/r/CanadianFutureParty
This is the unofficial sub for the Canadian Future Party. Any and all discussion of the party, centrist politics and policies, and friendly discussion of Canadian politics is welcome and encouraged.
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https://thecanadianfutureparty.ca/our-team/
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https://thecanadianfutureparty.ca/interim-policy-framework/
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I heard about this parties launch in August but I haven't heard a word from or about them since?
With all that is going on in Canada right now I would think this is the time to give Canadians another choice.
Canadian Future Party where are you?
Hello folks. Apologies for the delay, this meeting went longer into the evening than I expected and I had a stressful drive back to BC the following day. Here's an overview of what your Federal Council discussed at Sunday's meeting.
First off, we have a new President. Tara McPhail is stepping away from this high-profile position in the party for career reasons, though not leaving the FC altogether. Tara has done a ton of work the past 18 months on helping the party get registered with Elections Canada, run our first couple campaigns, build the party's branding and communications strategy, pass our constitution, and a million other tasks that come along with the grind of building something new. We are fortunate she made time to share her experience and expertise with us and I hope she does well in her new career.
Our new President is Adéle Jackson; some of you may have met Adele's father, Bill, at our convention in Ottawa last month. You can find her on LinkedIn if you want details on her work and educational background, but suffice to say that she has extensive management experience in multi-stakeholder non-profit settings. She was good enough to call me while I was on the road yesterday and our professional histories are quite comparable. She shared her interest in helping develop public engagement tools to support our members in hosting their own gatherings (getting ready for the summer BBQ circuit, basically) and I look forward to working with her on this. An official announcement about her appointment will come in the new year, but it's an open secret at this point.
Moving on, the business of the meeting focused on a discussion of our draft communications structure and workplan for the coming year. If you’ve ever heard about party’s maintaining a “warbook” for campaigns, this is its bones. It sets out timelines and specific goals on setting up EDAs, writing op-eds, hosting fundraising dinners, releasing costed policy commitments, and so on. The draft was approved by FC on Sunday, though it’ll be continually revisited and revised in the coming months. Yesterday’s resignation increases the possibility of a spring election (in my eyes, at least, but who knows what will happen) which we’ll do our best to be ready to contest, but I encourage members and supporters to be modest in their expectations of what we can accomplish and how quickly. For me, building the CFP is a ten-year commitment.
We also spoke briefly about EDA prioritization, a topic I know interests many of you. The message I’ll share is that if you want to draw attention to your riding as a prospect for early attention, please-please-please, complete the call to action form Julie has forwarded in her various emails. This helps us identify our pockets of most-engaged members.
Our next meeting is scheduled for mid-January. I’m happy to take any questions you have about this past Sunday’s call, how you can get involved, what I’ll be working on when I’m back in SK, how far the Jets will go in the post-season, etc. Thanks for reading!
Dominic's convention speech is now on the YouTube channel:
Please find below the Press Release that was shared with media today.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Canadian Future Party leader Dominic Cardy today called for a unity government to guide Canada through the unprecedented threats the country is facing both internally and externally.
“We have never before seen the chaos we are seeing in Ottawa today,” said Cardy. “This comes at a time when we are facing what is likely the most serious economic threat in our history from the proposed punitive tariffs by President-Elect Donald Trump.
“At the same time, we continue to face a global economic crisis and essentially a global war between the forces of democracy and the forces of autocracy.”
On the day she was supposed to present the Fall Economic Update, Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned, stating she no longer had confidence in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or his government’s fiscal policy. Simultaneously, Sean Fraser, considered one of the few effective ministers in this government, also stepped down.
Some are calling for an election in the midst of this chaos. That is the last thing we need, said Cardy.
“Ms. Freeland herself called for Canada’s government and provincial and territorial leaders to work together to push back on the serious threat coming from Trump’s proposed 25 per cent tariffs,” he said.
“We need to go a step further. We need a unity federal government to fight the pending trade battle with the US and to continue guiding us through the Ukraine war and economic turbulence.”
