Nova Scotia

Ellen DeGeneres endorses Tuxedo Stan for mayor

The popular daytime television host Ellen DeGeneres, said she would vote for Halifax mayoralty cat Tuxedo Stan on her Tuesday afternoon show.

CNN's Anderson Cooper announced Tuxedo Party support a few weeks ago

Ellen backs Tuxedo Party

12 years ago
Duration 0:32
The popular daytime television host Ellen, has officially backed Halifax mayoralty cat Tuxedo Stan on her Tuesday afternoon show.

The popular daytime television host Ellen DeGeneres, said she would vote for Halifax mayoralty cat Tuxedo Stan on her show Tuesday afternoon.  

"That's totally real, he's running for mayor and — I don't like to get political — but I would vote for that cat," said DeGeneres.  

Tuxedo Stan can't actually run as the law requires all candidates to have birth certificates. That hasn't stopped his followers from scooping up Stan paraphernalia, which has been selling out across the city.  

DeGeneres is not the first celebrity to use their star-power to back Halifax's most famous feline. A few weeks ago CNN host Anderson Cooper announced his endorsement of Tuxedo Stan on his show, AC360.  

"We usually don't take sides politically, but I think we'll go ahead an make an unofficial endorsement for one candidate for mayor of Halifax. His name is Tuxedo Stan," Cooper announced during a segment called the RidicuList.

Tuxedo Stan has been gaining international attention since his campaign kicked off earlier this summer. His owners offered him up as a candidate as a way to force other candidates to address the growing wild cat population in Nova Scotia's capital city.

Halifax has laws in place to ensure dogs are spayed and neutered, but no such legislation exists for cats. All profits from Stan's campaign are going towards fixing wild cats.

To date, five of the city's mayoralty candidates have signed Tuxedo Stan's pledge to "help cats," pledging to support a comprehensive feline population control program to humanely control Halifax's growing feral cat problem.

The program would include the formation of a committee and the implementation of an affordable and accessible spay/neuter program.

Aaron Eisses signed the pledge Tuesday and joins Halifax mayoralty candidates Fred Connors, Mike Savage, Tom Martin and Robert Wesley McCormack.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Seasick marine biologist, turned journalist. She lives in Halifax. In 2018 she helped lead a team of reporters and editors to win the RTDNA Ron Laidlaw Continuing Coverage Award for work on the Deep Trouble series. The series delved into the plight of the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. She can be reached at cassandra.williams@cbc.ca, on Twitter @cassiehwilliams