier this month?

Canadian musician and author Dave Bidini suspects Harper may have had more help than he let on — a pre-recording that allowed him to lip-synch, perhaps. “It was just one of those things that hit me right away,” says Bidini, frontman of BidiniBand (he also played in the now-defunct Rheostatics). Bidini says that in video of the performance, Harper’s vocal volume doesn’t change, even when he pulls away from the mic. “I have no proof at all, I’m just suspicious.”

Bidini also questions Harper’s piano playing that night. “You never see his hands. If they were really going to do this, and if he really is an accomplished piano player, don’t you kind of sell that a little bit? ...There’s something about it that just doesn’t ring true.”

Harper’s office says the performance was legit — no pre-recording involved. “The only time I’ve heard that rumour is from media, so I don’t know where it’s coming from, but it’s absolutely not true,” says Harper spokesperson Andrew MacDougall. “That was him in his glory.”

Local musician Pat McGannon says the performance didn’t look fake to him. “The orchestra players behind him were all kind of laughing,” says McGannon, pianist and singer in the Dino Martinis. “It seemed very real, and in real time. If he was lip-synching, how could you rehearse those guys behind him laughing?”

When Yo-Yo Ma played at U.S. President Obama’s January inauguration, his quartet’s performance was pre-recorded. The “wicked cold” that day made a pre-recording necessary, Ma said afterwards.