In Canada, do corrupt MPs get jail sentences?

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Karen C

Ah! The Clinton Scandal where one bunch of men criticize someone they envy for doing exactly what they are doing and have done for eons. You mean THAT Clinton Scandal? Where I live it was referred to as the Great American Joke. The State in the States really is a pervert - a peeping Tom and a stalker, isn't it?

chuckles951

If it was an action that qualifies as a criminal offense, you bet they do.

Mathew H

No, the NDP has never been a serious threat to a leading party. The only two parties in this country that have ever won are the Liberals and the Conservatives. No, I think Canadians would just make fun of Harper and, quite possibly be impressed that a man like that could attract more than one woman.

Here we don't tend to view politicians as supermen to the extent folks down South do. So we usually don't really care too much.

And to answer your question, corrupt leaders here don't go to jail, they try to form coalitions.

megapokerw

This is gonna take a lot of explaining, sorry for the long answer.

In Canada no one in government can just appoint someone to a seat. You have to be elected. The prime minister decides when a by-election (an election outside of a regular cross country federal election) is to occur. Some seats can go vacant for weeks or even months at a time. Unlike the states we run what I believe is called a parliamentary system. This means that the powers of the executive branch and legislative branches of government are merged to a large extent within the prime minister where as a President can not also hold a seat in the senate. We have a party system (with multiple parties) and the leader of the party becomes the prime minister if his party takes the most seats. Criminal convictions can occur if a severe misuse of power takes place (but aren't all that frequent). Nothing corupt happened with the ndp per say. There are 4 major parties in Canada that make up parliament. The largest is the Conservative party with 143 seats making its leader Stephen Harper Prime minister. The Liberals have 77, the ndp have 37, the bloc quebecois (which is a seperatist party from the province of quebec) has 49 and there are 2 independents (people with no party affiliation) out of a possible 308. Together the liberals ndp and bloc have 166 seats which means they can prevent the governing conservatives from passing leglisation. What is usually the case in our goverment is that one party generally has more than half (154) seats giving them a majority goverment as it is called. When there is a minority government, more than one party has to work together. What happened recently is the 3 other parties (Liberals/Ndp/Bloc) got together and decided to topple Harper and the conservatives. This would normally trigger another election. This happens when the opposition parties vote down what is called a confidence motion (such as the budget or in this case a thrown speech-a throw back to the british system) which can happen because together, they have more seats than the governing party. However, because we just had an election the governor general (who is the symbolic representative of the queen and who's only real power is to call an election or determine who has enough support in the house to be prime minister in a minority situation), can appoint 1 of the opposition leaders as prime minister if he can garner support of the other opposition parties. Layton (ndp leader) and his party agreed to support Dion (Liberal leader) and his party. Where the controversy comes from, is that Dion was highly unpopular during the election and is leaving politics soon and that they are trying to obtain power through a negotiation rather than an election. This is legal in canada, but not commonly done with 3 parties (the bloc, a separtist party, would have to support them to give them more votes/seats than the conservatives) and so soon after an election. Also, the bloc would support it but they "claim" not to be officially part of the coalition as it is called. It is also controversial since they want ot separate quebec (2nd largest province) to form an independent country. What you might also be referring to in the corupt question about the ndp, is vote splitting. In Canada in the 308 ridings, we have what is called a first past the post sytem, meaning the person with the most votes in a riding (even if it is not more than 50.1 percent) wins. What happens, is the liberals and ndp draw support from similar types of people, and therefore, split thier vote causing the conservatives to win with a smaller percentage of popular support. Example Conservative 5,000 votes, Liberal 3,000 votes and ndp 2500 votes, the conservative candidate for the particular riding would win the seat, even though he did not get more than 50% of the vote. AS a result the conservatives won a lot of seats through vote splitting.

As for clinton scandal type of thing in canada, has not really come up. Might cause a problem during good economic times, but in Canada, it is more about if they can do the job of being prime minister. Not to mention the prime minister needs the supporto of his cabinet to run parliament, and should he abuse his position, could be reduced to a "lowly"backbencher by his own party, although it has not happened before to my knowledge.

MasterPython

After millions of dollars were stolen from Canadians and laundered into the Liberal Party coffers in the least efficient money laundering scheme ever not one elected politician has been charged. They some non elected people in the party took the fall.

I doubt anything will come from a Conservative MP recording and NDP conference call he was accidentally invited to. Mostly because the whole tape where Jack Layton schemed to bring down the government would probably be played in court and become part of the public record.

Kevin M

There have been instances where Canadian politicians have ended up in legal trouble:

- Sen. Eric Berntson (fraud conviction, 2001)
- B.C. premier Gordon Campbell (arrested and fined for drunk driving while on holiday in Hawaii, 2003)
- New Brunswick premier Richard Hatfield (arrested for drug possession in 1984. Later acquitted, but scandal open the rest of his life to scrutiny)

It probably wouldn't surprise many Canadians if a good number of our politicians had fidelity issues (politicians' oversized egos + spouses who often don't stay in the capital + power being the ultimate aphrodisiac = strong temptation to cheat).

Some have been subject to rumours about their private lives, and some have not been completely discreet. One now-retired provincial premier's wife had no sooner moved out when the new woman in his life moved in, leaving no doubt as to the reason for his separation and divorce. Another premier of a socially conservative province used to take advantage of his anonymity south of the border to visit gay bars during business trips to the U.S. But politicians' sex lives seldom makes the news.

K-Mart

Yea they would.

And even if they were just accused and not necessarily convicted they would probably be forced to step down.

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