“You’d think a film called Whipped would be the kind of thing that you’d watch after the kids are asleep. But Sean Holman’s new documentary didn’t come in the 21st century equivalent of a plain brown package. Still, it provokes certain emotions that might leave you a bit shaky.”
That’s Ottawa Magazine contributing editor Mark Bourrie‘s take on Whipped: the secret world of party discipline.
In an article posted on the publication’s Website, Bourrie - who is the author of the forthcoming book Kill the Messengers: Stephen Harper’s Assault on Your Right to Know - writes that past and present politicians interviewed in the documentary “often saw themselves as no more than trained seals, people who are seen by the leader and those around them as PR flacks who took the party’s message back to the boniness.”
Of course, some elected officials do rebel against that role. For example, Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer - who spoke at the Ottawa premiere of Whipped - and Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber both quit their caucuses to sit as independents.
But, Bourrie notes, until reforms are made to Canada’s political system Hyer and Rathgeber are “marked men, targeted by their former parties as traitors and by other parties who see an opportunity to pick up their riding. It will be up to their voters to decide in the next election whether they want a sentient person or a trained seal to represent them.”
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We all want to know what basically each party stands for-what particular things which make each party different from one another- or there would be no need for any political party whatsoever. For example, I believe in the sanctity of life after birth. I do not see a fertilized egg as a human being. However, I do not believe that anyone should harm a being they plan to carry to term by doing drugs or booze while pregnant. I also believe that everyone should have enough to eat and have access to clean water and decent housing and meaningful education suitable for being able to make a living. To that end, I do not believe in hoarding of wealth in few hands, which always denies the others a decent living (not to mention defiling the environment we all have to share). I believe that all the wealth that ever there was or ever will be was here long before the first humanoid came down from the trees to exploit it. It is up to all of us to share that wealth equally and to make sure it lasts forever. To that end, research, planning, birth control and common sense are required. We need to think and preserve more, and destroy less. So which party do I vote for? I would like a combination of NDP and Green, obviously. The other parties-esp. the Cons-are out for the greedy and the eventual destruction of Mother Earth. So it would be nice if we could vote for the particulars AND the person, and that person would have to obey the desires of the majority. I believe we can survive and thrive within reason and consideration of the limits of Mother Earth. We cannot afford to have political parties obey the wishes of multi-national rich people anymore. We cannot have wars, period. And we cannot keep on having more people than the planet can support, either!