July 04, 2007

Top 10 Canadian political scandals. Searching for Charlie the Tuna to post in this thread reminded me of the 1985 Tunagate scandal, one of the reasons why I still won't eat Starkist tuna. It ranks as one of the top 10 Canadian political scandals on the CBC list above, but is also included on wikipedia's more complete list. The Munisinger Affair is one of the more fun ones.

I should add that I briefly lived in St. Andrews in the mid-nineties and the shutdown of the tuna plant following the scandal really hurt the local economy.

posted by sfred 17 years ago
  • Aah, Tunagate. My most vivid memory is when Mulroney showed up for the first league championship game at the Ex -- Dave Stieb was pitching, as I recall. Mulroney was greeted with 15,000 people chanting "tuuuuuuuuu-naaaaaaaa..." It was the first blow in a long, long Tory slide. Back when ministers actually stepped down amid allegations of wrongdoing. Good times, good times...
  • Too bad the f****rs here in the US won't step down. The fishy stink here makes Starkist Charlie smell like roses.
  • i seem to remember the "'Allo Morgenthalier?" cartoon from the Gazette back when I lived in Mtl, but I was young, then.
  • "The Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby." - Jean Drapeau
  • The tunagate scandal was when i learned that there was such a job as a canned tuna fish inspector. I thought they would use some high-tech spectrometer or something but no. The way they do it is this: they open up cans and sniff. Repeat for seven hours a day.
  • Wow, those Canadians really are a wild bunch. Phew.
  • I would expect the burnout rate of tuna can inspectors to be higher than average.
  • I'd be a singing inspector, but I couldn't hold a tuna.
  • Can it.
  • That's not tin the works, Charlie.