The Natural Law Party of Canada (NLPC) was the Canadian branch of the international Natural Law Party founded in 1992 by a group of educators, business leaders, and lawyers who practised Transcendental Meditation.[1] [need quotation to verify]

Natural Law Party of Canada
Parti de la loi naturelle du Canada
Former federal party
LeaderNeil Paterson
Founded1992 (1992)
DissolvedJanuary 23, 2004 (2004-01-23)
Ideologypro-Transcendental Meditation
International affiliationNatural Law Party
ColoursRainbow

Description and history

edit

The magician Doug Henning was senior vice president of NLPC, and ran as the party's candidate for the former Toronto riding of Rosedale in the 1993 federal election, finishing sixth out of ten candidates.[2][3]

The NLPC supported federal funding for further research in the technique of yogic flying, a part of the TM-Sidhi program, as a tool for achieving world peace. The NLPC platform maintained that once it took over the government, Canada's crime, unemployment, and deficit would disappear.[2] In a 1993 news article, Naomi Rankin, the leader of the Communist Party of Alberta, referred to the NLP as "crackpot".[4][need quotation to verify] One of its slogans was "If you favour Natural Law, Natural Law will favour you."[5] The party was de-registered by Elections Canada, the Canadian government's election agency, on January 23, 2004.[6]

Election results

edit
Election # of candidates nominated # of seats won # of total votes % of popular vote % of pop vote NLP ridings
1993 231 0 85,450 0.63% 0.77%
1997 136 0 37,085 0.29% 0.61%
2000 69 0 16,573 0.13% 0.53%

Ontario branch

edit

The Natural Law Party of Ontario was a political party in Ontario, Canada, the provincial affiliate of the Natural Law Party of Canada. It was established in 1993, and fielded candidates in the 1995 and 1999 provincial elections. Ashley Deans, who was a candidate for Trinity-Spadina in the 1997 and 2000 elections,[7] was the president of the party between 1993 and 2000.[8] The party leader was Ron Parker.[9]

Quebec branch

edit

The Parti de la loi naturelle du Québec (PLNQ, in English: Natural Law Party of Quebec) was the Quebec branch of the Natural Law Party of Canada. The party was de-registered by the Directeur général des élections du Québec, the Quebec government's election agency, in 2003. [citation needed] Its leader from 1994 to 2003 was Allen Faguy.[citation needed]

Election results

edit
General election # of candidates # of elected candidates % of popular vote
1994 102 0 0.85%
1998 35 0 0.13%

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ R. Roth, The Natural Law Party: A Reason to Vote, page 285. St. Martin's Press, 1998
  2. ^ a b Kreidler, Marc (May 1, 1995). "Doug Henning and the Giggling Guru | Skeptical Inquirer".
  3. ^ "ParlInfo Has Moved". lop.parl.ca.
  4. ^ MONCHUK, JUDY (June 6, 1993). "Fringe parties include 'right, left, crackpot'". The Gazette. Montreal, Que. p. A.6.
  5. ^ GRIFFIN, KEVIN (October 18, 1993). "Henning sends out de-stress signals: The magician is here to explain the politics of yogic flying and vanishing deficits". The Vancouver Sun. p. A.5.
  6. ^ Elections Canada. "Registered Political Parties and Parties Eligible for Registration". Retrieved November 22, 2010.
  7. ^ "Elections Canada Electoral District Results: Trinity Spadina". Archived from the original on October 19, 2013.
  8. ^ "Dr. Ashley Deans President, Natural Law Party of Ontario".
  9. ^ Daniel Drolet, "Candidates pitch parties, not themselves," Ottawa Citizen, 3 June 1995, C3; Eye Weekly, Nate Hendley, "From green dreams to family values, 'fringe' politicians party on" Archived 2013-11-30 at archive.today, undated [from the 1999 Ontario provincial election]; Kathleen Hay, "Party aims to bring the life of the nation into harmony with natural law," Cornwall Standard-Freeholder, 2 June 1999, p. 5.
edit