What I learned from my foray into politics: Linda McQuaig

Interesting piece in the Star by Linda McQuaig about her run for Parliament:
"The most memorable moment of the 2015 federal election may be the release of a surveillance video capturing a candidate urinating into a stranger’s coffee cup.
"That episode comes to mind, oddly, as I think of what I learned during my recent two-year foray into electoral politics. The coffee cup incident was part of what became a common theme in that campaign — the “outing” of candidates who said or did anything that deviated even slightly from the party’s image or messaging.
" Of course, failure to distinguish between a coffee cup and a toilet is more than a slight deviation, and that particular candidate (a Conservative) was appropriately sacked.
" But it strikes me that the iron hand of party discipline — by which all three of our major political parties keep tight control on their messaging — can also have the effect of limiting debate and discouraging independent thinking, to the detriment of our democratic system."
The whole column