Federal Election 2025: Why the existence of satirical candidates is 'over'
Donald Trump isn't just coming for our economy, he's taking our sense of humour too.
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The one thing the Animal Protection Party has going for it during this year’s federal election is that by virtue of its name, it comes first on the list of registered political parties. That will likely be the only first place it holds on April 28.
How it ends doesn’t matter so much for candidate Teresa Knight, who has collected enough signatures to win an uncontested nomination race in Courtenay-Alberni on Vancouver Island with the Animal Protection Party.
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Campaigning by her side will be her temperamental horse Whisper, her two cats (Tali and Midnight), and Alexander, a somewhat shy husky.
As for fundraising, well, why bother? “I’m so thrifty, I don’t need to raise a cent,” said Knight.
Why is she running? She wants to draw attention to animal cruelty, and encourage all of us to recognize “the person inside each animal who deserves help and protection.”
“If animals can’t survive, then neither can we,” said Knight, a former art teacher who decided to run after reviewing the platforms of the three major parties, and the Green party, and finding their animal protection policies lacking.
While the Animal Protection Party is anything but satire, their earnestness, and the dearth of novelty candidates, are a reflection of a more serious tone, and time, in politics.
Canada’s tradition of political humour and novelty candidates is a long way from what it was in its heyday when the Marijuana Party, the Rhinoceros Party, the Pirate Party of Canada and, of course, the Tuxedo Party, led by a fluffy cat named Earl Grey, offered much-needed comic relief.
Although nominations don’t close until April 7 — and there is still time to nominate your favourite cat — it’s unlikely this election cycle will feature the kind of humour we have seen in the past. Only a handful of Marijuana Party, Animal Protection Party candidates and a sprinkling of Rhinoceros candidates are on the ballot.
Canada’s most famous novelty, the Rhinoceros Party, hit its peak in 1980, running 120 candidates and capturing 1.02 per cent of the popular vote. The party promised, among other things, to reform lottery laws by replacing cash prizes with Senate seats, create employment by paving the Bay of Fundy, and make the U.K. Canada’s 11th province.
Richard Johnston, a UBC professor emeritus and author of The Canadian Party System: An Analytic History, said, “The satirical time in Canadian politics is over.”
Now, Johnston says, the stakes are too high. A joke about the U.K. becoming Canada’s 11th province would likely fall flat when the country’s attention is turned toward a very real threat from south of the border for the annexation of Canada as the 51st state.
In January, federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc reversed his original suggestion that U.S. President Donald Trump was jesting about annexing Canada, and announced, “The joke is over.”
He might as well have said Trump isn’t just coming for our economy and our territory, he’s coming for our sense of humour.
That may be a larger loss than it first appears.
Satirical candidates have a disruptive effect, and that can have positive impacts for democracy, calling attention to misinformation and abuses of power, said Sophia McClennen, a professor of international affairs at Penn State and the author of Trump Was A Joke, How Satire Made Sense Of A President Who Didn’t.
“They are a good way of revealing the flaws in the system,” said McClennen. “It’s difficult for citizens to recognize the flaws the system has because they get used to it.
“These candidates draw out opportunities to see problems in how their democracy works in a clever and easy-to-remember way. The media likes covering them, they get disproportionate attention, and can draw attention to whatever bothers them.”
Satirical candidates fall into three buckets, said McClennen: Those who run with the sole intention of using their satirical candidacy to draw attention to flaws in the system with no actual desire to win; the reformed satirical candidate like Beppe Grillo in Italy who had a career as a comedian then ran a serious race; and hybrid candidates like Jón Gnarr who founded the satirical Best Party and ran on a promise of free towels in swimming pools, and was surprised to become the Mayor of Reykjavík.
“They weren’t expecting to win,” said McClennen. “Because the electoral system was so broken, people voted because they found it refreshing.”
Satirical candidates almost always cause some worry, said McClennen. “They worry there is too much satire, then they worry there is not enough satire.”
Even if voters tend to worry about satirical candidates, most of what satire does is positive, said McClennen.
In this election cycle, however, satire is taking a backseat. Eyes, and barbs, are no longer directed at flaws in the Canadian system. They are on the United States.
“The influence of Donald Trump south of the border is massive right now,” said Johnston. “It’s not fun.”
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