![Neorhino](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Neorhino.gif)
The Rhinoceros Party (sometimes referred to in English as the Second Rhinoceros Party), officially the Parti Rhinocéros Party, is a Canadian federal-level
political party. It was known as neorhino.ca until 2010, when the party changed its name, registering a new party logo. It was created in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
on May 21, 2006, and recognized by
Elections Canada
Elections Canada (french: Élections Canada)The agency operates and brands itself as Elections Canada, its legal title is Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (). is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering Canadian federal electio ...
as being eligible for registration on August 16, 2007, and an official political party on August 23, 2007. It is the successor to the Rhinoceros Party of Canada.
The party was founded by
François "Yo" Gourd, who was involved with the original incarnation of the First Rhinoceros Party. He has said that he named the new party (then under the name "neorhino") for the Rhinoceros Party and for
Neo, the ''
Matrix
Matrix most commonly refers to:
* ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise
** ''The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film
** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchis ...
'' character. The party is led by Sébastien Côrriveau (who used the names "Sébastien CôRhino Côrriveau" and "Sébastien CoRhino" when running in the 2015 and 2019 federal elections, respectively).
It promises, like its predecessor, not to keep any of its promises if elected.
Rhinoceros Party of Canada (1963–1993)
The Rhinoceros Party (french: Parti Rhinocéros) was a registered
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in Canada from the 1960s to the 1990s. Operating within the tradition of political
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
, the Rhinoceros Party's basic credo, their so-called primal promise, was "a promise to keep none of our promises". They then promised outlandishly impossible schemes designed to amuse and entertain the voting public.
The Rhinos were started in 1963 by
Jacques Ferron
Jacques Ferron (January 20, 1921 – April 22, 1985) was a Canadian physician and author.
Jacques Ferron was born in Louiseville, Quebec, the son of Joseph-Alphonse Ferron and Adrienne Caron. On March 5, 1931 his mother died. He attended Collè ...
, "Éminence de la Grande Corne du parti Rhinocéros". In the 1970s, a group of artists joined the party and created a comedic
political platform to contest the federal election. Ferron (1979), poet
Gaston Miron
Gaston Miron (; 8 January 1928 – 14 December 1996) was an important poet, writer, and editor of Quebec's Quiet Revolution. His classic ''L'homme rapaillé'' (partly translated as ''The March to Love: Selected Poems of Gaston Miron'', whose ...
(1972) and singer
Michel Rivard (1980) ran against
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada
The prime mini ...
in his Montreal seat.
The party claimed to be the spiritual descendants of
Cacareco
Cacareco (1954-1962) was a female black rhinoceros exhibited in Brazilian zoos. She is known for receiving many votes in the 1958 São Paulo city council elections as a form of protest vote. Electoral officials did not accept Cacareco's candidacy, ...
, a Brazilian
rhinoceros
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
who was
"elected" member of
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
's
city council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
in 1958, and listed
Cornelius the First, a rhinoceros from the
Granby Zoo
The Granby Zoo (french: Le Zoo de Granby) is a zoo in Granby, Quebec and is one of Quebec's major tourist attractions.
It was founded in 1953 by the mayor of Granby at the time, Pierre-Horace Boivin. There are currently more than 1,800 differen ...
, east of Montreal, as its leader. It declared that the rhinoceros was an appropriate symbol for a political party since politicians, by nature, are: "thick-skinned, slow-moving, dim-witted, can move fast as hell when in danger, and have large, hairy horns growing out of the middle of their faces".
Some members of the Rhino party would call themselves Marxist-Lennonist, a parody of the factional split between the
Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada (french: Parti communiste du Canada) is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1921 under conditions of illegality. Although it does not currently have any parliamentary representation, the party's can ...
and the
Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
The Communist Party of Canada (french: Parti communiste du Canada) is a List of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada, founded in 1921 under conditions of illegality. Although it does not currently have any p ...
, although the Rhinoceros Party meant the term in reference to
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
and
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
.
The party used as its logo
a woodcut of a rhinoceros by
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...
