David Daniel Stupich (5 December 1921 – 8 February 2006) was a member of the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia () is the deliberative assembly of the Legislature of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The other component of the Legislature is the lieutenant governor of British Columbi ...

from 1963 to 1969 and from 1972 to 1988, and a member of the

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from 1988 to 1993. Stupich was born in

Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city of about 100,000 on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. "The Harbour City" was previously known as the "Hub City", which was attributed to its original layout design with streets radiating fr ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

to a coal miner. He served five years in the

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. After the war, he used his veteran's grant to get a degree in agriculture at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

. He then became a chicken farmer and studied at night to become a Chartered Accountant. He donated his spare time to doing books for local service clubs.

Provincial politics

His first political campaign was an unsuccessful bid to become a member of the

in 1949. He was the provincial

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party candidate for the

Nanaimo and the Islands Nanaimo is a former provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada, in use until 2024. Demographics Geography The riding contains most of the city of Nanaimo plus the uninhabited Five Finger Isla ...

riding. He was also an unsuccessful candidate in the 1952 and 1953 provincial elections. He entered provincial politics by winning the

riding in the 1963 British Columbia election. He was re-elected in the 1966 provincial election when the riding name changed to simply Nanaimo, but lost the riding to Social Credit candidate

Frank Ney Frank James Ney (May 12, 1918 – November 24, 1992) was a mayor of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, serving for twenty-one years. Ney also served a term as a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. He was known for his o ...

in the 1969 election. In the 1972 provincial election, Stupich defeated Ney and returned to the Legislature, and remained a member until 1988. As Minister of Agriculture between 1972 and 1975, he introduced the Agricultural Land Reserve bill, which saved thousands of acres of farm land from the paver. He also served as British Columbia's Minister of Finance from October to December 1975.

Federal politics

Stupich then entered federal politics and was elected in the 1988 federal election at the

Nanaimo—Cowichan Nanaimo—Cowichan is a former federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, which was represented in the House of Commons of Canada between 1988 and 2015. It was located on Vancouver Island. Demographics Geography It included, tog ...

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for the

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. He served in the

34th Canadian Parliament The 34th Canadian Parliament was in session from December 12, 1988, until September 8, 1993. The membership was set by the 1988 federal election on November 21, 1988, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it w ...

but lost to Bob Ringma of the Reform Party in the 1993 federal election.

Bingogate

Stupich was the central figure in a scandal known as Bingogate. In the late 1950s, Stupich set up and controlled the Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society (NCHS), which raised funds on behalf of the NDP. But after a tip that something was amiss from the head of the Nanaimo Commonwealth Bingo Association, the RCMP launched an investigation. It found Stupich ran kickback schemes in which donations to charities were refunded to NCHS. In 1999, Stupich, then 77, faced 64 charges, including theft, fraud, forgery and breach of trust. He pleaded guilty that year to fraud and running an illegal lottery, involving the misappropriation of about $1 million from the NCHS. He was sentenced to two years, serving it on electronic monitoring at his daughter's home in Nanaimo. Related charges against Stupich's partner Elizabeth Marlow and daughter Marjorie Boggis were stayed as part of a complex plea bargain. Even though he was personally uninvolved, then-Premier

Mike Harcourt Michael Franklin Harcourt Officer of the Order of Canada, OC (born January 6, 1943) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 30th premier of British Columbia from 1991 to 1996, and before that as the 34th List of mayors of Vancouver ...

resigned as a result of the scandal. Stupich died in 2006 at Dufferin Place, a long-term care facility in Nanaimo.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stupich, David 1921 births 2006 deaths British Columbia New Democratic Party MLAs British Columbia political scandals Canadian accountants Canadian fraudsters Canadian people of Croatian descent Canadian politicians convicted of crimes Farmers from British Columbia Ministers of finance of British Columbia Members of the Executive Council of British Columbia Members of the House of Commons of Canada from British Columbia New Democratic Party MPs People from Nanaimo Politicians convicted of fraud Royal Canadian Air Force officers University of British Columbia alumni 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada Corruption in Canada 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia