In honour of the wafer waffle making the New York Times, nearly one month after it may or may not have occured, I’ve opened up a poll to crown Canada’s silliest scandal – a scandal or faux-pas that generated way more media attention than it deserved. Voting will be open until Friday evening, at which point the top 2 vote getters will be invited to duke it out over the weekend for the title of Canada’s Silliest Scandal.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions – I’ve narrowed the field down to 17 nominees. While most of these entries are more recent, I prefer to chalk that up to history wisely discarding the silliness from our collective memory, rather than the death spiral of irrelevency Canadian politics now finds itself in.

Wafergate: Stephen Harper may have eaten a cracker. Or not. No one really knows. Yet this story consumed the media’s attention all summer long.

Camcordergate: Yeah, the Liberals really fuddle duddled that one up. But, really, should one bad tape have sunk the coalition and forced the Liberals to forego a proper leadership race?

Startovergate: A reported asks Stephane Dion a poorly worded question with mangled verb tenses. Dion asks for clarification. This showed he was not a leader.

Berniergate: Yes, yes. There were some serious allegations. But, c’mon, would anyone have cared if it wasn’t for a certain low cut dress?

Scantily-clad-womangate: NDP MP Irene Mathyssen catches James Moore looking at somewhat revealing pictures on his lap top. She raised a stink, then sheepishly appologized when Moore explained they were pictures of his girlfriend.

Doangate: The BQ questions the naming of Shane Doan as Team Canada’s captain. And other parties, believing this is a good idea , jump in.

Handshakegate: Stephen Harper shakes his son’s hand, instead of giving him a bear hug on the first day of school. Asshole bloggers have a field day with it.

Strippergate: Anyone want to guess how much media attention this would have gotten had the campaign worker in question had been a teacher, rather than a Romanian Stripper?

Warm comfy furgate: AKA Gurmant Grewalgate. Ahh…the naivete we all felt in 2005, long before before secret tape recordings became routine political news, and before David Emerson made everyone look at floor crossing differently. Sure, offers may have been implied, tapes may have been edited but, really, the whole thing was a tad silly.

Reptiliankitteneatergate: What was clearly a tongue-in-cheek press release calling Dalton McGuinty an evil reptilian kitten eater from another planet became a multi-day story. And people say elections aren’t about issues.

The billion dollar boondogglegate: If nothing else, the opposition deserves credit for branding this one. Only problem is, the “boondoggle” in question wasn’t even remotely close to a billion dollars. Or a million. Try 85 grand. And Jane Stewart’s career went down in flames over something which didn’t even happen on her watch.

Shawinigate: It was undeniably a messy situation, but does anyone besides Conrad Black really think this was worth the obsesive coverage it garnered in the Post?

Tunagate: Brian Mulroney endured dozens of scandals, most of them well deserved. But, if the scandal involves bad tuna and no one ever gets sick from bad tuna…well, that’s a little silly, isn’t it?

Lost luggagegate: An airline loses Joe Clark’s luggage. And, somehow, this made him not suitable to be Prime Minister. Him and everyone else who has ever flown Air Canada.

Footballgate: Robert Stanfield drops a football. Something Randy Moss does a few dozen times a season. Again, this made him not suitable to be Prime Minister.

Fuddle Duddlegate: Trudeau dropped an F-bomb. Everyone knew he dropped an F bomb. And yet, debate swirled over what he’d actually said.

Sexgate: Alberta Premier John Brownlee goes down in defeat over a Berlusconi-esque sex scandal, with his UFA party completely wiped out – one of 3 government changes in the province’s history. Only problem is, most historians have concluded the charges were mostly bogus.