What we can learn from the Joe Fontana ordeal

Joe Fontana is resigning as mayor of London, Ontario.

The embattled former Liberal MP was convicted last week for uttering forged documents, fraud and breach of trust in relation to a 2005 incident when he, as a federal cabinet minister, is believed to have billed taxpayers $1,700 for his son's wedding.

"I am taking this step out of respect for the office of the mayor, the people of London and our judicial system," Fontana said in a statement released today.

Fontana, who has maintained his innocence, will hold a press conference on Thursday and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15th.

[ Related: Joe Fontana guilty verdict proves some scandals are still punished in Ontario ]

While it's Fontana's conviction is, well, frustrating and disgusting, Canadians can actually learn a couple of lessons from this whole ordeal.

The first one is that city councils in this country need effective recall legislation.

According to the London Free Press, Fontana — if he wanted to — could have kept his job until sentencing and even beyond that.

"Under Ontario law, a criminal conviction doesn’t disqualify a mayor from continuing to hold office," notes the LFP article.

"If he’s put behind bars for even one day, he’d be automatically disqualified from remaining in the mayor’s chair."

And if he didn't go to jail, then residents could be stuck with a convicted politician.

"There's no recall provision to allow a council to throw one of its members out of office," municipal law expert George Rust D'eye told CBC News.

[ Related: Joe Fontana resigning as London, Ont., mayor in wake of criminal convictions ]

The other lesson in all this is that federal and provincial governments need legislation to ensure corrupt politicians -- those convicted of a crime committed while in office -- don't earn a taxpayer funded pension.

According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Fontana is entitled to an annual MP pension of about $122,000/year.

"Mr. Fontana was convicted of fraud, forgery, and breach of trust while he was a Member of Parliament and a cabinet minister," the CTF's Gregory Thomas told Yahoo Canada News.

"We believe that any MP who steals from taxpayers should lose their Parliamentary pension. We’re urging MPs to pass private member’s bill C-518, the Protecting Taxpayers and Revoking Pensions of Convicted Politicians Act as soon as possible, to try to stop something like this from happening again."

Bill C-518 passed second reading in the House of Commons and is now at committee stage.

We could just be angry about all this -- throwing our collective arms up in the air while calling all elected officials 'crooks.'

Or, we can let our politicians know that we want recall legislation and that we don't want convicted ones to earn a gold-plated pension.

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