Former Canadian political party, famous for unusual and/or humorous platforms. For example, one platform was to put up a large fence to protect Canada from American killer bees. They have not fielded candidates in three elections, but when they did it was always an amusing affair.

It's better to be behind a Rhino
than in front of one!1

Le Parti Rhinocéros offered the Canadian electorate an alternative to 'organized politics'. Little was organized about this spoof party and its activities. They were however media darlings, always good for a lighter side of the news bit.

The most fervent support for the Rhinoceros party was in Quebec, where the party got most of the 120,000 votes it collected in the 1980 federal election2. In some ridings there was a very real possibility that a Rhino candidate could win, and to prevent this the party would run two, or in one case three, candidates to split the vote. Candidates in some ridings came in second or third place, and in one infamous instance they took both second and third place.

The party's original 'leader' was founder Dr. Paul Ferron, but he delegated his powers to a baby rhinoceros named Cornelius3 when the latter was born to mom Susy at Quebec's Granby zoo. When Cornelius was later sent to a zoo in San Diego in trade for a giraffe, the Rhinos were mortified. They quickly reasoned that Cornelius was merely indulging in the Canadian national pastime of cross-border shopping in the U.S., and so that was OK.

One of the most famous episodes in the history of Le Parti Rhinoceros occurred when they declared war on the nation of Belgium. This was in response to an Asterix cartoon in which the title character hunted down and blew up a rhinoceros. The Belgian government took the situation under due consideration, and then had their Canadian ambassador tender an official apology at his residence, accompanied by a few cases of Belgian beer and mussels. The Rhinos immediately declared the Belgians capital fellows, called off the war, and they and the ambassador enjoyed the beer. They had such a good time that they promised to declare war more often!

Other Parti Rhinoceros policies of note:

  • Making the pop bottle the official currency of Canada as the value went up five times in ten years3;
  • Other currency proposals including bubble gum and the venerable stubby;
  • Paving the Bay of Fundy to create more parking in the Maritimes;
  • Demolishing the Rockies and using the resulting gravel to make a national nature trail;
  • Repealing the Law of Gravity;
  • Nuclear-powered toothbrushes;
  • Returning to the English custom of driving on the left. This plan would be phased in gradually, with only truck and buses switching in year one.

The party disappeared from the Canadian political picture in 1993 when the Mulroney government passed a bill (C-114) which required candidates to post a $1000 deposit to get onto the ballot, and removed official party status from any organization that ran less than 50 candidates. The Rhinos, hobbyists all, were unable to meet these requirements and were forced to yield the field.


A short history5 of Parti Rhinocéros federal candidacy

27th Parliament: The first record of an election contested by Le Parti Rhinocéros was for the 27th parliament. A single candidate, Denis Bosse, ran in the riding of BEAUHARNOISSALABERRY and got 321 votes. In a subsequent 1979 by-election, student F.L.M. Bonnier ran in OUTREMONTST-JEAN and got 118 votes.

28th Parliament: A single Rhino candidate, Robert Charlebois, ran in LONGUEUIL and amassed 354 votes.

29th Parliament: A single Rhino candidate, Réginald Martel, ran in OUTREMONT and amassed 1,565 votes, better than 3 other candidates. Roughly a dozen other Rhino candidates ran as well, but were not recognized as such by Elections Canada.

31st Parliament: 63 Rhinos ran in 62 ridings, including 2 candidates in SAINT-HYACINTHE (Mario Bousquet, 444 votes; Serge André Lemoyne, 361 votes). Rhinos ran mostly in Quebec, but also in 3 Ontario ridings: PETERBOROUGH and Toronto's ST. PAUL'S and BEACHES. A Rhino also contested British Columbia's CAPILANO riding. Most Rhino candidates in this election received between 500 and 2,000 votes.

32nd Parliament: Again Quebec fielded a full slate of Rhinos, plus some from Ontario, BC, Manitoba, Alberta, New Brunswick, and even the Northwest Territories. 121 candidates ran in 113 ridings, as the Rhinos ran 'double candidates' in MANICOUAGAN, SHERBROOKE, KAMOURASKA--RIVIÈRE-DU-LOUP, BONAVENTUREÎLES-DE-LA-MADELEINE, SPADINA and GLOUCESTER NB, and three candidates in Labelle (Gaston Collin, 664; Jean-Marie Morin, 580;Richard Amouthd Gagnon, 331). Again most Rhino candidates in this election received between a few hundred and 2,000 votes. In LAURIER, Sonia Chatouille Coté came 2nd with 3,067 votes, and in LANGELIER Jean Obelix Lefebvre came 2nd with 2,813 votes, each beating both the mainstream NDP and PC candidates.

