What makes (or rather, breaks) a politician?

Here is the story of focus:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/sex-scandal-leaves-void-in-race-for-toronto-mayor/article1463228/

Here's the moral of the story:

Want to make a contribution?  Not if you have a personal life!

Toronto mayoral candidate Adam Giambrone was well in the running to be Toronto's next mayor, until word got leaked that he had a year long relationship with a 19 year old woman, behind his girlfriend's back (not wife, girlfriend).

I'm not here to argue that what he did was okay.  Nor am I even here to argue that he was the one to vote for.

But he was someone to vote for.  And now he isn't - After the bad press and scorn, he stepped down.

This week the people of Toronto decided to oust a political candidate based on a scratch on an irrelevant record.  Apparently we care so much about how people live their lives, that we won't let anyone attempt to take on the role of a large public figure unless they live the way we want them to.

We all remember a similar scandal happening with Bill Clinton.  But his choices in that situation were not a reflection on his (very capable) ability to run a country.  If we start pruning our candidates based on their ability to never make a social mistake, we're left with a small handful.

And here I thought we lived in a progressively thinking country.

This "reason" that Giambrone had to actually step down from running is no different.  It had nothing to do with his ability as a politician, but people made a massive fuss about it anyways.  And that was downright stupid.

Downright stupid.