So far, Mr. Trudeau has put the interests of himself and his party above the interests of Canada. He has also, as Ms. Freeland pointed out in devastating fashion, introduced harmful fiscal policies in a vain hope of buying votes. He should have resigned some time ago, but, again, his interests trumped Canada’s. Now he’s not even considering the interests of his party.
He must go. We are in too serious a moment to be led by someone who has lost the confidence of Canadians and now even seems to have lost the confidence of a significant part of his cabinet and caucus.
But it absolutely would not be in the interests of Canada to go into an election now. That would be piling chaos onto chaos, fighting an out-of-control fire by pouring gasoline on it. Other parties may perceive it to be in their interest, but that would simply be mimicking Trudeau and putting their interests over Canada’s.
Rather, this is the moment for those elected to represent Canadians to stand up and represent Canadians. All elected parties in the House of Commons need to put their partisan interests aside and support Canada. And all should be included, temporarily, in a government to get us through this crisis.
Canada has responded to crisis by presenting a united front before. In WWI, Sir Robert Borden led a Union government that combined Conservative and most Liberal MPs. The United Kingdom did it in WWII under Winston Churchill. More recently, the New Brunswick PC government, following the provincial COVID plan written by our leader Dominic Cardy, formed an all party committee to manage the Covid outbreak. In the early days of that crisis, New Brunswick was widely praised for its response.
We need to get through this moment. There will be time to return to partisan fighting – and infighting – soon enough.
Now is not that moment.
It's almost 2025
The liberals are going to get crushed
If I don't see a candidate from CFP in my riding soon I'm going to have to choose between the CPC (ick) or the NDP (eww).
Please don't make me make that choice
I've thrown together a Bluesky starter pack from folks I met at the convention and to Julia's call on Bluesky for followers to shout out. https://go.bsky.app/DUaEfLb
Flag me at https://bsky.app/profile/clendinning.ca
Pretty much the title. Canada is a big place and no platform will be wholly popular from coast to coast. In such a situation should candidates hold firm to the entire platform or should they be allowed omissions or substitutions to fit local circumstances provided they are still in general agreement with the platform?
Canada should get rid of the three major railways. Via is the worst passenger railway in the world and small railways would do better. CNR and CPKCR are to large to be good for everyone. Smaller railways with government funding and mandates to modernize would do better. Please share your thoughts!
Ever since Dominic Cardy’s interview on the Rational View podcast I’ve been a bit wary of the party. I loved the idea of the universal Citizens Resiliency Corps… when I thought it was voluntary. But he explained on the aforementioned podcast that it would be mandatory, I’ve been less engaged with the party. I just don’t like that idea and as a young person myself, I certainly wouldn’t want to be forced into that. But if the members amended it to be voluntary then none of that matters and I can safely re-join the party.
EDIT: Well, after all the comments informed me, I'm glad that the policy resolution was not adopted! (or voted on in general apparently).
I think most Canadians can agree that over the past decade or two we've seen a visible decline in the available providers of service as well as the quality of service, often along with a painful increase in price.
To name a few:
Airlines: primarily dominated by Air Canada and WestJet. Air travel in Canada is an expensive horror-show for anyone traveling. As regulations were added to deal with constant issues, the CTA backlog is in the tens of thousands - possibly hundreds of thousands (they no longer tell you what your place in line was but I was in the 34k range a couple years ago for a still unresolved case) - with that number get growing
Food services: Big names like Loblaws have bought out their smaller competitor then cranked up prices. Food banks are overburdened as people literally can't afford to eat. Several brands have left Canada as their product has been given reduced shelf space in favor of store brands. Big packing companies like Cargill happily let the grocery stores and farmers - who aren't seeing much if any of this price hike - take the blame while they may off like bandits
General shopping: Online giants like Amazon act like a bazarre for foreign shell entities selling products that do not comply with local safety standards. Walmart continues to have issues where products with unacceptable levels of toxic substances - often products aimed at children - result in recalls
Telecom: Rogers bought up Shaw, and then happily laid off staff while the trioplogy Telus/Bell/Rogers and their subsidiaries continues to dominate both the home Internet market and mobile market both, all while Canadians pay for some of the worst prices ever. Their services are often also over-subscribed and under-provisioned/maintained meaning quality also continues to suffer
So after that little intro, my question is: what can we do about it? Bringing in a lot of outside companies - especially big American conglomerates - isn't going to fix things as they'll just push out the terrible domestic providers and then do the exact thing once establishing a dominant position, and the US isn't exactly known for quality offerings in sectors like Telecom while certain airlines literally have songs about their screw-ups. Similarly, adding too many nitpick regulations hits smaller companies harder, preventing them from becoming competitive
Europe - by contrast - often has some very consumer-friendly models and doesn't take bullshit even from big American corps, hitting the likes of Facebook, Google, and airlines etc with significant penalties when they break regulations.