, with the words ''D'une mare à l'autre'' (a French translation of Canada's
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
motto ''a mari usque ad mare'', playing on the word ''mare'', which means ''pond'' in French) at the top.
Policies and politics
In addition to the national platform promises released by the party leadership, individual candidates also had considerable freedom to campaign on their own ideas and slogans. Bryan Gold of the Rhinoceros Party described the party
platform
Platform may refer to:
Technology
* Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run
* Platform game, a genre of video games
* Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models
* Weapons platform, a system or ...
as two feet high and made of wood: "My platform is the one I'm standing on". A candidate named Ted "not too" Sharp ran in
Flora MacDonald
Flora MacDonald ( Gaelic: ''Fionnghal nic Dhòmhnaill'', 1722 - 5 March 1790) was a member of Clan Macdonald of Sleat, best known for helping Charles Edward Stuart evade government troops after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. Her famil ...
's
Kingston and the Islands
Kingston and the Islands (french: Kingston et les Îles) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1968.
It covers part of the city of Kingston, Ontario and the sparse ...
riding with the campaign slogan "
Fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...
, not
flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''.
E ...
", promising to give fauna equal representation.
He also took a stand on abortion (promising, if elected, never to have an abortion) and capital punishment: "If it was good enough for my grandfather, then it's good enough for me". To strengthen Canada's military, Sharp planned to tow Antarctica north to the Arctic Circle: "Once we have Antarctica, we'll control all of the world's cold. If another Cold War starts, we'll be unbeatable".
In the
1988 election, the Rhinoceros Party ran a candidate named John Turner in the same riding as
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
leader
John Turner
John Napier Wyndham Turner (June 7, 1929September 19, 2020) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Canada from June to September 1984. He served as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and leader of t ...
, and received 760 votes.
Penny Hoar, a safe sex activist, distributed condoms in Toronto while running under the slogan: "Politicians screw you — protect yourself".
1979 campaign
*Government:
**The
Queen of Canada
The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional Canadian federalism, federal structure and Westminster system, Westminster-style Parliamentar ...
would be seated in
Buckingham, Quebec.
**Rather than awarding money as prizes in the lottery, the winners would be appointed to the
Senate of Canada
The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.
The Senate is modelled after the B ...
.
**Rather than
patriate the constitution by bringing it to Canada, as proposed by
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada
The prime mini ...
, the Rhinoceros Party pledged to bring Great Britain home and make it Canada's eleventh province.
*Energy:
**Building one
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
plant per household, including monthly distributions of lead underwear to Canadians. Indoor lighting would then be provided by radioactive citizens.
**Burning all the standing barns in Canada to provide energy, under the slogan ''Burn a barn for Britain''.
*Gender issues:
**
Alimony
Alimony, also called aliment (Scotland), maintenance (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand), spousal support (U.S., Canada) and spouse maintenance (Australia), is a legal obligation on a person to provide financial suppo ...
payments would go directly to the federal government, and responsibility for withholding those payments would fall upon the federal government.
**Men would be allowed to work as prostitutes,
wet nurse
A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, or if she is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblings", and in some cu ...
s, secretaries and receptionists.
1984 campaign
*Economy
**The Rhinoceros Party pledged to eliminate small businesses, and replace them with very small businesses, having less than one employee.
**Candidate Graham Ashley, standing in
Ottawa-Vanier, pledged to take Canada off the
Gold Standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...
, and implement a Snow Standard, which would improve the economy until the summer.
*Public works
**Candidate Stardust the Magician promised to put a roof on
Olympic Stadium
''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...
, using only a $25-million handkerchief.
Other campaigns
Other platform promises of the Rhinoceros Party included:
* Repealing the
law of gravity
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...
* Providing higher education by building taller schools
* Instituting English, French and illiteracy as Canada's three official languages
* Tearing down the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
so that Albertans could see the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
sunset
* Eliminating unemployment by abolishing Statistics Canada, thereby eliminating the bureaucrats that measure unemployment.
* Making Montreal the
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
of North America by damming the
St. Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...
