Canada’s newest federal political party was officially launched in Ottawa on Wednesday.
The Canadian Future Party describes itself as a centrist option for voters who are not dissatisfied with either the Liberals or the Conservatives.
“For too long, Canadians have been asked to play a political shell game,” interim leader Dominic Cardy said at a press conference in Ottawa.
“The left’s shell hides the social programs it needs. But all too often, that means buying a bloated government and ever-increasing spending that has nothing to do with getting results.”
“Beneath the shell of the right we should find fiscal discipline. But all too often it hides a narrow-minded approach that blames the weakest for their misery, selfishness masquerading as freedom, blithely diverting state resources to the rich, and policing our bodies and bedrooms.”
The party’s interim leader, Tara McPhail, a former Conservative Party activist, attended Cardy’s launch ceremony on Wednesday. She said the new party would be a place for Canadians like her who are “politically homeless.”
“(Canadians) don’t like the options on the left or the right,” McPhail said.
“And we’ve moved away from a policy of moderation and civility. And when I talk to Canadians, they say they’d like to see more of that. So we think we’re helping to fill a vacuum that exists.”
Cardy, a former minister in New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative government and former leader of the province’s New Democratic Party, said the new party is neither left nor right oriented, “but forward.”
The Canadian Future Party will test itself right from the start by fielding candidates in the LaSalle—Émard—Verdun and Elmwood—Transcona by-elections next month.
Mark Khoury is on the ballot for the Quebec election, while the party’s candidate for the Manitoba election will be announced in the next few days.
Party program calls for increased defense spending
Cardy said the party’s ideology aims to find solutions to problems by “looking at facts and sharing research and methodologies” so that Canadians can understand how the party makes its policy decisions.
“That means, for example, that we don’t waste time arguing about climate change,” Cardy said. “It’s real. What matters is how we use our creative powers to solve the problem.”
Cardy laid out five key policy pillars that he said the new party will campaign on: reforming government programs, increasing Canada’s defense spending to two percent of gross domestic product, reforming immigration policy through “better gatekeepers,” making life more affordable by “reducing protectionism,” and increasing competition in the aviation, telecommunications, and agricultural sectors.
When asked why he thought Canadians wanted a party like his – given the Conservatives’ lead in the polls – Cardy said those same polls showed that Canadians wanted an alternative to Justin Trudeau, but were uncomfortable with the “extremism and divisiveness” of Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre.
Dominic Cardy, a longtime provincial politician from New Brunswick, says his new party – the Canadian Future Party – will try to win votes from people who want an alternative to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.
“(Poilievre) is hanging on the heels of the American MAGA movement, and that kind of politics is not Canadian,” Cardy said. “And when the Liberals talk about everything being fine and ‘sunny,’ they’re living in the 1990s.”
The Conservatives described the new party as a fringe organization and said Canadians were not paying attention to it.
“If Canadians want to get rid of the disastrous Trudeau government and its draconian carbon tax, propped up by the NDP cronies of Jagmeet Singh and Dominic Cardy, voting for Pierre Poilievre’s sensible Conservatives is the only option,” said Sebastian Skamski, Poilievre’s director of media relations.
The Prime Minister’s Office reached out to the Liberal Party of Canada for comment on the formation of the new party.
“Clearly, conservatives across the country do not feel welcome in Pierre Poilievre’s far-right Conservative Party,” said Parker Lund, communications director for the Liberal Party.
“While Pierre Poilievre seeks to make drastic cuts to the programs Canadians depend on, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal team are focused on building more housing, investing in better public health care, lowering the cost of living and ensuring everyone has a fair chance to succeed.”
“They are not terrible people”
Cardy said he would run for party leadership at the party’s convention in November.
Cardy said he could not say how many members the party has registered. He noted that the party only received approval from Elections Canada last month, which requires it to have 250 founding members. He said support for the party is steadily growing. He added that the party will have a rigorous vetting system to ward off possible foreign interference.
“Our leadership table includes people with experience from all major political parties at different levels, including former MPs,” he said.
When asked whether the party had the support of current MPs, Cardy said he had spoken to a number of them.
“I expect a lot of them are excited to see how we do in the coming period and I hope we can win some of them over,” he said. “Because there are some great MPs from all parties.”
“And wouldn’t it be nice if we could actually say that again? That they’re not terrible. They’re not terrible people. That there are some fantastic people involved in politics.”
