Growing Up

I was fortunate to grow up in a stable household with 2 siblings and loving parents. My dad is a medical doctor and my mom stayed home at the time to take care of my siblings and I. Together, they made sure we grew up not needing for anything and ensured we stayed focused on school. Now of course, as a kid I would be grumpy about not getting whatever shiny thing I wanted at the time, but now that I am older I can tell they did their best and I appreciate it a lot.

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While I was born in Oman, all my childhood memories were made in the UAE. With the power of hindsight, I would say we were an upper middle class family. We were comfortable but by no means rich. As kids we never worried about money and my parents could afford to send us to the more expensive schools but we did not live in the luxuries that the Gulf Arabs are famous for. 

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Coming to Canada

After learning that Canada was in need of doctors in the mid 2000s, my dad applied as a skilled migrant. He received the acceptance in 2011 and in an instant our future plans as a family changed from settling in Egypt to immigrating half way around the world. I was in high school at the time, and in typical teenager fashion my future plans a hazy mess. And although I had a deeper interest in history and politics, I knew that I would like to do something related to engineering or computers because those make more money.

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2011 was also the 'Arab Spring' of protests and revolutions. The UAE was stable so we were not affected directly, but the worry about relatives and what the future might bring to the region was definitely on everyone's mind. While I was always fascinated by history, I trace my deep interest in politics to those events and to the ruthlessly scorching 'Arab Summer' in the years that followed.

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We landed in Canada in 2011, but soon discovered that my dad would need to do a series of tests to get his professional credentials recognized and that my siblings and I would need to repeat a school year. So my parents decided to postpone moving to Canada until 2013 after I graduate from high school and hoped that my dad would be ready to practice medicine in Canada by then.

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University Part I

I genuinely don't even remember why or how, but I eventually decided to study electrical engineering. I chose Carleton University in Ottawa and we moved here in 2013 just as planned with one exception. My dad could not join us. Now I don't remember the exact timeline clearly, but after doing a series of tests my dad discovered that Canada now recognized his qualifications but not his 20+ years of experience. He would be treated as a new grad. While the hope lingered, over the next few years my dad eventually gave up on moving to Canada with us and that's how it's been since.

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Meanwhile at University I slowly came to the realization that I really did not like electrical engineering and would much rather do software. Instead of switching degrees though, I decided to power through and just do more software courses. The powering through part failed in 2017 during my fourth year when I decided to postpone graduation by a year, take a couple minors, and change my capstone project.

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During this period of time in university, I truly came to appreciate the value of Canada's culture of tolerance and openness. While in the UAE I grew up surrounded by multiple cultures, in Canada there was an added degree of self-expression that did not exist there. I also found the lack of stigma attached to "low-skill" work quite inspiring. Unlike what I saw growing up, no one in Canada saw me as a lesser for doing manual labour part time. Canada's political life however was what shined to me the most, the ability to openly criticize the country's leadership is a powerful right and a refreshing sight to witness. It is in my opinion one of democracy's biggest strengths.

 

I came to view these values as more than enough compensation for the quality of life hit our family took. Exchange rates plus the cost of living were not kind to my dad's budget who was still the main breadwinner at the time. 

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Stumbling Part I

Over the course of 2017, I had a pretty bad car accident that shifted my perspective on life, but I did manage to graduate this time. I see 2018 as a turning point, I made many more friends including my ex-gf now wife, explored more of my interests, helped my parents buy a house, and looked forward to a proper career. That career did no materialize though, my lack of experience and courses did not land me the software job I hoped for. By 2019 I decided to go back to Carleton University for a Computer Science degree and a Co-op program.

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During that time I worked a series of odd jobs that are best summarized by my LinkedIn profile is here. Slowly, I came to appreciate the fact that in Canada people could afford a decent quality of life while working "low-paying" jobs. I was fortunate to be able to pay down my student loans while living with my parents, but I could easily myself supporting an independent life on such income. It is crushing to see this is no longer the case in 2023.

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University Part II

This time I was focused on getting things right and I managed to pull it off. I landed a good Co-op job in software and my career has followed a good track since. Covid turned a lot of things upside down during that period of time of course but overall it seemed like I got my life going on the "right track". By January 2022, I was about to graduate, the topic of marriage was coming up, and I started to look forward to my next stage in life. I made it!

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Stumbling Part II

Or so I thought.

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By March 2022, I got and accepted a good offer and started looking at life expenses and saving targets. I soon realized that if I wanted to move out based on my income I would have to either give up on saving or find a roommate. So my wife and I decided to get married one year sooner and honestly, I'm so glad we did that. A few promotions for both of us and we'd be set.

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With a backdrop of skyrocketing house prices, this experience seeded a thought in my mind, our quality of life is rapidly declining. If my good income was not enough for independence, how can people working minimum wage jobs get by without two jobs? And if they work two jobs, how would they be able to upskill, study, or start a family if they wanted?

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By March 2023 I learned that statistically my income wasn't good, it was actually great, the absurdity of our economy laughs at me ever since. Would promotions even make a difference? How will I afford to raise our future kids? What sort of future would they even have?? What a joke... it is all too ridiculous...

 

And so as I watched Canada's (and most of the world to be fair) everything slowly unravel and after I learned more about Canada's history I came to one conclusion. I got my sh*t together, just in time for the world to go to sh*t. What frustrated me even more though, is that Canada could turn things around if only the political leadership addressed the deep problems we are facing instead of focusing on voter blocs.

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After finding out that the establishment parties are either manipulating our anger or pretending everything is fine, I figured someone has to do something. And that's where I am now.

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The Future Party

I pitch the party in my own words more here.

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The summary is that I want to break the current establishment chokehold on our politics by ignoring all the shallow culture wars and instead laser focusing on advocating for deep reforms to Canada's foundational structures.

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It is a ridiculously difficult task, I am well aware, but someone needs to do something, and this is where you come in. I would be honoured if you join me on this mission here.