This piece was written in the lead-up to the 2015 Canadian elections

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The past two weeks I’ve been working on an assignment for my Digital Communications class wherein I study the campaigns of various social media campaigns of the candidates running for office in my home riding of NDG-Westmount. For more on that, and the resulting podcast you can head over here.

So this riding was represented by the three major parties: Liberal, Conservative and NDP, though it also had some other representation as well. That on it’s own isn’t surprising, many ridings around the country will see representation from the Green Party, Marxist-Leninists, Independents, or even due to the fact that this riding is in La Belle Province, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Bloc Québecois as well.

But what was surprising was the last candidate, and independent. The one that, on election day, received the fewest amount of votes in the riding, with 151. Or 0.3% of all votes counted. This candidate being, Humbert the Cat.

Well, in truth, given that Humbert is a cat, he couldn’t viably run on his own, and so the name on the ballot was given to Lisa Julie Cahn, a representative of this feline. But alas, the stars didn’t align for Humbert/Lisa as it was the incumbent, astronaut Marc Garneau, who came away with the victory.

But then again, most people would have predicted that. What absolutely no one would predict, would be that a cat could ever win a seat in the House of Commons. And so we’re left with the question, why run in the first place?

Well, to answer that question, I talked to the best person available, Humbert’s owner/campaign manager John Jordan. Jordan described his decision making for putting his pet in the running.

“My cat Humbert strolled in and we decided on the spot that he was the most beloved character in our lives and deserved a shot at the big chair.” – John Jordan

Well, regardless as to whether Humbert could sit still in one of the 338 chairs in the Green Chamber, why would Humbert deserve a spot?

Maybe it’s due to a frustration in the election system.

A common tactic amongst those that don’t believe in the electoral process is to spoil a ballot. But that only eliminates one ballot. By putting in a candidate, you have the hope to invite more voters to effectively spoil their ballots as well by voting with you. These mock-candidates might never admit that this is at the root of their campaign, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

On an episode of the BBC show Black Mirror, a similar campaign occurs, wherein a cartoon bear ends up running for politics.

He throws a whole farce into the campaign as a whole. But the real worry stems from the fact that he starts doing well. People begin to rally behind his satirical denouncement of the electoral process, and in turn, give him a viable chance to win.

At what point does satire become reality? Sure, we can laugh about the possibilities of Humbert the Cat serving as the Minister of the Mysterious-Red-Dot-Moving-Around-The-Wall, but what if he had won? And in this discussion of satirical candidates, where do individuals like Donald Trump lie, who are so blatantly against convention that their very being is that of a wildcard?

It’s a question we as Canadians didn’t have to seriously consider this election, we just get to enjoy this legitimate campaign poster.