* Abolishing the environment because it's too hard to keep clean and it takes up so much space
* Annexing the United States, which would take its place as the third territory in Canada's backyard (after the Yukon and the Northwest Territories—Nunavut did not yet exist), in order to eliminate foreign control of Canada's natural resources
* Ending crime by abolishing all laws
* To provide more parking in the Maritimes by paving the
Bay of Fundy
The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is the hi ...
, and to create the world's largest parking by paving the province of Manitoba
* Turning Montreal's
Saint Catherine Street
Sainte-Catherine Street (french: rue Sainte-Catherine) () is the primary commercial artery of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It crosses the central business district from west to east, beginning at the corner of Claremont Avenue and de ...
into the world's longest bowling alley
* Amending Canada's Freedom of Information Act: "Nothing is free anymore; Canadians should have to pay for their information".
* Making the Canadian climate more temperate by tapping into the natural resource of hot air in Ottawa.
* Storing nuclear waste in the Senate: "After all, we've been storing political waste there for years".
* Adopting the British system of
driving on the left
Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...
; this was to be gradually phased in over five years with large trucks and tractors first, then buses, eventually including small cars, and bicycles and wheelchairs last.
* Selling the
Senate of Canada
The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.
The Senate is modelled after the B ...
at an antique auction in California
[From the campaign literature of Judi Skuce, candidate for The Beaches, in the 1979 election.]
* Putting the national debt on
Visa
Visa most commonly refers to:
*Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company
** Visa Debit card issued by the above company
** Visa Electron, a debit card
** Visa Plus, an interbank network
*Travel visa, a document that allows ...
* Declaring war on Belgium because a Belgian cartoon character,
Tintin
Tintin or Tin Tin may refer to:
''The Adventures of Tintin''
* ''The Adventures of Tintin'', a comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé
** Tintin (character), a fictional character in the series
** ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (film), 2011, ...
, killed a rhinoceros in one of the cartoons
* Offering to call off the proposed Belgium-Canada war if Belgium delivered a case of mussels and a case of Belgian beer to Rhinoceros "Hindquarters" in Montreal (the
Belgian Embassy in Ottawa ''did'', in fact, do this)
* Painting Canada's coastal sea limits in watercolour so that Canadian fish would know where they were at all times
* Banning
guns and butter
In macroeconomics, the guns versus butter model is an example of a simple production–possibility frontier. It demonstrates the relationship between a nation's investment in Military budget, defense and ''civilian goods''. The "guns or butter" m ...
, since both kill
* Banning lousy Canadian winters
* Building a bridge spanning the country, from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland.
[Dr. Robinson, ''Introductory Canadian Politics'']
* Making the
Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...
one way only.
* Changing Canada's currency to bubble gum, so it could be inflated or deflated at will.
* Donating a free rhinoceros to every aspiring artist in Canada
* Counting the
Thousand Islands
The Thousand Islands (french: Mille-Îles) constitute a North American archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada–US border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for abo ...
to see if the Americans have stolen any
* Knocking down the Rocky Mountains and building giant bicycle paths sloping downhill in both directions, so Canadians could coast from coast to coast.
The Rhino Party also declared that, should they somehow actually win an election, they would immediately dissolve and force a second election: "We Rhinos think that elections are so much fun, we want to hold them all the time". They also declared victory after one election, claiming all candidates were Rhinoceroses, whether they knew or acknowledged it: thick-skinned, short-sighted, mean-tempered, etc.
Notable candidates
Michel Rivard once went on television (during free air time given to political parties) and stated: "I have but two things to say to you: Celery and Sidewalk. Thank you, good night".
A British Columbia splinter group proposed running a professional
dominatrix
A dominatrix (; ) or femdom is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily limit the genders of her submissive partners. Dominatrices are known for inflic ...
for the position of
party whip
A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology ...
, renaming "British Columbia" to "La La Land", moving the provincial capital, and merging with the
Progressive Conservative Party so as "not to split the silly vote".
Although not recognized in the United States, former baseball pitcher
Bill Lee ran for President of the United States in 1988 on the Rhinoceros Party ticket.
In the
2019 Canadian federal election
The 2019 Canadian federal election was held on October 21, 2019. Member of Parliament (Canada), Members of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons were elected to the 43rd Canadian Parliament. In keeping with the Fixed election dates in ...
, the Rhinoceros Party ran a candidate named Maxime Bernier in the riding of
Beauce Beauce may refer to:
* Beauce, France, a natural region in northern France
* Beaucé, a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, Brittany, France
* Beauce, Quebec, an historical and cultural region of Canada
** Beauce (electoral district), a fed ...
against the incumbent, unrelated
Maxime Bernier
Maxime Bernier (born January 18, 1963) is a Canadian politician who is the founder and leader of the People's Party of Canada (PPC). Formerly a member of the Conservative Party, Bernier left the caucus in 2018 to form the PPC. He was the member ...
, leader of the
People's Party of Canada
The People's Party of Canada (french: Parti populaire du Canada, PPC) is a right-wing populist federal political party in Canada. The party was formed by Maxime Bernier in September 2018, shortly after his resignation from the Conservative Pa ...
. Neither candidate won, with both being defeated by Conservative Party candidate
Richard Lehoux
Richard Lehoux (born 1956) is a Canadian politician who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Beauce since 2019, as a member of the Conservative Party. Prior to his election to the House of Commons, Lehoux was the mayor of Saint-Elz ...
.
Electoral record
The Rhinoceros Party never succeeded in winning a seat in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
. In the
1984 federal election, however, the party won the fourth-largest number of votes, after the three main political parties, but ahead of several well-established minor parties. Rhino candidates sometimes came in second in certain
ridings, humiliating traditional Canadian parties in the process. In the
1980 federal election, for instance, the Rhinoceros party nominated a professional clown/comedian named Sonia "Chatouille" Côté ("chatouille" means "Tickles" in French) in the
Laurier riding in Montréal. Côté came in second place, after the successful
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
candidate, but ahead of both other major parties: the third place
New Democrat
New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as cultural ...
, and the fourth-place Progressive Conservative candidate. Chatouille received almost twice as many votes as the PC candidate.
Early in the party's history, when it was mainly composed of French-speaking Québécois, they chose their only unilingual anglophone party member as their official translator.
Electoral results
Note:
(1) The Rhinoceros Party ran 12 candidates in the 1972 election, but was not recognized as a registered party by Elections Canada, and therefore its candidates were listed as independents. (Source: ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', October 31, 1972.)
1993 abstention and subsequent dissolution
The party abstained from the
1993 federal election while they questioned the constitutionality of new rules that required the party to run candidates in at least 50 ridings at a cost of $1,000 per candidature. On September 23, 1993, Canada's
Chief Electoral Officer,
Jean-Pierre Kingsley
Jean-Pierre Kingsley (born July 12, 1943) is a Canadian civil servant and businessman who served as the president and CEO of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). He was the chief electoral officer of Elections Canada befor ...
, refused to accept the party's abstention and ordered the removal of the Rhinoceros Party from the Registry of Canadian Political Parties, effectively eliminating them from the Canadian political system. Kingsley also directed the party's official agent, Charlie (le Concierge) McKenzie, to liquidate all party assets and return any revenues to the Receiver General of Canada. On instructions from the party, McKenzie refused. After two years of threatening letters, Ottawa refused to prosecute McKenzie, who now claims to hold the distinction of being Canada's "least-wanted
fugitive
A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...
".
In 2001, Brian "Godzilla" Salmi, who received his nickname because of the
Godzilla
is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film ''Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produc ...
suit he wore while campaigning, tried to revive the Rhinoceros Party to contest the
British Columbia provincial election. While they pulled some pranks that earned some media coverage, only two of its candidates (Liar Liar in
Vancouver-Mount Pleasant
Vancouver-Mount Pleasant is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. It was one of only two electoral districts to return an NDP MLA in the 2001 election when the NDP was nearly wiped off the e ...
and Helvis in
Vancouver-Burrard
Vancouver-Burrard was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. It first appeared on the hustings in the 1933 general election and included the neighbourhoods of Kitsilano and Fairview. This ver ...
) appeared on the ballots, as the party claimed the $1000 candidate registration fee was a financial hardship. Unregistered candidates included
Geoff Berner
Geoff Berner (born 1971) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and musician from Vancouver.
Musical career
Berner originally studied piano in his youth. At a party, somebody asked him why he did not play the accordion. As a result, he began learn ...
, who received national wire service coverage for promising "cocaine and whores to potential investors". The party disbanded shortly thereafter.
Successors
François Gourd
François "Yo" Gourd is a Canadian political figure and entertainer, who has been involved in the Rhinoceros Party of Canada and the entartistes, two satirical political movements."Pied snipers". ''The Gazette'', January 31, 1999. He was also the ...
, a prominent Rhino, later started another political movement, the
entartistes
The entartistes were a Canadian satirical political group, active in the late 1990s and early 2000s, whose members threw cream pies at political and cultural figures whom the group deemed to be in need of public embarrassment."Pied snipers". ''Mon ...
, who attracted attention in the 1990s by planting cream pies in the faces of various Canadian politicians.
["Pied snipers". '']The Gazette
The Gazette (stylized as the GazettE), formerly known as , is a Japanese visual kei Rock music, rock band, formed in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa in early 2002.''Shoxx'' Vol 106 June 2007 pg 40-45 The band is currently signed to Sony Music Recor ...
'', January 31, 1999. In 2006, he led a group that set up
Neorhino.ca in an attempt to recapture the Rhinoceros Party spirit, and ran as a Neorhino candidate in the
2007 Outremont by-election.
Other Rhinoceros Party members founded the
Parti citron
The Lemon Party of Canada (') was a frivolous political party, frivolous Canada, Canadian political party which has operated on a federal level, and provincially in Quebec. The party was registered on January 8, 1987 by then-leader Denis R. Pate ...
(Lemon Party), which attempted to bring a similar perspective to provincial politics in Quebec.
After the party's dissolution, a number of independent election candidates informally claimed the Rhinoceros Party label even though the party itself no longer existed. There were also a number of unsuccessful attempts to revive the Rhinos as a legally incorporated political party, though this was not fully achieved until ''Neorhino.ca''.
Neorhino.ca
On August 7, 2007, Brian Salmi, then-president of the Rhinoceros Party, announced a $50-million lawsuit contesting an election reform law that had stripped his party of its registered status in 1993.
Legally changing his name to Sa Tan, he had planned to run under the Rhino banner in the September 2007 by-election. However, a previous law from 1993 stated that registered parties must run candidates in at least 50 ridings, at a cost of $1,000 per riding, to keep their status. In protest of the new law, the party planned to abstain from the election. Canada's then-chief electoral officer,
Jean-Pierre Kingsley
Jean-Pierre Kingsley (born July 12, 1943) is a Canadian civil servant and businessman who served as the president and CEO of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). He was the chief electoral officer of Elections Canada befor ...
, rejected the abstention and ordered the party removed from the registry of Canadian political parties. The lawsuit was filed as a result of the removal from the national party registry by Mr. Kingsley. Since Salmi had legally changed his name, the lawsuit was filed as ''Sa Tan vs. Her Majesty The Queen''.
The lawsuit was dropped after the ruling of the chief electoral officer was reversed in a new law passed in 2004 that said a party only had to run one candidate in a federal election or federal by-election to be considered registered.
Electoral record
To date, candidates of Neorhino.ca and the Rhinoceros Party have not recorded any electoral victories. Before the Neorhino.ca candidates that stood for the ridings of
Outremont
Outremont is an affluent residential borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It consists entirely of the former city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec. The neighbourhood is inhabited largely by fran ...
and
Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot
Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot (formerly known as Saint-Hyacinthe and St. Hyacinthe—Bagot) is a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1935. It is located in Quebec, C ...
in the
2007 federal by-elections, Neorhino.ca and the Rhinoceros Party before them had not fielded a candidate since Bryan Gold's failed bid to win a 1990 by-election in the
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
electoral district of
Beauséjour.
Neorhino.ca candidates did not win any seats in the 2007 by-elections, the
2008 federal election, or the
2011 federal election.
2007/2008 by-elections
2008 federal election
2009 by-elections
Rhinoceros Party
The party changed from neorhino.ca to its new formal name of the Rhinoceros Party in mid-2010. It also registered a new logo with Elections Canada.
2011 candidates
2015 candidates
![Sébastien Corriveau, parti Rhinocéros 2019-08-09](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/S%C3%A9bastien_Corriveau%2C_parti_Rhinoc%C3%A9ros_2019-08-09.jpg)
On August 17, Sébastien CôRhino declared in Montréal he was willing to nationalize Tim Hortons and privatize the Royal Canadian Army at the same time : "We'll look at the results after five years, after 10 years, after 50 years and with the results of these studies we'll be able to determine if other economic sectors should also be nationalized or be privatized."
Montreal candidate Ben 97 also publicly announce he wants to move the capital to Kapuskasing, Ontario. That would bring democracy closer to Canadians, because Kapuskasing is in the center of Canada.
2019 candidates
List of candidates and election results:
2021 candidates
List of candidates and election results:
Platform
2019 campaign:
* National Defence
** The Rhinoceros Party says that National Defense is their number one priority.
* The Economy
** The Rhinoceros Party says that the Economy is their number one priority.
** The party plans to open tax havens in all provinces to keep foreign funds "local".
** By 2022, the party pledges to complete the privatization of the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
initiated by previous governments.
** Fill the coffers of the state by allowing advertising in the Senate and the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
.
** To stimulate the economy, were it to be elected, the party would change 25 cents into thirty-cents. In this way, taxpayers would see their income increase by 16%!
* Education
** The Rhinoceros Party says that education is the number one priority
**Replace teachers on leave with photos of famous scientists.
* Employment
** The Rhinoceros Party says that employment is the number one priority
**By 2020 all citizens will have a job and some will even have two.
** Rewrite the
Labour Code in order to add one holiday per month. April 1 and the birthday of the party leader will also become holidays. Finally, it will be forbidden to work the day after a holiday.
** Reduce the number of accidents in factories by wrapping all workers in bubble wrap.
* Green Plan
** The Rhinoceros Party says that the Environment is the number one priority
**Green cars are not available in sufficient numbers in Canada. Car manufacturers would be forced to build more green cars: forest green, pale green, khaki green and neon green.
** Scientists predict that in the next 20 years, global warming will threaten the existence of human beings. The party says they can make it happen in 10 years!
** In order to fight global warming, all citizens will be forced to leave their windows open in the summer and to operate the air conditioning to the maximum.
** Bribe the
Weather Network
The Weather Network (TWN) is a Canadian English-language weather information specialty channel available in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. It delivers weather information on television, digital platforms (responsive websites, ...
hosts to announce more sunshine on the weekend and less snow in the winter.
**Use global warming to Canada's advantage, making the country warmer, shortening winters, and creating an agriculture industry in the territories.
* Justice
** The Rhinoceros Party says that justice is the number one priority
**In the interests of equity among all Canadian provinces, the
War Measures Act
The ''War Measures Act'' (french: Loi sur les mesures de guerre; 5 George V, Chap. 2) was a statute of the Parliament of Canada that provided for the declaration of war, invasion, or insurrection, and the types of emergency measures that could t ...
will be applied to the 9 provinces that did not have the privilege in October 1970.
* Canadian Heritage
** The Rhinoceros Party says that Canadian Heritage is the number one priority
**Make "Sorry" the new official motto of Canada.
** Nationalize bacon.
** To create a more egalitarian Canada, all maps will be redrawn so that all provinces are rectangular like
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
.
** Make
illiteracy
Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...
the third official language of Canada.
* International relationships
** The Rhinoceros Party says that International relationships are THE number one priority
**Following the Trudeau government's inaction, the
magnetic pole moved from Canada to Russia. The Rhinoceros Party has promised to bring it back.
** Finished, ambassador appointments in a partisan and arbitrary way! The ambassador positions will now be sold to the highest bidders.
** Annexation of
to have champion sports teams again.
* Health
** The Rhinoceros Party says that health is the number one priority
**Reduce traffic in emergency rooms across Canada by eliminating waiting rooms.
** To counter the shortage of doctors and nurses, all employees will be provided with steroids to increase their performance.
* Public security
** The Rhinoceros Party says that public security is the number one priority
**To help victims of identity theft, a new name and birth date will be provided to citizens who request it.
** To increase the safety of Canadian children, the name of newborns must be at least 12 letters, including a capital letter, a number and a special character.
If elected, the Rhinoceros Party of Canada has promised to:
* Take Canada off the gold standard, opting instead to use a snow standard to boost the economy
* Repeal the law of
gravity
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
* Promote
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
by building taller schools
* Pave the
Bay of Fundy
The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is the hi ...
to make more parking for the Maritimes
* Count the
Thousand Islands
The Thousand Islands (french: Mille-Îles) constitute a North American archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada–US border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for abo ...
to make sure the
Americans
Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...
didn’t steal any
* Change Montreal’s rue Ste-Catherine into the world’s longest bowling alley
* Ban crappy Canadian winters
* Abolish all laws to end crime
* Tear down the
Rockies
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
so Albertans can see the Pacific sunset
* Abolish lawn mowing in
Outremont, QC
* Ban guns and butter—both kill
* Reform the retail lottery scheme by replacing cash prizes with
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
appointments
* Forget having two official languages; replace with having two official ears
(In French, the same word is used for "language" and for "tongue")
* Seat the
Queen of Canada
The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional Canadian federalism, federal structure and Westminster system, Westminster-style Parliamentar ...
in
Buckingham, Quebec
* Privatize the Queen
* Tax the black market
* Nationalize
Tim Hortons
Tim Hortons Inc., commonly nicknamed Tim's, or Timmie's is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain. Based in Toronto, Tim Hortons serves coffee, doughnuts, and other fast-food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service rest ...
["Rhino Party promises to nationalize Tim Hortons, move capital to Kapuskasing"]
''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', August 18, 2015.
* Move the national capital to
Kapuskasing
Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another railw ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
to be closer to the centre of the country
[
*In order to increase car pooling and reduce road speeds, car manufacturers will need to move the brake pedal to the passenger side.]
* Rename black ice to neon yellow ice.
* During a storm all speed limits will be eliminated to make sure Canadians spend as little time on the roads as possible in order to reduce the likelihood of a collision.
* Use rubber instead of concrete when building roads in major cities to reduce the number of injuries to cyclists.
* Encouraged by the success of law that now allows motorists to turn right on a red light, the party will now allow them to turn left or go straight.
* Mandate archaeologists to discover if remains of roads actually exist under Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
potholes.
* Promote MP fitness by having them cross the floor daily.
* Transport oil and gas in blimps instead of pipelines.
Archives
There is Rhinoceros Party fonds
In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poe ...
at Library and Archives Canada
Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...
.
See also
* :Rhinoceros Party politicians
* List of frivolous political parties
A frivolous party or a joke party is a political party which has been created for the purposes of entertainment or political satire. Such a party may or may not have a serious point behind its activities. This is a list of frivolous political par ...
* Independent Rhinoceros candidates in the 1997 Canadian federal election
* Non-human electoral candidates
Non-human electoral candidates have been found in a number of countries. Often, the candidacies are a means of casting a protest vote or satirizing the political system. At other times it is simply done for entertainment value.
Electoral regulat ...
References
External links
Official website
Rhinoceros Party – Canadian Political Parties and Political Interest Groups
- Web Archive created by the University of Toronto Libraries
{{Authority control
Federal political parties in Canada
Joke political parties in Canada
Political parties established in 2007