Fringe parties see spike in candidates, votes

Now that the concession speeches are over and lawn signs are coming down, leaders of Canada’s lesser-known political parties are assessing how they did in Monday’s election.

Of the 18 registered fringe parties including the pirates, the potheads and the pro-lifers, the top five performing ones were the Libertarian Party of Canada, the Christian Heritage Party of Canada, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, the Rhinoceros Party and the Progressive Canadian Party.

Several that spoke to Yahoo Canada News acknowledged growing in both candidates and votes, despite still barely making a blip on the political radar.

David Clement, a spokesperson with the Libertarian Party of Canada, says there were 72 candidates in this year’s election, a significant jump from the 2011 campaign. The party’s mission is to “to reduce the responsibilities and expense of government” and has been active since the 1970s, though it has gone through several incarnations.

In total, the party won 37,407 votes, a significant jump from the 2011 count, which then garnered 6,017 votes and only 23 candidates.

“It really cements us on the way to fielding a whole slate of candidates and building that momentum of progression moving forward,” he says.

While none of the party’s candidates won in their respective riding, a few placed better than more established parties like the Greens, something Clement calls “a good first step”.

Sébastien Côrriveau, a.k.a. CorRhino, the leader of the Rhinoceros Party, echoes that sentiment. The party is known for its irreverence, campaigning for such things as repealing the Law of Gravity.

This time around, the party had 28 candidates in five provinces — exactly double what they had in 2011 — and 7,349 votes in total, a huge leap from the 2,500 votes of last election. Côrriveau says while he was hoping for a minority government, he’s delighted with how well his party did. He’s even optimistic to schedule a meeting with prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau.

“I hope he invites us to give a little talk to them to improve the democracy in Canada,” he says. “A Conservative candidate in the riding next to mine was elected with 29 per cent of the vote. If you can have a candidate that’s elected with 29 per cent of the vote in Parliament, there’s really something wrong.”

Still, he sees his party continuing to grow in size, just as it did this election.

But not all fringe parties saw growth this election. While social media took notice of the Radical Marijuana Party, which is also known as the Marijuana Party, the numbers didn’t fair well.

This election the party, which campaigned on a platform to stop criminalizing cannabis, got 1,626 votes with eight candidates. That’s slightly down from 2011, when it got 1,864 votes with five candidates. It’s a far cry from 2000, when the party first formed and had 73 candidates.

Leader Blair Longley says the people who are running are doing so for their own interests.

“None of them expect to get more than a fraction of the vote,” he says.

For a full list of parties and how they did in this election, click here.