TheTigerMaster
Superstar
No it's not a slippery slope. Anyone with a criminal code conviction should be barred from serving office. There is no slope. If you are not a criminal, you can run, if you are, you can't.
Unfortunately our legal system isn't perfect and we've had some pretty f*cked up laws in the past.
Furthermore, committing a criminal code offence doesn't mean that somebody is too rotten to hold public office. A Justice I happen to know has a close friend who was busted on a very serious robbery charge back when he was a teenager. He's not straightened out his life and has become an excellent lawyer and member of the community. And in the opinion of the Justice I was talking to, his friend very likely to become a Justice in the future.
I would hate if a guy like that wasn't able to run for public office. Yes he made a horrible mistake. But past mistakes doesn't mean that the individual is a bad person unworthy of public office.