I live in the downtown riding of Toronto Centre, where four of my journalistic colleagues are vying to be my member of Parliament.

While it’s not unusual for journalists to jump into elected politics, it’s unheard of for four of them to be doing it – all for the first time – in the same riding, at the same time.

That’s especially true in a riding that’s shaping up as a major battleground for the federal parties. Both the Liberals and NDP believe they can win the riding. The byelection will be the first test of Liberal strength in the Toronto area since Justin Trudeau became leader.

Importantly, the sheer number of journalists running in Toronto Centre raises key ethical issues about whether journalists have a democratic right to participate in politics at all and what they need to do if they do want to run for elected office.

Just as important is the question of whether journalists make good politicians.

Over the last few weeks, I have occasionally spotted the journalists, all of whom have stopped working in the business for now, greeting voters at open houses, community centres and neighbourhood parades and festivals like veteran politicians.

Linda McQuaig, who is seeking the NDP nomination, wrote a regular opinion column for the Toronto Star while I was this paper’s editorial page editor. And I worked in the same newsroom as John Deverell, who spent 25 years at the Star as a reporter and is now the Green Party’s candidate in the byelection.

The other journalists ultimately wanting my vote are Chrystia Freeland, a former Globe and Mail senior editor and Thomson Reuters columnist who is seeking the Liberal nomination, and former TV journalist Jennifer Hollett, who’s running against McQuaig for the NDP nomination.

On Sunday, the Liberals and New Democrats will hold formal nomination meetings to select their candidates.

The seat became vacant when Liberal MP Bob Rae stepped down in July. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has yet to set a date for the byelection.

Over the years, countless journalists have run for public office. Some have become highly successful politicians; others not so good.

One person who believes journalists make lousy politicians is Harper.

“Politicians know they have to stick to a message,” Harper told Garth Turner, one of his MPs in 2006 who wrote a book about his experiences in Ottawa. “That’s how they are successful. Journalists think they always have to tell the truth,” Turner quoted Harper as saying.

One of the most prominent journalists to fail in recent years was former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who described being a politician as the hardest job he’d ever had.

Media critics have long raged against the idea of reporters and broadcasters entering politics. They contend the journalists surely must have been biased in their news coverage toward their chosen party.

Some in the media have even suggested a “cooling off” period between the time a journalist quits their job and the time they announce they are entering politics to minimize any perception of bias.

In 2010, the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) looked into whether journalists should be allowed to run for office. While journalists should not be forced to take a “vow of political chastity,” the report concluded, journalists do have special responsibilities to their employers, their colleagues and the public.

It urged journalists considering a political career to look at the possibility their political activity might hinder their ability to conduct independent reporting, to inform their bosses of their intentions and publicly declare any real or potential conflicts.

At the Star, our policy guidelines are firm. They state simply: “No member of the editorial department should hold any elected political office, work as an official on any political campaign or write speeches for any political party or official.”

Most Canadian media organizations have similar policies. They are extremely relevant.

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The CAJ report concluded, “As chroniclers of history who help citizens make well-informed choices, working journalists bear the burden of a higher public expectation that they submit personal bias and political view to the demands and disciplines of their work.”

As the report adds, that’s how it should be.