33rd Parliament: 89 candidates contested 89 ridings (presumably Elections Canada ruled against "double candidates"). Yukon and Saskatchewan candidates joined the fun. In a more serious election, Rhino candidates usually polled less than 1,000 votes, and finished no better than 4th in any riding.

34th Parliament: 74 candidates contested 74 ridings, polling a few hundred votes, or in a few cases more than 1,000 but less than 2,000.

39th Parliament: In a sign of possible new life for the party, 2 "Neo" Rhino candidates contested by-elections in September 2007.


  1. From Stew Showers' official 1980 campaign ad (London West)
  2. "Who's making a mockery of election, rhino chief asks", Toronto Star, July 16, 1984
  3. "Top Rhino has point", London Free Press, February 2 1980.
  4. "Beery-eyed Rhino wants Olympics at Toronto restaurant", London Free Press, February 16, 1980.
  5. All data in this paragraph from the Canadian Library of Parliament web site, http://www.parl.gc.ca (external link)

Member of the Rhino party would called themselves Marxist-Lennonist, in the memory of Groucho Marx (who once said; "I will never be member of a party that would accept me as a member") and John Lennon (who once said; "Imagine").

The founder of the french wing of Rhino party was Jacques Ferron québécois author and storyteller.

The Rhinoceros Party of Canada was started in 1968 by a group of Quebecois including Robert Charlebois and François Gourd. In the next two decades, the party became a well known and well liked part of Canadian politics. The party presented platforms and candidates for federal elections; at one point, Charlebois ran against Pierre Trudeau in his own riding. The Rhinoceros Party remained registered until the early 1990s.

The party's main campaign promise was to "promise nothing", but they ignored that. Their promises included:

The Rhinoceros Party never elected a Member of Parliament, but they did come close. Not only were they the fourth-largest party in the nation for some time, they often placed second or third in individual ridings, putting New Democrat and Progressive Conservative candidates to shame.

They also attracted international attention. Alan Hope, a leading member of the UK's Monster Raving Loony Party, mentioned his brief association with the Rhino leader: "On one particular visit, I met the leader of the Rhinoceros Party, with whom we had formed an alliance. A white rhino, he resided in Santiago Zoo, and a very nice sort of rhino he was too. He used to get letters from all over the world. The reason a rhinoceros was chosen as leader was because it was considered the closest thing to a politician -- thick skinned, myopic, wallows in mud, and runs like hell when cornered."

In 1993, the Election Act imposed a mandatory $1000 fee and minimum of 50 running candidates for political parties to be officially recognised. The Rhinoceros Party boycotted the election in protest, and subsequently disbanded.

Members of the Rhinoceros Party remained politically active, however. Co-founder François Gourd went on to create Les Entartistes, a group that pied and continues to pie prominent Canadian politicians. (Their past targets include Jean Chretien and Ralph Klein.) Other Rhino members went on to found the Parti Citron, "defending your interests to the bitter end". And in 2002, a former leading member legally purchased a mail-in ballot in the Canadian Alliance leadership race... and then sold it on eBay as "an experiment in democratic capitalism".

Reports of a repeat Rhino performance as a political party in 2002 remain unconfirmed, but no matter. Political satire and humour are still alive and well in Canada, if not on the same national scale.


Current facetious parties in Canada are all unregistered. They include the Absolutely Absurd Party of Canada, Parti Citron, and the Party Party ("Now with 23.4% less corruption").


Timeshredder says The rhinos also once promised a supermailbox for every household.



Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_Party_of_Canada
http://globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040105/MAC05/Columnists/Idx
http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1997/050197/news6.html
https://www.oneconservativevoice.ca/english/news/topstories/2004_01_28.html
http://www.catworld.co.uk/articlecatworld.asp?artid=318&cat=General%20Features&pre=
http://www.happyfunpundit.com/hfp/archives/000127.html

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