In comparison to our southern neighbours, Canadian politics has been plagued by few scandals. However, the biggest on in Canadian history happened under the watch of John A. Macdonald, during his first stint as prime minister – of course, in true Canadian fashion, he was redeemed and went on to serve another decade in power, post-scandal.

The Pacific Scandal, as it is known, did cause JAM to resign in 1873, leading to the first Liberal government in Canada. In a punchline, JAM’s conservative government traded political favours and the rights to build the cross-country railroad in exchange for $350,000 for election funds, a sum of money equivalent to over $6 million today, making it the largest scandal in terms of money on Canadian soil.

Okay so the downlow – In the late 1860s and early 1870s, JAM campaigned on a promise of confederation. A known expansionist and colonizer, JAM wanted to build a railroad from coast to coast, bringing the western territories (British Columbia) into the Canadian commonwealth and only July 20, 1871, BC became the sixth province in Canada. People were clamouring to get involved with the railroad, voicing various opinions on where it should go and how it should be built. One guy who wanted desperately wanted to get involved was Sir Hugh Allan, a Montreal-based business tycoon. So Macdonald and his cohorts worked alongside Allan and his cohorts to conjure a plan – in exchange for $343,000, Macdonald promised Allan the contract to build the Pacific Railway. Allan, however, had some shady investors – and by shady I mean American.

In Canadian politics during this time, there were some strong anti-American sentiments and the desire to keep the railroad from dipping south is what drove construction through the uncharted and rugged BC mountain ranges. This was to be an all-Canadian railway, free of American influence. So when it was discovered that Allan had used American-back funds in his deal with Macdonald, it made the scandal that much more repugnant to Canadians at the time.

News of the scandal broke on July 4, 1873, when the Montreal Herald, and Toronto Globe both ran headlines dedicated to the “Pacific Railway Intrigue”. Over the course of the month, more details about the scandal began to emerge, including the fact that JAM had sent a telegram to John Abbott, Allan’s lawyer (and third prime minister of Canada!!…but more on that later) requesting more money.

Telegram: Macdonald to Abbott at St. Anne’s, Aug. 26,1872, Toronto: “I must have another ten thousand; will be the last time of calling; do not fail me; answer today.”

In the summer of 1873, the Pacific Scandal on the tips of everyone tongues, and in the fabulous words of Pierre Berton: “with crisis swirling around him, Macdonald took to the bottle and vanished from sight.” He spent so much time in reclusion during the height of the scandal that summer that in early August, the Montreal Witness reported a rumour that he had flung himself into the St. Lawrence river, an action that obviously proved the government’s guilt.

However, JAM’s government didn’t dissolve until November, when it was debated in Parliament. On Monday, November 3, 1873, Parliament was packed to hear a verbal duel between Macdonald and his political rival, Edward Blake. JAM’s speech, according to all records, was mesmerizing, and even the left-leaning publications at the time, such as the Toronto Globe, said it was "extraordinary". Some credited JAM’s rousing speech to the straight gin the pageboys were pouring into his glasses “at regular intervals”, according to Pierre Berton’s book, The National Dream. Apparently each of the pageboys thought that the other was pouring water while he alone was responsible for the gin. However, Berton wrote, “Macdonald was driven by another, more powerful stimulation. He was fighting with his back to the wall for his career; only he could salvage it.”

Despite his rousing speech and his desperation to save his political career – and, by proxy, the national railroad – JAM saw he had lost the trust of the people. He had four counts against him: personal corruption, selling the railway to American interests, granting corrupt and improper concessions and “having obtained money from a suspicious source and having applied it to illegitimate purposes”. While he was only convicted of the fourth charge, it was made worse and more hypercritical by the fact that he was Minister of Justice at the time. JAM resigned on November 5, 1873, resulting in the rise of the first Liberal government in Canada, led by Alexander Mackenzie. Under Mackenzie rule, the Pacific Railway lay mostly neglected and it wasn’t completed until after JAM returned to power, in 1885.

The Pacific Scandal was the first and arguably the most drastic scandal in Canadian politics – there hasn’t been one to cause the downfall of the government since. But that doesn’t mean it has been scandal free. The CBC ranks the Pacific Scandal as the top political scandal in Canadian history - however, this ranking was done in 2010, before the Duffy Scandal in which Senator Mike Duffy, along with three other senators, was investigated for claiming living and travel expenses from the Senate. In my memory, this scandal caused the most hubbub in recent years, and it was only over $90,000, which was ultimately repaid. This is peanuts compared to the $350,000 (or $6,885,000) of the Pacific Scandal.

While researching this, I cam across some other hair-raising scandals stemming from Ottawa. Most notable was the Hospital Document Scandal, in which Francis Fox (a name worth of Frank Underwood's regime) was forced to resign from his post as Solicitor General in 1978 after he was discovered to have helped his lover get an abortion. Fox signed the name of lover's husband on the hospital documents in order to procure the abortion. Like John A. Macdonald, Fox returned to politics after resigning, returning to cabinet as Minister of Communications.

Maybe we do have more trivial scandals than our neighbours to the south. Instead of arguing about Benghazi or Stormy Daniels, Canadian pundits get to comment on #ElbowGate, in which current prime minister Justin Trudeau elbowed two members of opposition parities in the House of Commons. Or my personal favourite, #FartGate, where MP Michelle Remple was accused of using "unparliamentary language" in the House of Commons for passionately using the word "fart" in one of her speeches. Her accuser? None other than Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, proving that May doesn't like any kind of gas emissions (...hehe).

In all, John Macdonald might be the most complex man to ever sit in the prime ministers office. While his accomplishments, such as the confederation of Canada and the completion of a national railway, can't be ignored, he also left us with an institution that impoverished First Nations peoples for decades and racist sentiments that can still be felt throughout our country. Boy did he ever leave us one complicated legacy.