DCHP-1 Online

Rhinoceros Party

• a pseudo-political party which ran candidates in Montreal ridings during federal elections of the 1960's, the objective being to make the electors aware of purported inadequacies in the old-line parties.

  • The name appears to be derived from an incident in Rio de Janeiro, where, in 1959, a rhinoceros named Cacarecto, on loan from an Argentinian zoo, was elected as a councillor on a write-in vote. Though he was disqualified for not having Brazilian citizenship, the people were understood to have indicated their dissatisfaction with the official nominees.

  • 1964  Many people, however, are intrigued by the platform and pronouncements of a fifth and new group which might be called an anti-political party and which has also formally entered candidates in both ridings. This is the Rhinoceros Party, founded and headed by a Montreal physician, Dr. Paul Ferron, who is the party candidate in St. Denis.
  • 1967  The candidates [include] Outremont-St. John--F.L.M. Bonnier, Rhinoceros Party.