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neorhino.ca
Active Federal Party
Leader	Richelle Cloutier
President	François Gourd
Founded	May 21, 2006
Headquarters	2–4534, de l’Hôtel-de-Ville Avenue Montréal, Quebec H2T 2B1
Ideology	Satirical, Joke political party
International affiliation	None
Official colours	Red, white
Seats in the House of Commons	0
Website
http://www.neorhino.ca/
Politics of Canada Political parties Elections

neorhino.ca is a Canadian federal joke political party. 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. 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 Rhinoceros Party. He stated he named the new party for the Rhinoceros Party and for Neo, the Matrix character. The party is currently led by Richelle Cloutier.

It promises, like its predecessor, not to keep any of its promises if elected. Among its early platform planks was to "take away soldiers' weapons, replace them with paintball guns, and repaint Havana." The party has also proposed a mandatory national gas barbecue registry, a guaranteed weekly orgasm, the renaming of Canada to Nantucket^[1] and the creation of an army of clowns to travel the world promoting peace and laughter.

Serious political activity

On August 7, 2007, Satan — born Brian (Godzilla) 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.

Satan had planned to run under the Rhino banner in the September 2007 by-election. However, the Liberal government essentially killed the Rhinos in 1993, passing a law saying 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, effectively abolishing the Rhinos and ending their 30-year run of preposterous campaign promises and gleeful mockery of Canadian politics. 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.^[1]

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 byelection in Beauséjour, N.B.

Neorhino.ca candidates did not win any seats in either the 2007 by-elections or the 2008 federal election.

2007 by-elections

2008 federal election

2009 by-elections

References

See also

• List of political parties in Canada
• List of frivolous political parties

External links

• neorhino.ca

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