Natural Law Party of Canada

2025-10-06T15:40:41Z

134.117.247.226: Undid revision 1304788657 by Red dwarf (talk) This edit took a grammatically correct sentence and introduced a grammatical error.

{{Short description|Pro-Transcendental Meditation political party in Canada}}
{{Notability|Organizations|date=June 2020}}{{Infobox political party
| name = Natural Law Party of Canada
| native_name = Parti de la loi naturelle du Canada
| _subheader = Former federal party
| logo =
| leader = Neil Paterson
| president =
| chairman =
| chairperson =
| spokesperson =
| leader1_title =
| leader1_name =
| foundation = {{Start date|1992}}
| dissolution = {{Start date|2004|1|23}}
| merger =
| split =
| predecessor =
| merged =
| successor =
| headquarters =
| ideology = pro-[[Transcendental Meditation]]
| position =
| national =
| international = [[Natural Law Party]]
| student_wing =
| youth_wing =
| membership =
| membership_year =
| colours = [[Rainbow]]
| colors =
| colorcode = lavender
| blank1_title = Fiscal policy
| blank1 =
| blank2_title = Social policy
| blank2 =
| seats1_title = Seats in the [[House of Commons of Canada|House of Commons]]
| seats1 =
| seats2_title = Seats in the [[Senate of Canada|Senate]]
| seats2 =
| seats3_title = Seats in [[Legislative Assemblies of Canadian provinces and territories|Legislature]]
| seats3 =
| website =
| country = Canada
| state = Canada
| parties_dab1 = List of federal political parties in Canada
| elections_dab1 = List of Canadian federal general elections
| footnotes =
}}

The '''Natural Law Party of Canada''' (NLPC) was the [[Canada|Canadian]] branch of the international [[Natural Law Party]] founded in 1992 by a group of educators, business leaders, and lawyers who practised [[Transcendental Meditation]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Roth |first=Robert |date=1998 |title=The Natural Law Party: A Reason to Vote |url=https://archive.org/details/naturallawpartyr00roth/page/285 |location=New York City, New York |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |pages=285–286 |isbn=978-0312193041 |access-date=January 25, 2025 |quote=The Natural Law Party was founded in 1992 by a dozen [Transcendental Meditation] meditators—medical doctors, business executives, and lawyers.}}</ref>

==Description and history==

The [[Magic (illusion)|magician]] [[Doug Henning]] was senior vice president of NLPC, and ran as the party's candidate for the former [[Toronto]] riding of [[Rosedale (electoral district)|Rosedale]] in the [[1993 Canadian federal election|1993 federal election]], finishing sixth out of ten candidates.<ref name="Gardner">{{Cite web |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/1995/05/doug-henning-and-the-giggling-guru/ |title=Doug Henning and the Giggling Guru | Skeptical Inquirer |last=Kreidler |first=Marc |date=May 1, 1995}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/SiteInformation/parlinfoMoved |title=ParlInfo Has Moved |website=lop.parl.ca}}</ref>

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.<ref name =Gardner/> In a 1993 news article, [[Naomi Rankin]], the leader of the [[Communist Party of Alberta]], referred to the NLP as "crackpot".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Monchuk |first=Judy |title=Fringe parties include 'right, left, crackpot' |date=June 6, 1993 |work=[[The Gazette (Montreal)|The Gazette]] |location=Montreal, Quebec |page=A6 |quote=Rankin's "crackpot" reference is to the Natural Law Party, a new-age group that advocates transcendental meditation as a cure for many of the province's economic and social woes.}}</ref> One of its slogans was "If you favour Natural Law, Natural Law will favour you."<ref>{{Cite news |last=GRIFFIN |first=KEVIN |title=Henning sends out de-stress signals: The magician is here to explain the politics of yogic flying and vanishing deficits |date=October 18, 1993 |work=The Vancouver Sun |page=A.5}}</ref> The party was de-registered by [[Elections Canada]], the Canadian government's election agency, on January 23, 2004.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=par&document=index&lang=e#Natural |title=Registered Political Parties and Parties Eligible for Registration |last=Elections Canada |access-date=November 22, 2010}}</ref>

===Election results===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! Election
! # of candidates nominated
! # of seats won
! # of total votes
! % of popular vote
! % of pop vote NLP ridings
|-
! [[1993 Canadian federal election|1993]]
| 231
| 0
| 85,450
| 0.63%
| 0.77%
|-
! [[1997 Canadian federal election|1997]]
| 136
| 0
| 37,085
| 0.29%
| 0.61%
|-
! [[2000 Canadian federal election|2000]]
| 69
| 0
| 16,573
| 0.13%
| 0.53%
|}

==Ontario branch==
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 Ontario general election|1995]] and [[1999 Ontario general election|1999 provincial elections]]. Ashley Deans, who was a candidate for Trinity-Spadina in the 1997 and 2000 elections,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.elections.ca/scripts/edwa301_historical/Default.asp?L=E&Page=PastResults&ED=35091 |title=Elections Canada Electoral District Results: Trinity Spadina |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019143952/http://www.elections.ca/scripts/edwa301_historical/Default.asp?L=E&Page=PastResults&ED=35091 |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> was the president of the party between 1993 and 2000.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ncf.ca/ip/government/provelect/parties/natlaw/deans.txt |title=Dr. Ashley Deans President, Natural Law Party of Ontario }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The party leader was Ron Parker.<ref>Daniel Drolet, "Candidates pitch parties, not themselves," ''Ottawa Citizen'', 3 June 1995, C3; [http://contests.eyeweekly.com/eye/issue/issue_05.20.99/news/outsiders.php Eye Weekly, Nate Hendley, "From green dreams to family values, 'fringe' politicians party on"] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20131130142148/http://contests.eyeweekly.com/eye/issue/issue_05.20.99/news/outsiders.php |date=2013-11-30 }}, undated [from the [[1999 Ontario general election|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.</ref>

==Quebec branch==
The Parti de la loi naturelle du Québec (PLNQ, in [[English language|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|date=December 2013}} Its leader from 1994 to 2003 was Allen Faguy.{{citation needed|date=December 2013}}

===Election results===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! General election
! # of candidates
! # of elected candidates
! % of popular vote
|-
! 1994
| 102
| 0
| 0.85%
|-
! 1998
| 35
| 0
| 0.13%
|}

==See also==
*[[List of political parties in Canada]]
*[[Natural Law Party candidates, 1993 Canadian federal election]]
*[[Natural Law Party candidates, 1997 Canadian federal election]]
*[[Natural Law Party candidates, 2000 Canadian federal election]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091217055751/http://www.assnat.qc.ca/fra/patrimoine/ National Assembly historical information]

{{Transcendental Meditation}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Natural Law Party of Canada| ]]
[[Category:Federal political parties in Canada]]
[[Category:Provincial political parties in Quebec]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 2004]]
[[Category:Defunct provincial political parties in Ontario]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1992]]
[[Category:1992 establishments in Canada]]
[[Category:Defunct political parties in Canada]]
[[Category:2004 disestablishments in Canada]]

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Natural Law Party of Canada