I'd would propose that I'd any party of government truly wants to support the people, we need strong, consumer-focused regulations with equally strong monitoring and enforcement, with penalties for companies caught in falsehoods or engaging in deliberate delaying actions.
I know the Liberals aren't going to do this. The Conservatives won't except maybe to target a few Liberal-friendly industries with lip-service measures, and the NDP well... they're becoming increasingly less relevant Liberal-lites.
So... I'd like to see part of the CFP plan and platform for consumer-focused business regulation that creates a level playing-field for smaller/growing businesses and reduces too-big-to-fail situations where competition is stifled.
A number of years back I came across an article, A First Nations Province by Thomas J Courchene and Lisa M Powell (1992), which as the title suggests is about the benefits and feasibility of First Nations lands being organized into their own province.
Size-wise, FN lands are cumulatively bigger than PEI (about half the size of Nova Scotia). At the time the article was written status FN numbers about half a million (roughly the population of NFLD today). While there is a stereotype about reserves being poor there is a actually a broad spectrum of wealth levels across the many reserves. Right now Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada basically does oversee all FN lands as a single unit.
Benefits:
One thing FNs have wanted for a while now is a right to be consulted on constitutional issues and land use. A FN province provides that.
Transfer payments are harder for the federal government to deny, reduce, or distribute unequally compared to current reserve funding models.
The oversight of the Indian Act could likewise be transferred to this province eliminating the last legal remnant of the FNs being considered in the care of the federal government.
A non-contiguous province creates a provincial partner for the federal government on issues surrounding inter-provincial trade.
It is the, in my mind, logical end point of FN self-government. Each individual reserve would no longer be looking after issues of municipal, provincial, and federal concern with much of the burden transferred to the province.
Drawbacks:
It would be incredibly hard to negotiate with the provinces on this (unless by some constitutional quirk we didn't have to).
While technically based on land, it would appear to be a province based on ethnic origin which may make people uncomfortable.
The below went out to mailing list subscribers a couple days ago. I'm sharing it here for visibility; please let me know if I broke any links. ~ Cody
Dear supporters,
As you know, we held our first convention in Ottawa November 8-10 and we not only built momentum, we also collectively made decisions that allow us to move forward.
On Friday, we all got to know each other and our leader Dominic Cardy who answered questions from members.
On Saturday we confirmed our President, National Council and Leader until the next convention in Spring 2026.
Saturday afternoon was spent on debating our policy resolutions and we had great discussions and debates. The following resolutions were approved with amendments:
This intense afternoon of debate was followed by an optional fundraising cocktail where members continued to get to know each other.
Sunday morning was spent on the Constitution which was passed with amendments.
A final resolution was passed that created temporary rules until we have 40 EDAs to take on their responsibilities.
All of these documents are currently being cleaned up, edited for consistency and translated. Once these final clean versions are approved we will share them with you and place them on the website.
The entire event was recorded. Our volunteers are currently working to edit the stream in order to place it on the internet for you to watch. I will update you when it is ready.
For anyone who wants to have a debrief of the convention I will be hosting one on Saturday December 7 at 6pm EST. You can sign up here.
