Though politics were only getting kooky in recent years? Wait until you hear what happened in Vancouver in the 70’s!

As head of the Peanut Party, Mr. Peanut ran to be mayor of Vancouver in the election of 1974.

His campaign motto was “elect a nut for mayor.”

Looking very fine in his monocle and top hat, he would perform all sorts of tricks to treat his fans. He would tap dance, hand out peanuts to people (kind of morbid, considering he is a peanut himself) and all sorts of wacky things of that kind.

He had a very sharp wit, and would attend debates as well, although he made sure never to speak a single word, his reason being that “politicians don’t have anything to say.”

Luckily, if anything did need to be said, his campaign manager would say it for him, or his group of backup dancers, the peanettes.

I say that all politicians from now on must have backup dancers. Whoever’s with me say “aye.”

He also outlined the rest of his platform with the acronym PEANUT:

P – Performance

E – Elegance

A – Art

N – Nonsense

U – Uniqueness

T – Talent

Running on that platform, I would vote for him in an instant.

Now unfortunately, like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, there comes a day when we figure out that these things are not quite as real as they seem.

It would be nice to believe that Mr. Peanut ran for mayor of Vancouver out of the kindness of his heart, but he was actually a character created by an artist named Vincent Trasov, who was the man inside the Mr. Peanut suit. Sadly, modern technology still has not reached the point where we can bring peanuts to life.

Even though Mr. Peanut was meant to be a piece of art and a political statement rather than a serious candidate, he still got a sizeable chunk of the vote! 2,685 people voted for Mr. Peanut in that election, which amounted to 4% of the popular vote.

Go Mr. Peanut!