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It turns out that the leaders of both the Conservatives and the Liberals were not transparent with party members when they sought the top job.

Justin Trudeau never revealed a history of posing in blackface and brownface costumes. This was only discovered by voters and Liberal candidates during the election campaign and he still won't admit how many times he did it.

This weekend, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer's ethics have come into question after the Globe and Mail revealed that he has been falsely holding himself out as a former insurance broker for many years.

In fact, Scheer worked a clerk at a Saskatchewan company and was never a provincially licensed agent.

As a result, Liberal candidate Marco Mendicino has asked the Saskatchewan superintendent of insurance and the chair of the Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan to conduct an investigation.

Under sections 416 and 417 of the Saskatchewan Insurance Act, no person shall hold himself out as an agent or as a salesman of an agent unless he is licensed.

Section 419 states that agents cannot engage in the insurance brokerage business or hold themselves out as an insurance broker "unless he is specifically authorized by his licence to engage in the insurance brokerage business".

A Conservative spokesperson told CBC News in an email that Scheer "was accredited under the Canadian Association of Insurance Brokers (CAIB) program", but never obtained a broker's licence.

This is a rather unusual explanation.

That's because many people obtain their provincial licensing before going on to obtain a CAIB designation, which can take a substantial amount of time. Many licensed agents do not have this level of industry certification.

There are bigger political questions associated with this story.

In 2017, Scheer barely won the Conservative leadership on the 13th and final ballot after holding himself out as an insurance broker to party members.

Had he admitted that he was merely a clerk, would the runner-up, Max Bernier, be the Conservative leader today?

No wonder Bernier is highlighting Scheer's résumé inflation today over his Twitter feed.

Scheer's campaign manager during his leadership race was Hamish Marshall. He's the West Vancouver—raised digital strategist and former Rebel Media director who's managing the party's national campaign.

For that matter, it's questionable whether Trudeau would have been elected leader of the Liberals had he been transparent about his blackface and brownface pantomime while in his teens and 20s.

If this had been disclosed earlier, perhaps former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae might have run for the permanent job.

Both Scheer and Trudeau were not straight with party members.

Now, their candidates have to explain all of this on the doorstep after making significant or huge sacrifices to run for public office.

Scheer and Trudeau owe their candidates more than apologies for failing to fess up to what any prospective candidate ought to do.

They owe it to their parties to resign as leader on election night should they not win enough seats to form a government.

Would Scheer have approved anyone else to run if they had inflated their professional credentials?

Would Trudeau have approved anyone else to run if they had twice violated the Conflict of Interest Act, been accused of groping in his 20s, and worn blackface makeup as a teen and young man and wore brownface makeup as a teacher?

Not bloody likely.

No wonder so many Canadians are sick and tired of politicians.