Our Convention was a huge success and left everyone energized but would not have happened without volunteers who did really heavy lifting. Blair McPherson, John Coo made sure this event happened in terms of logistics and planning. The entire Federal Council pitched in to get to Convention with well drafted resolutions and Constitution as well as conducting the event with great skill and energy. Chris Brownrigg, Mark Horseman, Bill Clendinning and Andre Grant helped us bring order to the convention through either participating on the prioritization committee or helping Federal Council run the votes and apply Roberts Rules. Richard Lantz made us beautifully branded popups and posters and Zbig Strycharz and Chris Reid helped us with transcribing and notes. Sonam Burke ran wonderful tours for us. Alex and Lucy Neilson helped check attendees in. So many other attendees jumped in when we needed them. This was a team effort and over the three days we knew we had found the magic sauce and build a national community.
My only regret is that I didn’t get to spend more time with every attendee who brought great perspective, wonderful conversation and positive energy. I am not worries though as this is a beginning not an end.
The question everyone is asking me since convention is: what now?
Well I am glad you asked! Because I need every one of you for this next step. We had had to spend the last year building the centre, now we need to build the community.
There are a few ways to do that. You can sign up to be a candidate, volunteer or working group member here.
You can help us build in your community by putting your name forward to help us build your Electoral District Association, by connecting us with your local media and by spreading the word in your community.
You can organize a fundraiser in your community that can be attended by the Leader.
You can amplify us on social media and via email.
You can join the conversation through our WhatsApp group[check your email or DM me with your member number] to build EDAs or for volunteers, or by joining our list of members on Bluesky.
You can subscribe and share our Youtube channel.
In the next few weeks we will share more materials so you can spread the word.
We also need your financial support. If you can sign up with a monthly donation we will be able to do our work faster.
This has been a busy year but we are ready to build. Join us!
Julie
I’ve been seeing a lot about the magic 2% GDP on defence spending. While this party is committed to it I haven’t found anything that says how we are interested in spending it. I know there is a lot more detailed policy coming through since the convention and if someone can direct me there that would be great. However I’m interested in knowing if we are going to spend 2% for our allies or for us? Will a new revitalized military be for nato or will it be designed to confront Canadian security issues like the Arctic?
I've never been involved in an EDA before so I'm curious as to what works/doesn't work for getting people involved in an EDA.
Hi I am looking to see how people feel about Canada supporting Israel in its military operations.
Any CFP members 12-30 are invited to take part in the upcoming Youth Council Meeting on December 7th at 6 EST.
Meeting agenda: "This will be an opportunity for you to provide us with your input on our draft charter, which will set the foundation for the Youth Wing going forward. We will also let youth members know how they can get involved in the party. Additionally, if you are interested in putting your name forward to become part of the Youth Wing leadership, it is very important that you attend this meeting as details regarding the election will be shared."
Check your emails for a recent email from info@ourcanadianfuture.com for registration details.
Hey there! This is unrelated to general politics, but I wanted to see with the party growing what the current consensus is.
I am a Bluenoser and in the last stretch of our early election campaign. With several provincial elections having just happened or finishing up, I started wondering about how CFP folks vote at the provincial level, as I think many agree politics and aligned ideologies are all sorts of different at the provincial level than federal (in NS our Liberals are conservative, as an example).
Let us know where you usually vote at the provincial level.
I will try as hard as I can in the limited spots to encompass the range of options below. (somone for sure will take issue with the lumping together of the prov-centric options).
So, EDAs are limited to one riding per the constitution (and presumably by Elections Canada). Its also quite likely we won't have an EDA for every riding before the election (don't dog pile, it is a colossal task).
I was thinking about how to potentially get some sort of structure in these ridings with no EDAs which led me to ask two questions (regarding Elections Canada rules);
Can people be on multiple EDA boards?
Can EDAs transfer money to candidates in other ridings (I believe transfers between EDAs and the party, and between the party and the candidate have a pretty high limit so this question may be redundant)? Likewise, can they fund raise in other ridings?
What I'm suggesting is a sort of 'Regional Association' (RA) which would function as an EDA for multiple ridings, slowly withering away as individual EDAs are set up (or filling gaps if EDAs collapse). The RAs would function much like an EDA with the additional duty to keep separate the funds raised for each electoral district.
Potential Advantage:
Potential drawback: