Natural Law Party of Canada

Natural Law Party of Canada
Former federal party
Leader	Neil Paterson
Founded	1992 (1992)
Dissolved	January 23, 2003 (2003-01-23)
Ideology	pro-Transcendental Meditation
International affiliation	Natural Law Party
Official colours	Light blue
Politics of Canada Political parties Elections

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 practiced Transcendental Meditation.^[1]

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][4] The party was led by Dr. Neil Paterson.

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] Naomi Rankin, the leader of the Communist Party, called the NLP "crackpot".^[5] One of its slogans was "If you favor Natural Law, Natural Law will favor you."^[6]

The NLPC was primarily active in the provinces of Ontario (Natural Law Party of Ontario), Quebec (Parti de la loi naturelle du Québec) and British Columbia. The provincial wings had candidates and are now defunct.^{[citation needed]}

The party was de-registered by Elections Canada, the Canadian government's election agency, on January 23, 2003.^[7]

Election results

The Party never won a seat in Parliament.^{[citation needed]}

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%

See also

• Natural Law Party candidates, 2000 Canadian federal election
• Natural Law Party candidates, 1997 Canadian federal election
• Natural Law Party candidates, 1993 Canadian federal election
• Natural Law Party
• Natural Law Party of Ontario
• Parti de la loi naturelle du Québec
• List of political parties in Canada

Notes

1. ^ R. Roth, The Natural Law Party: A Reason to Vote, page 285. St. Martin's Press, 1998
2. ^ ^{a b} Gardner, Martin, "Doug Henning and the Giggling Guru", Skeptical Inquirer Vol 19.3 (May/June 1995)
3. ^ "'Have rabbit, will travel': Yogic flyer's Natural Law Party failed to capture the imagination", National Post (UK) (February 20, 2000)
4. ^ "Rosedale, Ontario (1933-1996)", History of Federal Ridings Since 1867
5. ^ MONCHUK, JUDY (June 6, 1993). "Fringe parties include `right, left, crackpot'". The Gazette (Montreal, Que.): p. A.6. 
6. ^ 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. 
7. ^ Elections Canada. "Registered Political Parties and Parties Eligible for Registration". http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=par&document=index&lang=e#Natural. Retrieved November 22, 2010.