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I studied political science and philosophy at the University of Ottawa. I knew going into my undergraduate program that these fields attract a certain kind of person — the sort you’re imagining right now? Yes, that’s the one. And so it was no surprise to me when our debates would last for hours, days or even weeks.

I remember one question in particular that provoked deep disagreement. In a moral philosophy class we were asked: Why do good people turn bad? Or, to add some nuance: Why do good people do bad things?

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These are age-old questions. All sorts of people in all sorts of places ask them. Even children ask them. It’s easy (and lazy) to answer: “because none of us is perfect.” The truth of the matter is that there are surely many reasons why decent human beings do ghastly things. But one sort of reason stands out as particularly interesting — and relevant right now.

In the case of Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright — and the rest of the crew whose names and faces we’re going to become more familiar with in the days to come — it seems that the latter, by all accounts a stand-up guy, was betrayed by the calling he seems to have dedicated himself to in good faith: politics. Or, to be more precise, the office he joined: the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).