Rhino Party spokesperson Charlie McKenzie injected absurdist humour into federal politics

It will go down in Canadian electoral history as probably the most bizarre and entertaining free-time political broadcast that voters will ever witness. It was 1984 and Canada was in the midst of a general election campaign.As upbeat music plays, a CBC announcer in a serious tone introduces the official representative of the Rhinoceros Party, its national chairman and “janitor,” Charlie McKenzie. He is seated in front of a fireplace, a middle-aged hippie with a greying beard who’s wearing a Hawaiian-style shirt, his feet on a desk laden with beer cans. Alongside him is an easel with a chart on it, emblazoned with the word, “SEX.”