“Small doesn’t necessarily mean irrelevant” Leader of the Canadian Future Party comes to Caledon

June 4, 2026 · 0 Comments

By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Dominic Cardy, leader of the Canadian Future Party, took the long drive to Palgrave on Monday, June 1, to speak with residents about the issues they hoped to see reflected in their own politics.

The Canadian Future Party was formed by Cardy, a former New Brunswick cabinet minister and former Progressive Conservative party MLA, in August of 2024, to create a party that is “Not left. Not right. Forward.”

Cardy told the small group gathered that day at the Caledon Equestrian Park that his current objective was to hear Canadians’ ideas and thoughts.

“That’s the whole point of going around the country right now, trying to build a small party into something bigger, is to listen to Canadians, because how else are we actually going to figure out what people want to talk about?” Cardy says in his opening remarks. “If we are going to have an evidence-based party, the evidence for a political party in Canada has to start with what Canadians want.”

Cardy says there was “no stress” at that moment about the number of listeners.

“This is a building project, and people who come out right now are the people who are most interested.”

What brought him to Caledon was a local member of the party, he explains.

“I’ve been really clear with party members across the country, and with really anyone saying if you want to talk about democracy and how we can get Canada back on track, I’m there. So, I do my best to try and make it build in as many meetings as I can along the way.”

He adds that those need to get back to being in the same room and having discussions: “I think that’s how real democratic politics happens.”

Cardy discussed the history of Canadian politics and the “back and forth” between Liberal and Conservative parties.

“I was under no illusions about how, frankly, crazy it was to try and start this party,” says Cardy. “Small doesn’t necessarily mean irrelevant. New doesn’t necessarily mean unsuccessful.”

In the evening, Cardy addressed topics such as AI use, Canadian identity, free press, and more.

He also spoke about the importance of balanced budgets, something he advocated during his time with the PC party.

During his remarks, he refers to political parties as planes.

He says Prime Minister Mark Carney is piloting a plane with a certain design limitation, and that plane is called the “Liberal Party of Canada.”

“All airplanes have limits. Mine has limits in terms of range and speed because we’re small. But as we grow, we’re able to go to greater distances, fly more interesting missions, and hopefully have more impact,” says Cardy.

Currently working to develop their finance portfolio platform, the core Cardy says it will be a broad wholesale tax reform.

“Without modernizing our tax system, which has not been looked at since the 1960s, we are going to be left without a hope of competing in this chaotic new world that’s now facing us,” says Cardy.

When it comes to AI, Cardy says Canada will face the “biggest economic shock that the human race has faced probably since the invention of the wheel,” adding that categories of jobs will continue to disappear daily.

“This is going to cause economic destruction that’s going to throw hundreds of thousands of people out of a job. We have no plans for dealing with this. There is no discussion going on in Ottawa about how we confront it,” says Cardy.

By the next election, he says he hopes to have a plan for how they can make AI work for Canada.

“Not just with data centers, not just with making work more efficient, but how we can harness a new technology that in some cases allows us to make the best use of a small population,” he says.

The CFP will look at which government programs need to be reformed and enhanced with AI, and which are no longer needed.

Lastly, Cardy touched on the Canadian Identity “crisis.”

“Our mistake has been that too often we’ve ended up having a conversation based around where you’re from rather than what you believe,” he says. “I don’t care who you love. I don’t care what you look like. I care if you come to Canada or you’re already here. You believe in democracy, the rule of law, free press, an independent judiciary and evidence-based politics as a way of deciding what government should do, because if you adopt those basic platforms, they’ve been picked up by established democracies like us and worked.”

Those sitting in the room engaged Cardy in conversations regarding his platform outreach, AI use, and trade agreements.

Something critical to his party, he says, is stopping the belief that “we can separate our economy and our security.”

“How should we connect ethics and trade? If a country is bigger than you, hostile to you, and doesn’t share your values…run away as fast as you can,” Cardy says on the importance of taking care when deciding which countries to trade and engage with.

Circling back to his points on trade ethics, he says there needs to be conversations around ethical trade policy.

Bringing in the example of China, he says, “you don’t give your lunch money to the playground bully,” referencing their threats to Taiwan, as well as how China “behaves towards its citizens.”

Cardy also argues that there is underinvestment in the Canadian military and that it must be ensured that “Canada can be defended against threats from abroad.”

After the meeting, Cardy says the conversations in that room that night were “great,” and one of the best parts, he notes, was members of the audience engaging with one another.

“We can change to be the country we want if we actually decide that is what we want,” says Cardy. “The only way that we’re going to make it better is through conversations like this. Face-to-face, sitting in the same room, breathing the same air, talking about how we can make Canada better.”