HIstory of ethics in leadership

A small story in the papers the other day noted how a would-be Canadian political party leadership contender had to get a court order to have his party follow its own rules with regard to his entry in the race. Meanwhile another story reported that the mullahs in Iran have barred Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running for president of Iran.

The difference, I think, is that Iran doesn't make grandious claims about being "democratic."

The level of petty corruption that attends everything to do with the squalid vote-buying that passes for party leadership selection in Canada strikes me as one of the great under-examined stories of our politics. Really, can an ethical person stomach joining any Canadian political party?

Update, April 27:  Now that Kevin O'Leary is going back from playing a politician to playing a reality show millionaire, the press reports that 259,000 people are eligible to vote in the Conservative leadership "race".  That's 150,000 more than were signed up in January.

Is it plausible that 150,000 individual Canadians decided they really wanted to be part of party politics in Canada in the last three months? How many of these are really bulk votes, bought and paid for by the candidate organizations?