Political sex scandals are the norm in the U.S. and Britain, but if you're looking for the last time an incident involving call girls rocked Parliament Hill,you'll have to dig back more than 50 years -- to the Diefenbaker era.

In Washington, Deborah Jeane Palfrey -- the D.C. Madam arrested for running a high-class escort service -- is slowly exposing her entire laundry list of clients.

It's already forced resignations, including Randall Tobias, who stepped down last week as U.S. deputy secretary of state after admitting he'd used the Madam's services for massages -- but not for sex.  Tobias was in charge of the Bush administration's efforts to combat prostitution throughout the world.

Palfrey's 'gals', as she calls them, were working professionals looking to earn some extra money. They included a lieutenant commander in the Navy, a legal secretary at a prominent law firm and a successful real estate agent.

In her defence, Palfrey claims to have run a "sexual fantasy service," saying her gals did not break the law because no sex was involved. But, if she's going down, Palfrey's promising to take her high-profile clients with her.

They allegedly include prominent CEOs, Washington lobbyists and officials at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, reports ABC News, who obtained phone records from Palfrey.

While U.S. President George Bush may be wishing he had veto power to block Palfrey's black book, Gerda Munsinger's list has only ever been partially exposed.

The Munsinger Affair

Way before the sponsorship snooze-fest, the yawn-inducing RCMP pension scandal and the insomnia-curing income trust fiasco was Canada's first major political sex scandal.

It started in the late 1950s, when Munsinger -- a prostitute and Soviet spy from East Germany -- melded her way into Canada's political scene, and into the beds of then associate defence minister Pierre Sevigny and cabinet minister George Hees.

While her time with Hees was just a 'fling', Munsinger did maintain a three-year relationship with Sevigny.

By that point, the RCMP had already grown suspicious of Munsinger, placing a wire tap in her Montreal apartment. Tapes of her and Sevigny were played for former prime minister John Diefenbaker but no action was ever taken.

During one session of evidence examination, Diefenbaker was reportedly startled by a thud in the audio. The Mounties later explained that it was the sound of Sevigny's artificial leg hitting the floor.

No one in the press gallery got wind of the indiscretions until 1966 when a Liberal minister -- whose party was then in power -- returned fire against Conservative taunts by asking in the House of Commons: "What about Monsignor?"

While the MP got the name wrong, it was enough of a lead for then Toronto Daily Star reporter Bob Reguly to track down Munsinger's whereabouts, even though the government said she was dead.

After a trail that led from Montreal to Austria, Reguly eventually located Munsinger in Munich, Germany.

Then, after an earlier phone conversation with Sevigny in which he denied ever knowing Munsinger, Reguly confronted the woman in question at her apartment.

"About 20 minutes after we were talking the phone rang -- remember this was not a listed number -- she answered the phone and I heard her say in English 'Too late, he's already here' and then hung up," Reguly told CTV.ca.

"I said 'Who was that?' and she said 'That was Pierre Sevigny calling from Montreal' warning that if I showed up not to talk to me."

Reguly said Munsinger continued to freely talk that evening, mentioning her involvement with the two cabinet ministers with whom she had been intimate.

"She said that George was a lousy lover, that in the morning -- this is at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa -- that he spent a lot of his time preening in front of the mirror and she said (to him), 'As a lover, you make a great politician'," recalled Reguly.

During their interview, Reguly said Munsinger also took a key and unlocked a bookshelf, pulling out the Canadian Parliamentary Guide.

"She leafed through it and I could see, as I was seated opposite her, that she had in the margins penned comments... I went to sort of borrow it (later) and it was gone."

A few days later, Munsinger admitted to Reguly that she only spoke to him because she thought he'd been sent by a Montreal loan shark to kill her.

Reguly's story hit the newsstands and -- a few years after the Brits salivated over the details of the John Profumo scandal -- Canada had reached another milestone.

"Finally, Canada was in the big leagues, we had our own sex scandal," said Reguly.

Good ol' Boys

So have the boys in Ottawa calmed down since?

"This town has got pages of escort services, mainly to service lonely diplomats and I'm sure there are politicians that use them," said CTV's Chief Political Correspondent Craig Oliver.

Oliver told CTV.ca that it's not worth reporting on unless there is a valid news element.

"If people want to keep their private lives private, they can do that, but any politician who's married or pretends to be a big moralist and then gets nailed going to escort services -- I say, well, too bad."

Reguly, who is now retired, said rumours of sex scandals always existed in Ottawa during his time as a journalist.

"I'd heard rumours of a thing that years ago, when Trudeau was around, there actually was sort-of a whorehouse right in the Parliament buildings, that members could call up and that some of the younger pages were offering their services for a fee," said Reguly.

Oliver said Ottawa is filled with kept secrets but warned that politicians who indulge in extra-curricular activities place themselves in a risky situation.

"I think it's a foolish thing for a politician to do if he's married,' said Oliver. "Because they allow themselves to be very vulnerable, they can be ruined by some person who wants to go public, they could be blackmailed."