List of political scandals in Canada

Federal

Alberta

• Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal - a 1910 scandal that resulted in the resignation of the premier, Alexander Cameron Rutherford
• The Liberal Government over-spending on telephone poles and other un-needed expenses prior to its forced departure from power in 1921
• Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta - a 1928 law that, over a period of four decades, resulted in close to 3,000 young people being classified as "mentally unfit" and without their knowledge or consent were sterilized to prevent them from breeding their "bad blood."
• John Brownlee sex scandal - John Edward Brownlee, Premier of Alberta, sued for the seduction of a young woman and found guilty forcing his resignation
• Dar Heatherington - forced to resign from Lethbridge City Council in 2004 after being convicted of public mischief.
• Alison Redford's expense scandal - forced to resign Premiership in 2014 after multiple expense scandals came to light
• Kamikaze campaign scandal- an investigation into allegations that Jason Kenney orchestrating Jeff Callaway's campaign for the leadership of the United Conservative Party in an attempt to harm Kenney's biggest rival, Brian Jean.

  British Columbia

• Sommers Affair - influence peddling and abuse of privilege on timber licenses by Forest Minister
• Gracie's Finger - gerrymandering in Vancouver-Little Mountain
• Lillooet Cattle Trail - cost overruns, poor design and other scandalous aspects on most expensive provincial infrastructure project in the 19th century
• Solidarity Crisis - crisis was launched by Premier Bill Bennett overstaying his mandate, triggering a constitutional crisis
• Fantasy Gardens - improper sale of property and influence-peddling by Premier Bill Vander Zalm, in connection with Asian gambling lord Tan Yu
• Stephen Rogers - resigned as environment minister after a conflict of interest due to owning shares in a company
• Cliff Michael - resigned from cabinet due to conflict of interest over the sale of some land
• Reid affair - Bill Reid forced to resign after a report showed that he was diverting lottery funds into a company owned by his former campaign manager
• Bud Smith - resigned after tapes and transcripts of him talking disparagingly about a lawyer hired by the opposition NDP to investigate the Reid Affair
• Robin Blencoe - allegations of harassing an office employee
• Phil Gaglardi - improper use of expenses
• British Columbia Resources Investment Corporation - public boondoggle involving publicly distributed and soon-worthless shares of former Crown Corporation
• Bingogate - skimming of charity funds
• Doman Scandal - insider trading; Premier Bill Bennett and his brother Russell James Bennett had trading sanctions imposed against them and Harbanse Singh Doman, and were ordered to pay the British Columbia Securities Commission $1 million to cover the costs of an insider trading case that spanned 11 years
• Coquihalla Highway - cost overruns and graft
• Casinogate - Premier Glen Clark was charged but acquitted of breach of trust in connection with his official duties. Collusion between Global television and the RCMP in trying to incriminate Clark is alleged by many commentators. Dimitros Pilarinos was convicted of providing a benefit to the Premier, and the BC Conflict of Interest Commissioner concluded "Receipt of such a benefit left Mr. Clark, albeit perhaps unwillingly, indebted to Mr. Pilarinos and meant that he might properly be considered to have an interest in seeing Mr. Pilarinos compensated in some way."
• FastCat Fiasco - 1990s construction of a fleet of high speed ferry vessels that ended up being massively over-budget and actually slower than existing ferries
• Gordon Wilson-Judy Tyabji Affair - semi-secret romance between the Opposition Leader and his House Whip leads to their downfall
• BC Legislature Raids - raids on offices of senior political aides in the legislature connected to everything from marijuana grow-ops to allegations of influence peddling and money laundering in the sale of BC Rail to Canadian National.
• Gordon Campbell . Also implicated in Railgate.
• Quick Wins ethnic outreach scandal - 2013 resignation of Minister John Yap and Deputy Chief of Staff for Premier Christy Clark due to use of public servants' time and resources for partisan purposes

  New Brunswick

• Karl Toft - serial pedophile molested over 200 boys while an employee in charge at the government run Kingsclear Youth Training Centre between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s
• Richard Hatfield - premier charged with possession of marijuana in 1984

  Newfoundland and Labrador

• Davis Inlet - In 1992, six unattended children aged between six months and nine years died in a house fire while their parents were drinking at a Valentine's Day dance. In 1993, a video was released to the media of six children in Davis Inlet between the ages of 11 and 14 huffing gasoline in an unheated shack in winter and shouting that they wanted to die. Shamed by the negative publicity and international outcry surrounding the events in 1993, the Canadian government agreed to move the Innu.
• Mount Cashel sex abuse scandal - Canada's largest sexual abuse scandal was disclosed in 1989, resulting in the closure of the facility in 1990.
• Cameron Inquiry - In May 2005 Eastern Health discovered errors in hormone receptor breast cancer test results from a histology lab in St Johns, Newfoundland. After retesting, Eastern Health concluded that 383 patients had received erroneous results. The provincial government then called a judicial inquiry, between November 2007 and October 2008, into Eastern Health's actions.
• Humber Valley Paving scandal - Humber Valley Paving requests the termination of a $19M paving contract in Labrador. The request to cancel the contract is granted. HVP gets paid $12M for road preparations and paving only 20 km out of the 80 km of what was required and have both their $9.5M performance bond and $9.5M labor/materials bond returned without any penalty. Transportation and Works Minister Nick McGrath resigns over the scandal.
• Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project cost overruns - The cost of the Muskrat Falls dam doubled to more than $12.7 billion since it was sanctioned in 2012.
• Ed Martin scandal - In early 2016, Nalcor Energy CEO Ed Martin left the company. Premier Ball and Martin each claim that Martin left under conflicting circumstances.

  Nova Scotia

• The Thornhill Affair- involved Roland Thornhill, who resigned as Deputy Premier in the 1990s after allegations dealing with a debt settlement from 1980 was brought into question.
• The Billy Joe MacLean Affair - MLA Billy Joe MacLean was expelled from the Assembly after Premier John Buchanan's Progressive Conservative government introduced legislation prohibiting anyone from sitting in the assembly who had been convicted of an indictable offence punishable by imprisonment for more than five years. MacLean pleaded guilty to four counts of submitting forged documents - went to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, which upheld Macleans expulsion, but declared the law that prohibited him from running as a candidate to be unconstitutional - MacLean was re-elected in a by-election in 1987. He was subsequently defeated in the 1988 general election by Danny Graham.

  Ontario

• Ontario Bond Scandal - United Farmers of Ontario
• Patti Starr scandal in the late 1980s - illegal use of charitable funds for political campaigns donations
• Ipperwash Crisis - incident involving the shooting death of Dudley George, an unarmed Native activist, by an Ontario Provincial Police officer in 1995 which led to the Ipperwash Inquiry
• Kimberly Rogers - After a welfare fraud conviction, Rogers committed suicide in her Sudbury apartment while under house arrest in 2001, leading to extensive controversy around the Mike Harris government's 1996 welfare reforms, as well as an inquest which made several still-unimplemented recommendations for changes to the system.
• Toronto Computer Leasing Inquiry - judicial inquiry into improper computer leasing contracts made by Toronto's municipal government in 1999
• Walkerton water scandal in 2000
• Hells Angels come to Toronto and are welcomed by Mayor Mel Lastman. 2002.
• Toronto Police Drug Scandal - multiple scandals broke out in early 2004, as a result of internal affairs and RCMP investigations. Allegations of the sale of narcotics, fake search warrants, raid tip-offs and mob gambling debts involved many dozens of Toronto police officers, including former chief William J. McCormack's son, Michael, who was eventually brought up on 23 charges. As a result of the scandal, the plainclothes downtown unit which many of the charged officers worked out of was disbanded. The court cases relating to these charges continue.
• ORNGE - Air Ambulance Scandal - In 2011 Ornge was involved in a controversy regarding executives compensation, including President and CEO Chris Mazza. Mazza went on an indefinite medical leave on 22 December 2011 at the height of the scandal. The Toronto Star uncovered that Mazza was receiving $1.4 million a year while remaining off the sunshine list of public employees earning over $100,000. That salary made him the highest publicly paid official in the province. Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews stated that Mazza's salary was "outrageous, shocking and unacceptable". Ornge Global, Ornge's for-profit division, also received $6.7 million in a contract from Anglo-Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, which is also part of the audit by the provincial auditor general. On 16 February 2012 Ornge formally became the subject of an Ontario Provincial Police investigation for "financial irregularities".
• Ontario power plant scandal - In 2011, plans to construct a gas-fired power plant in an environmentally sensitive area of Mississauga had some residents up in arms. After weeks of continual protest from concerned community activists in Mississauga and Oakville, the Ontario Liberals decided to cancel the gas plants. NDP MPPs claimed the decision was not motivated by environmental concerns but rather political ones.
• Rob Ford crack video scandal - May 2013

  Quebec

• Duplessis Orphans of 1940s through 1960s - Maurice Duplessis government and the Roman Catholic Church.
• Charbonneau Commission enquiry into the Quebec construction industry

  Saskatchewan

• Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan scandals - Scandals that emerged in the 1990s involving Grant Devine's Progressive Conservative government implicating 16 MLAs, with the chief conviction that of Deputy Premier Eric Berntson in 1999.
• Colin Thatcher
• SPUDCO
• GTH scandal - A land purchase that disproportionately benefited businessmen with personal ties to Saskatchewan Party MLA Bill Boyd