10 Problems Only People From London Ontario Will Understand

5. Our Last Mayor Got Kicked Out For Paying For A Wedding

It doesn't happen that often where a politician is forced to resign due to some sort of poor decision, but in the last decade or so it seems to have happened more than ever. We had our own corrupt politician in London recently. It was for a crime that seems silly and laughable. Joe Fontana is the man's name. He worked for the Canadian parliament for nearly 20 years until 2006. In 2010, at the age of 60 he became mayor of London. Most people liked him. He was able to get some things done, but like most politicians it's always difficult to make everybody happy. His run as mayor ended in 2014 because he was found guilty of a charge of spending $1,700 of taxpayers money in 2005 (when he worked for the federal government as a Cabinet Minister) on his son's wedding. Fontana plead not guilty, tried to fight it and lost. Keep in mind that Fontana was making great money for most of his life as a politician. An amount like $1,700 should have been nothing to him, yet he still did it. Nine years after that stupid decision he was found guilty of three charges: breach of public trust, fraud under $5,000 and uttering a forged document. Soon after that he was forced to step down as the mayor. A politician being forced to resign is never a good thing, but for us in London it made us something of a laughingstock because of how silly this whole thing was.