Dominic Cardy officially launches new federal political party

Independent New Brunswick MLA Dominic Cardy officially launched a new centrist federal political party, aiming to win the support of disillusioned Liberal and Conservative voters.

The Canadian Future Party, Cardy says, will be a fiscally responsible, socially liberal party that will offer a new political home to Canadians fed up with extremism on both the right and left.

"Canadians have been asked to play a political shell game," Cardy said at a press conference Wednesday in Ottawa.

On the left, Cardy says social programs Canadians need have an increase in spending yielding little result.

On the right, "we're supposed to find fiscal discipline," he adds. "But along with it, too often, there’s a mean-spirited approach that blames the most vulnerable for their plight. Selfishness masquerading as liberty that happily misdirects government resources to the wealthy and polices our bodies and our bedrooms."

He ensures that "the Canadian Future Party is for all Canadians and I promise we are going to be courageous, we are going to be competent and we are going to be evidence-based."

Elections Canada recognized the Canadian Future Party as an eligible political party on July 22, and it was officially registered on Aug. 8.

Cardy says the party will run candidates in the Winnipeg and Montreal by-elections scheduled in September.

Cardy is a former Progressive Conservative MLA in New Brunswick and served in Premier Blaine Higgs' cabinet as minister of education and early childhood development.

He resigned from cabinet in 2022, publishing a blistering resignation letter that accused the premier of consolidating power, creating a disrespectful work environment and rejecting evidence-based decision-making.

Prior to his time with the New Brunswick PCs, Cardy served as leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party from 2011 to 2016.

The Canadian Future Party is the successor to Centre Ice Conservatives (CIC), a political pressure group which was founded in 2022, in the midst of the Conservative leadership race by former Conservative leadership candidate Rick Peterson.

Cardy served on CIC’s advisory council.

The Canadian Future Party’s website includes an interim policy framework that focuses, in part, on personal freedoms, open government, and responsible spending. The party insists the interim policy framework is not a formal platform, and it will be added to and amended.

"The Canadian Future Party proposes to move not left, not right, but forward," Cardy told reporters, before taking swipes at both Poilievre’s Conservatives and Trudeau’s Liberals.

"I was shocked the other week that Mr. Poilievre, the leader of a Conservative party, came out and said he refused to promise to increase defence spending to two per cent [of GDP]. He is riding on the coat-tails of the American MAGA movement and that sort of politics is not Canadian," said Cardy.

"Equally, when the Liberals talk about how everything is just fine and sunny ways, they’re living in the 1990s. We have got to have a realistic 2024 approach to politics based on Canadian needs," he added.

Conservatives "are not paying much attention to what the former NDP leader says and neither are Canadians," a spokesperson for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in a statement to CTV News

"If Canadians want to get rid of the disastrous Trudeau government and its punishing carbon tax, which is propped up by Jagmeet Singh and Dominic Cardy’s NDP friends, voting for Pierre Poilievre's common sense Conservatives is the only option. We will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, and stop the crime," said Sebastian Skamski, director of media relations in the Opposition Leader’s Office.

Conservatives "across the country don’t feel welcome in Pierre Poilievre’s far-right Conservative Party," a spokesperson for the Liberal Party said in a statement to CTV News.

"While Pierre Poilievre tries to make deep cuts to the programs Canadians rely on, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal team are focused on building more homes, investing in better public health care, lowering the cost of living, and making sure everyone has a fair shot at success," said Parker Lund, director of communications at the Liberal Party of Canada.