The Liberal Party, under new leader Mark Carney, has secured a fourth consecutive term in government. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre put up a fierce fight with a populist-leaning campaign, while NDP's Jagmeet Singh worked hard to shore up progressive voters frustrated with the Liberals - but ultimately, both fell short in the 2025 federal elections.
While the major parties fought tooth and nail, let's take a moment to remember a very different kind of political player from Canada's past - The Rhinoceros Party.
The Rhinoceros Party
The Rhinoceros Party was never meant to be taken seriously. Founded in 1963 by Montreal doctor and humourist Jacques Ferron, the party was created specifically to poke fun at the pomp and pageantry of federal election campaigns.
Their core motto was "a promise to keep none of our promises."
Inspired by Cacareco, a rhino elected in Brazil as a protest vote, the party's leader was Cornelius the First, a rhino from Quebec's Granby Zoo.
During the 1984 federal election, 89 candidates across Canada ran under the Rhino banner, earning a surprising 99,207 votes - nearly 0.8 per cent of the national vote.
Campaign Policies
Rhinoceros Party candidates were free to campaign on their own ideas. It has proposed ideas like abolishing gravity, arguing it's illegal and hasn't been passed by Parliament, and even suggested eliminating the environment due to its high costs and difficulty to manage.
One candidate, Ted "Not Too" Sharp, ran in Kingston and the Islands with the slogan "Fauna, not Flora," vowing to give animals equal rights. His other promises included never having an abortion if elected, and supporting capital punishment because "it was good enough for my grandfather."
For national defence, Sharp proposed towing Antarctica to the Arctic Circle so Canada could control all the world's cold, giving it an unbeatable edge in any future Cold War.
In the 1988 election, the party even ran a candidate named John Turner against Liberal leader John Turner - earning a surprising 760 votes.
Penny Hoar, a safe-sex activist, ran in Toronto handing out condoms with the campaign slogan: "Politicians screw you - protect yourself."
Some of their more memorable promises included repealing gravity, building taller schools for better education, and paving the Bay of Fundy to create parking for the Maritimes. The party also vowed to move the Rocky Mountains 1 km west so Albertans could enjoy Pacific sunsets and promised to replace harsh Canadian winters with more pleasant weather. For education, they suggested replacing teachers on leave with photos of famous scientists and offering every citizen a job, with one new holiday every month.
To help the environment, they proposed adding brake pedals on the passenger side of cars and forcing manufacturers to create cars in various shades of green. They even promised to make "Sorry" Canada's official motto, remove waiting areas in emergency rooms, and give doctors steroids to improve their performance. Finally, they vowed to give new identities to victims of identity theft and require newborns to have names with at least 12 characters, including letters, numbers, and symbols.
