Cornelius was the nominal leader of the
federal political party the
Rhinoceros Party of Canada from 1965 to 1993. The party attracted a considerable number of votes in Canadian elections
1979,
1980 and
1984, sometimes even coming in second place in some
ridings, but never elected a candidate to the
House of Commons of Canada. The Party was inspired by
Cacareco, a rhinoceros at the
São Paulo zoo in Brazil, which was a candidate for the 1958 city council elections with the intention of protesting against political corruption. Electoral officials did not accept Cacareco's candidacy, but he eventually won 100,000 votes, more than any other party in that election (which was also marked by rampant
absenteeism). Today, the term "Voto Cacareco" (Cacareco vote) is commonly used to describe protest votes in Brazil. During the
Canadian federal election of 1984, the party made a major part of their platform declaring war on
Belgium because a Belgian cartoon character,
Tintin, killed a rhinoceros in one of the early works of the comics series. The party offered to call off the threatened Belgium-Canada war if Belgium delivered a case of
mussels and a case of Belgian beer to Rhinoceros "Hindquarters" in Montreal (the Belgian Embassy in Ottawa went through with it). ==United States==