The Canadian Future Party, Canada’s newest federal political party, launched earlier this month with the goal of steering clear of political extremes on the left and right. The party was created after the Centre Ice Canadians — formerly the Centre Ice Conservatives — dissolved last year.
Dominic Cardy, an Independent Member of the Legislative Assembly in New Brunswick, is the party’s interim leader. The party has candidates running in Sept. 16 by-elections in Montreal and Winnipeg.
Cardy spoke with reporter Meagan Gillmore about why he launched the party and what Canadians can expect from it.
MG: What is the Canadian Future Party about?
DC: The Canadian Future Party is aiming to be a classical, small-l liberal party, because there really isn’t one in Canada. …
We know that a mixed economy works best with a strong private sector generating profits, part of which can be plowed back in through taxes to collective programs that allow people to live happier, better, richer lives. That’s us in a nutshell: not left, not right, but forward.
MG: You’ve talked in past interviews about how Canadians are dissatisfied with both the federal Liberal and Conservative parties. What would you say they’re dissatisfied with?
DC: We actually did some polling prior to the launch of the new party … There’s a growing concern amongst Canadians — including the supporters of the existing parties — that those parties are sliding too far to the extremes.
In the case of the Liberals, it’s more extremism and rhetoric covering up an astonishing irresponsibility in spending, and a total absence of planning. And on the Conservative side, it’s unfortunately too often dog whistling to folks who do not believe in an open society.
Something else I hear from a lot of Canadians is they don’t really know what they’re going to get from their parties anymore, because they can swing all over the place to meet changing public moods.
MG: What can people expect in terms of policy and proposals if you were to be in government?
DC: Democracy has to deliver, otherwise the population gets cynical about democracy and falls open to siren calls of populism. We’re certainly seeing that right now.
We’re a party that is comfortable with the government acting … but we need to have flexibility in the way that government programs are delivered.
One example would be on health care, where we are the only party saying we need to reopen the Canada Health Act to allow for provinces to offer different ways of delivering on the key promise of universal health care that doesn’t involve Canadians paying out-of-pocket … We are supremely indifferent as to how the provinces get there.
We have [also] got to commit to the target of two per cent of GDP for defence [spending] as soon as possible. We’re saying five years.
MG: You publicly acknowledge that climate change is happening and say we need to do something about it. Are you concerned that that might alienate certain conservative-minded voters?
DC: No, I don’t care about alienating people who don’t believe in science … One of the parts of the climate change debate that is the most depressing is that we sit around and argue about a carbon tax. We argue about recyclable Tim Hortons coffee cup lids.Â
What we’re not talking about is how do we unleash the unrivaled power of the private and public sectors to fix this problem? … We have the stability here to be able to experiment with new industrial and technological approaches to addressing climate change, starting with our nuclear program.
That’s our view of what government is supposed to be about: is to have a very limited list of things that we do, and to work with all power and effort to try and address those problems. Climate change is on that list.
MG: Have you seen evidence that there are specific ridings where you stand a good chance of winning seats?
DC: We haven’t done polling down [to the riding level] … We have done polling that’s shown us regions of the country where we have got some good pre-existing strengths.
When we look at … feelings of concern around the major parties drifting away, it’s not surprising that you see that in a large number of the urban areas in the country. But it was interesting [that] a lot of the rural areas [feel that way] as well.
Our goal is to run a national campaign and to have candidates in as many constituencies as we can get them in place.
MG: What is your strategy to recruit members and candidates and to let people know who you are and what you’re about?
DC: Making sure that we get the message out through as many mainstream media interviews as we can, using social media as well, and saying that this message is one that is not one that any of the other parties in Canada can share: that we are socially liberal, fiscally responsible, committed to a strong defense of our values, committed to overhauling our institutions so that democracy delivers.
Those are things that our other parties are not saying. We have a Liberal Party that’s constantly apologizing, over-promises and under delivers. We have a Conservative Party that’s embracing a sort of a MAGA-style of populism in a slightly watered down form, but certainly not offering anything in terms of concrete solutions to make life better for Canada.
MG: Are there any other policy items you would want to talk about?
DC: It is not so much a policy as an approach … which is to allow backbench MPs to do their jobs … If you move in that direction of letting the MPs speak, then suddenly the party leaders might actually hear that a bad idea is a bad idea before they inflict it on the country.
MG: What can people expect from you and the Canadian Future Party in the coming months?
DC: They can expect ideas that will be thought-provoking, controversial and will make life better for Canadians. We’re going to keep pushing those and keep hoping that the other parties will start to engage in discussions around how to actually make things better.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Dom is a pedo