Rhinoceros Party
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Rhinoceros Party Parti Rhinocéros | |
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Active federal party | |
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Leader | Sébastien Corriveau[1] |
Founded | May 21, 2006 |
Headquarters | 2–4534, de l’Hôtel-de-Ville Avenue Montréal, Quebec H2T 2B1 |
Ideology | Satirical party |
Colours | Red, white |
Seats in the House of Commons | 0 / 338 |
Website | |
www.eatgoogle.com | |
The Rhinoceros Party (French: [Parti Rhinocéros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) is a Canadian federal-level satirical political party, referred to in English Canada as the Second Rhinoceros Party. It was known as neorhino.ca until 2010, when the party changed names and registered a new party logo. It was created in Montreal on May 21, 2006, and recognized by Elections Canada as being eligible for registration on August 16, 2007, and an official political party on August 23, 2007.[2] 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 stated he named the new party (then under the name "neorhino") for the Rhinoceros Party and for Neo, the Matrix character.[3] The party is led by Sébastien Corriveau.[1]
It promises, like its predecessor, not to keep any of its promises if elected.[4]
Origins
The Rhino movement was started in 1963 by Jacques Ferron,[5] "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 (1972) and singer Michel Rivard (1980) ran against then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in his Montreal seat.
The party claimed to be the spiritual descendants of Cacareco, a Brazilian rhinoceros who was elected member of São Paulo's city council in 1958, and listed Cornelius the First, a rhinoceros from the Granby Zoo, east of Montreal, as its leader.[6] Cornelius is still featured in the party's official logo. 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."[7]
The party abstained from the 1993 federal election as 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.[8] On September 23, 1993, Canada's Chief Electoral Officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, 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. Within the following year, the Rhinoceros Party of Canada was dissolved.
Platform
If elected, the Rhinoceros Party of Canada has promised to:
- Repeal the law of gravity
- Promote higher education by building taller schools
- Count the Thousand Islands to make sure the Americans didn’t steal any[9]
- Reform the retail lottery scheme by replacing cash prizes with Senate appointments
- Seat the Queen of Canada in Buckingham, Quebec.
- Nationalize Tim Hortons[10]
- Move the national capital to Kapuskasing, Ontario[10]
- Privatize the Canadian Army
- Make gluten free items illegal
- Legalize all drugs
- Ban Ikea and Android phones
- Allow every Canadian to vote in the Hong Kong Chief Executive election, 2017
- A rhinoceros for every Canadian Citizen
- Induce an orgasm for Canadian citizens who elect their party[10]
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 Satan, he had planned to run under the Rhino banner in the September 2007 by-election. However, a previous law in 1993 stating 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, 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 Mr. Salmi had legally changed his name, the lawsuit was filed as Satan 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.[4]
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 and Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot 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 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
Candidate | Votes | % | Placement | District | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
François Gourd | 145 | 0.6 | 6/12 | Outremont | September 17, 2007 |
Christian Willie Vanasse | 384 | 1.2 | 6/7 | Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot | September 17, 2007 |
John Turner | 111 | 0.4 | 5/6 | Vancouver Quadra | March 17, 2008 |
2008 federal election
Election | # of candidates | # of votes | % of popular vote | % in ridings run | # of seats |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | 7 | 2,263 | 0.02% | 0.67% | 0 |
2009 by-elections
Candidate | Votes | % | Placement | District | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gabrielle Anctil | 129 | 0.7 | 6/8 | Hochelaga | November 9, 2009 |
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.
Election | # of candidates | # of votes | % of popular vote | % in ridings run | # of seats |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | 14 | 3,800 | 0.026% | 0.57% | 0 |
2011 candidates
Riding | Province | Candidate | Occupation | Notes | Votes | % | Placement |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ahuntsic | Quebec | Jean-Olivier Berthiaume | 299 | 0.64 | 6/6 | ||
Berthier—Maskinongé | Quebec | Martin Jubinville | 373 | 0.66 | 6/6 | ||
Chicoutimi—Le Fjord | Quebec | Marielle Couture | 340 | 0.67 | 6/6 | ||
