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Rhinoceros Party

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47-540: The Rhinoceros Party , officially the Parti Rhinocéros Party , is a Canadian federal political party . It originally existed from 1963 to 1993. It was refounded in Montreal on May 21, 2006, and was registered with Elections Canada on August 23, 2007. It was known as neorhino.ca until 2010 when the party changed its name and logo. The party was founded by François "Yo" Gourd , who was involved with

94-529: A by-election held four months later. Grey, who had finished a distant fourth running in the same riding in the general election, succeeded rookie Progressive Conservative MP John Dahmer . Dahmer died of pancreatic cancer before taking office. For the Progressive Conservatives , this was the last federal election they would ever win. Articles on parties' candidates in this election: Bold indicates parties with members elected to

141-632: A Liberal government. In an ironic reversal of most prior federal elections, the Liberals were kept out of power by their inability to make any headway into the overwhelming Tory majority in Quebec . Indeed, the Liberals actually lost five seats in Quebec. This second election loss sealed Turner's fate; he would eventually resign in 1990 , and was succeeded by Jean Chrétien , who proved to be a more effective leader and when in government, accepted free trade with

188-669: A Liberal government; a week after the debate, the Liberals were six points ahead of the PCs. The Liberal surge prompted the PCs to stop the relatively calm campaign they had been running and instead run a more negative campaign, capitalizing on the perceived lack of public confidence in Turner, his perceived inability to lead the Liberal Party, and arguing that he only opposed free trade because of political opportunism. The PCs' poll numbers started to rebound. The Progressive Conservatives won

235-432: 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 Salmi had legally changed his name,

282-414: A heavy defeat in the 1984 election. Despite this, Turner stayed on as leader and was preparing to campaign for the second election. However, the Liberal Party was in financial and political disarray; by 1986 the party was heavily in debt and the expenses of the national organization continued to rise. Turner's office experienced significant staff turnover, and leaving members were willing to recount stories of

329-473: A minor party. The election was the last for Canada's Social Credit Party . The party won no seats, and won an insignificant portion of the popular vote. This was the first election for the newly founded Reform Party which for this vote only contested seats in Western Canada . The party at this stage was filled to a large extent with former Socreds along with some former PC supporters disaffected at

376-570: A parody of the factional split between the Communist Party of Canada and the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) , although the Rhinoceros Party meant the term in reference to Groucho Marx and John Lennon . The party used as its logo a woodcut of a rhinoceros by Albrecht Dürer , with the words D'une mare à l'autre (a French translation of Canada's Latin motto a mari usque ad mare (from sea to sea), playing on

423-580: A professional dominatrix for the position of party whip , 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 ,

470-401: A prominent Rhino, later started another political movement, the entartistes , who attracted attention in the 1990s by planting cream pies in the faces of various Canadian politicians. 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

517-407: A reduced but strong majority government with 169 seats, and the free trade agreement would go into effect on January 1, 1989. Mulroney was the first Conservative prime minister since John A. Macdonald to win more than one majority. Despite the Liberals more than doubling their seat count from 38 to 83, the results were considered a disappointment for Turner, after polls in mid-campaign predicted

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564-483: A representative of the "Student Party". Newspaper reports indicate that this was simply a tax-avoidance scheme. The moribund Social Credit Party fielded nine candidates, far short of the 50 required for official recognition. However, the Chief Electoral Officer allowed the party's name to appear on the ballot by virtue of its half-century history as a recognized party. It would be the last time that

611-489: A second majority government . Mulroney was the party's first leader since John A. Macdonald to win a second majority government. The Liberal Party experienced a recovery after its 1984 wipeout , doubling its seat count. The New Democratic Party won its largest number of seats up to the time (they would beat the 1988 record in 2011) . The election was the last won by the Progressive Conservatives,

658-519: 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. 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

705-497: 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 , 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

752-678: The 2011 federal election , the 1988 election was the most successful in the New Democratic Party's history. The party dominated in British Columbia and Saskatchewan , won significant support in Ontario and elected its first (and, until the 2008 election , only) member from Alberta . This was the second election contested by the Green Party , and it saw a more than 50 percent increase in its vote, but it remained

799-540: The 2011 federal election . The party changed from neorhino.ca to its new formal name the Rhinoceros Party in mid-2010. It also registered a new logo with Elections Canada. 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

846-823: The Godzilla 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 and Helvis in Vancouver-Burrard ) appeared on the ballots, as the party claimed the $ 1000 candidate registration fee was a financial hardship. Unregistered candidates included Geoff Berner , who received national wire service coverage for promising "cocaine and whores to potential investors". The party disbanded shortly thereafter. François Gourd ,

893-515: The Parti citron (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

940-531: The Progressive Conservative Party to a landslide majority government victory in the 1984 federal election . Despite this achievement, scandals including patronage damaged his polling numbers. However, in his fourth year in office in 1988, his popularity began to recover; a poll a few days before the election call showed the Progressive Conservatives ahead of the Liberal Party and New Democratic Party . The Liberal Party led by John Turner suffered

987-488: The Rent Is Too Damn High Party , may use the same tactics and humorous approaches to politics as their more frivolous counterparts but aim to address legitimate sociopolitical issues, something that some frivolous parties do not do. 1988 Canadian federal election Brian Mulroney Progressive Conservative Brian Mulroney Progressive Conservative The 1988 Canadian federal election

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1034-449: 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 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

1081-610: 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 ". In 2001, Brian "Godzilla" Salmi, who received his nickname because of

1128-581: The First , a rhinoceros from the Granby Zoo , 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,

1175-554: The Islands riding with the campaign slogan " Fauna , not flora ", 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