Hochelaga | Quebec | Hugo Samson Veillette | 246 | 0.53 | 6/8 | ||
Honoré-Mercier | Quebec | Valery Chevrefils-Latulippe | 181 | 0.38 | 6/7 | ||
LaSalle—Émard | Quebec | Guillaume Berger-Richard | 208 | 0.50 | 7/7 | ||
Laurier—Sainte-Marie | Quebec | François Yo Gourd | 398 | 0.79 | 6/9 | ||
Outremont | Quebec | Tommy Gaudet | 160 | 0.41 | 6/7 | ||
Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie | Quebec | Jean-Patrick Berthiaume | Politician[11] | Born in Saint-Jérôme, Berthiaume contested Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie in the 2008 federal election as a neorhino.ca candidate.[12] He was the leader of the Rhinoceros Party's Laboratoire des Sciences de la Démocratie (LSD) in 2011.[13] | 417 | 0.77 | 6/7 |
Sherbrooke | Quebec | Crédible Berlingot Landry | 233 | 0.45 | 6/6 | ||
Trois-Rivières | Quebec | Francis Arsenault | 256 | 0.51 | 7/7 | ||
Westmount—Ville-Marie | Quebec | Victoria Haliburton | 140 | 0.34 | 6/7 | ||
Peace River | Alberta | Donovan Eckstrom | 345 | 0.72 | 6/6 | ||
Cariboo—Prince George | British Columbia | Jordan Turner | 204 | 0.47 | 7/7 |
2015 candidates [14]
Riding | Province | Candidate Name | Occupation | Notes | Votes | % | Placement |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou | Quebec | Mario Gagnon | 258 | 0.75 | 6/6 | ||
Abitibi-Témiscamingue | Quebec | Pascal Le Fou Gélinas | 425 | 0.85 | 6/6 | ||
Ahuntsic-Cartierville | Quebec | Catherine Gascon-David | 285 | 0.51 | 6/6 | ||
Avignon-La Mitis-Matane-Matapédia | Quebec | Éric Normand | 175 | 0.48 | 7/7 | ||
Compton-Stanstead | Quebec | Kevin Côté | 315 | 0.56 | 6/6 | ||
Edmonton Centre | Alberta | Steven Stauffer | 257 | 0.48 | 5/6 | ||
Edmonton Griesbach | Alberta | Bun Bun Thompson | cat | 144 | 0.30 | 7/8 | |
Edmonton Strathcona | Alberta | Donovan Eckstrom | 133 | 0.24 | 7/10 | ||
Elgin-Middlesex-London | Ontario | Lou Bernardi | 185 | 0.32 | 6/6 | ||
Gaspesie-Iles-de-la-Madeleine | Quebec | Max Boudreau | 300 | 0.76 | 6/6 | ||
Hochelaga | Quebec | Nicolas Lemay | 411 | 0.79 | 6/8 | ||
Jonquière | Quebec | Marielle Couture | 382 | 0.79 | 6/6 | ||
Kings-Hants | Nova Scotia | Megan Brown-Hodges | 184 | 0.39 | 5/7 | ||
La Pointe-de-l'Île | Quebec | Ben 97 Benoit | 358 | 0.65 | 6/8 | ||
Lethbridge | Alberta | Solly Krygier-Paine | 209 | 0.37 | 6/6 | ||
Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne | Quebec | Matthew Iakov Liberman | 325 | 0.63 | 6/7 | ||
Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup | Quebec | Bien Gras Gagné | 287 | 0.58 | 6/6 | ||
Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan | Saskatchewan | Robert Thomas | 208 | 0.50 | 5/5 | ||
Ottawa Centre | Ontario | Conrad Lukawski | 167 | 0.22 | 6/8 | ||
Papineau | Quebec | Tommy Gaudet | 323 | 0.64 | 7/10 | ||
Richmond—Arthabaska | Quebec | Antoine Dubois | 384 | 0.66 | 6/6 | ||
Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques | Quebec | Sébastien CôRhino Côrriveau | Leader of party | 273 | 0.61 | 6/6 | |
Rivière du Nord | Quebec | Fobozof A. Côté | 261 | 0.46 | 6/6 | ||
Rosemont--La Petite-Patrie | Quebec | Laurent Aglat | 495 | 0.85 | 6/8 | ||
Saskatoon—University | Saskatchewan | Eric Matthew Schalm | 93 | 0.21 | 5/5 | ||
Sherbrooke | Quebec | Hubert Richard | 265 | 0.46 | 7/7 | ||
Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Ile-des-Soeurs | Quebec | Daniel Wolfe | 161 | 0.32 | 6/7 |
See also
- List of political parties in Canada
- List of frivolous political parties
- Non-human electoral candidates
References
- ^ a b "Registered Political Parties: Rhinoceros Party". Elections Canada. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=par&document=index&lang=e#neorhino
- ^ "Rhinos return to Canadian political landscape". Canada.com. CanWest. February 29, 2008. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
- ^ a b "Rhino party escapes extinction to run in September byelection". CBC News. 7 August 2007. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012.
- ^ "Rhinoceros Party". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
- ^ Ingrid Peritz (August 8, 2007). "After years of near-extinction, the whacky Rhino party is back". The Globe and Mail.
- ^ Evan Kayne (January 12, 2006). "Federal election in dire need of laughs". FFWD Weekly.
- ^ Paul Hellyer (May 1, 1997). "Marginal characters - A guide to some of Canada's lesser-known political parties". Montreal Mirror.
- ^ 14 weird platform promises from the now-defunct Rhinoceros Party
- ^ a b c "Rhino Party promises to nationalize Tim Hortons, move capital to Kapuskasing". Toronto Star, August 18, 2015.
- ^ History of Federal Ridings since 1867: ROSEMONT--LA PETITE-PATRIE (2011/05/02), Parliament of Canada, accessed 23 November 2013.
- ^ Berthiaume received 319 votes (0.61%), finishing sixth.
- ^ Éric Noël, "Jean-Patrick Berthiaume du parti Rhinocéros: de la folie à la créativité", Rue Masson, 22 April 2011, accessed 23 November 2013.
- ^ History of Federal Ridings since 1867