1222-541: The Manitoba candidates appears to have withdrawn before election day). The Liberal candidate in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Emmanuel Feuerwerker, withdrew from the race after suffering a heart attack, resulting in the Liberals not running a candidate in all 295 ridings during this election. The Marxist–Leninist Party fielded candidates in several ridings. Blair T. Longley campaigned in British Columbia as

1269-542: The Neorhino.ca candidates 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

1316-513: 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. Note: (1) The Rhinoceros Party ran 12 candidates in the 1972 election, but was not recognized as a registered party by Elections Canada; therefore, its candidates were listed as independents. (Source: Toronto Star , October 31, 1972.) The party abstained from

1363-478: The Rhinoceros Party of Canada has promised to: There is Rhinoceros Party fonds at Library and Archives Canada . 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 parties. Some more serious political parties, such as

1410-483: The Rhinoceros Party ran a candidate named Maxime Bernier in the riding of Beauce against the incumbent, Maxime Bernier , leader of the People's Party of Canada . Neither candidate won, with both being defeated by Conservative Party candidate Richard Lehoux . Rhino candidate Bernier managed 1084 votes. Even if all of these had gone to incumbent Bernier, who managed 16,796 votes, it still wouldn't have been enough to change

1457-970: The United States and did not overturn CUSFTA. Despite the New Democratic Party enjoying their best result at the time (winning 43 seats), Ed Broadbent resigned as leader in 1989 . Some NDP members were disappointed by the fact that they didn't become the Official Opposition . Note: "% change" refers to change from previous election A number of unregistered parties also contested the election. The Western Canada Concept party, led by Doug Christie , fielded three candidates in British Columbia. The Western Independence Party ran one candidate in British Columbia , seven in Alberta , and three in Manitoba (although one of

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1504-569: The bill through the House of Commons , however, the Liberal-dominated Senate demanded an election before they would pass it. The election was called on October 1. The Liberals had some early struggles, notably during one day in Montreal where three different costs were given for the proposed Liberal daycare program. When asked by reporters about the incident, Turner's chief of staff responded using vulgar language. The campaign

1551-442: The last until 2011 in which a right-of-centre party formed a majority government, and the last where a right-of-centre party won the most seats in Quebec . It was also the last election in Canadian history in which only three parties would be elected to Parliament. With Mulroney winning a majority, the agreement was passed into law, even though a majority of the voters had voted for parties opposing free trade. Brian Mulroney led

1598-400: 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. Candidates of Neorhino.ca and the Rhinoceros Party have not recorded any electoral victories. Before

1645-522: The office's disfunction to the press, resulting in Turner's leadership being nicknamed a "reign of error". Some pundits believed the Liberals would permanently drop to third place. In 1988, Mulroney reached an agreement on free trade with the United States . Turner 's Liberal Party and Ed Broadbent 's New Democratic Party opposed the agreement; Turner believed that the agreement would "Americanize" Canada. Mulroney used his large majority to pass

1692-556: The original incarnation of the Rhinoceros Party. He has said that he named the new party (then under the name "neorhino") after the Rhinoceros Party and Neo , the Matrix 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. The Rhinoceros Party ( French : Parti Rhinocéros )

1739-452: The party, which had been the third-largest or fourth-largest party in Canada at its height, would fight an election under its own name. The party was deregistered before the 1993 election after it failed to nominate enough candidates to keep its registration. xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote. Note: Parties that captured less than 1% of the vote in a province are not recorded. Until

1786-520: The perceived lack of support from the Mulroney government for western interests. It was led by Preston Manning , who was himself a one time Socred candidate and the son of longtime Alberta Social Credit premier Ernest Manning . Reform won no seats and was not yet considered a major party at the national level. However, Deborah Grey would win the first seat for Reform, Beaver River in Alberta, in

1833-640: 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 candidate, but ahead of both other major parties: the third place New Democrat , and the fourth-place Progressive Conservative candidate. Chatouille received almost twice as many votes as

1880-417: The result. Lehoux received 22,860 votes. The Rhinoceros Party never succeeded in winning a seat in the House of Commons . 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

1927-442: 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 announced that he wanted to move the capital to Kapuskasing , Ontario, to "bring democracy closer to Canadians", as Kapuskasing is in the country's center. List of candidates and election results: List of candidates and election results: 2019 campaign: If elected,

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1974-522: The word mare , which means pond in French) at the top. 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 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 's Kingston and

2021-605: 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 leader John Turner , and received 760 votes. Penny Hoar, a safe sex activist, distributed condoms in Toronto while running under the slogan: "Politicians screw you—protect yourself". Other platform promises of the Rhinoceros Party included: The Rhino Party also declared that, should they somehow actually win an election, they would immediately dissolve and force

2068-452: Was a registered political party in Canada from the 1960s to the 1990s. Operating within the tradition of political satire , 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 , "Éminence de la Grande Corne du parti Rhinocéros". In

2115-438: Was also hampered by a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) report that stated there was a movement in the backroom to replace Turner with Jean Chrétien , even though Turner had passed a leadership review in 1986 with 76.3 percent of delegates rejecting a leadership convention. Turner strongly campaigned against free trade, arguing that it would cost many Canadian jobs. His October 25 debate performance helped polls suggest

2162-565: Was held on November 21, 1988, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 34th Parliament of Canada . It was an election largely fought on a single issue : the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA); the Progressive Conservative Party campaigned in favour of it, whereas the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP) campaigned against it. The incumbent prime minister , Brian Mulroney , led his Progressive Conservative Party to

2209-533: Was not fully achieved until 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

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