Hello There!
THE SHORT VERSION
To brutally summarize:
Canada is drowning. I want to throw her a lifejacket.
All our existing political parties are out of touch so I want to do it different.
To not so brutally summarize:
My name is Amr, I discovered that I'm, somehow, already in the top 15% of the economy but a barely average life was all I could manage without having to split rent. From there I could barely imagine how the average Canadian household lives, and all of the frustration and despair all around the country just made sense. Our politicians however are too busy giving band-aid solutions and ignoring the deeper 20 year old problems we have, so now I am tired of the nonsense and want to do something about it.
With your help.
That something includes these 7 priorities:
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Responsibly popping the real estate bubble, bailing-out Canadians, and ensuring it doesn't repeat
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Strengthening our election system and democratic institutions
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Promoting a real economy, one that produces things or offers valuable services instead of warehousing people
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Addressing the homelessness and drug crisis
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Making the government more efficient, where results are the name of the game instead of bureaucracy
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Having actual national security policies that protects Canada and contributes to all of our alliances
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Immigration reform where we accept the immigrants we need and actually recognize their experience
You can follow this link to learn more about our priorities
Our platform is more comprehensive and we will regularly update it, so follow this link to explore everything
Our values are Unity in:
Vision, Virtue, Valor, Vibes
We hold a bold vision for a brighter tomorrow for all,
where mutual respect is the basis of our culture,
brave pragmatism is the basis of our solutions,
and stubborn positive vibes keep us powering through the obstacles ahead.
Follow this link to learn more about our guiding values
What I need right now to become an official party is at least 250 people to endorse us.
I am not asking for any donations right now, I would rather get recognized first (it is also against the law). so membership is free until then, and the only expectation from me would be signing the endorsement document.
I also hate spam emails, so I won't bombard you with those.
Joining will make my day, so please sign up here
If you have questions you would like answered first, check if any of the sections below answer them.
If they don't, you can send us a message through the bottom right chat function and I'll answer them as soon as possible or email us at: info@thefutureparty.ca
If you want to know who I am, I introduce myself here.
Cheers!
Amr, a mentally exhausted 27 year-old
WHY AM I ANGRY?
Let me ask you a question first.
Based on your (pre-tax)income and lifestyle which percentile of Canadians do you think you are in?
Top 30%? Average? Bottom 40%?
I had that same question in mind after I realized that by starting my professional tech career I could only afford to live alone paycheck-to-paycheck unless I got married and moved out sooner.
So I looked it up, and turns out my ~$85K income placed me in the top 15~20% of Canadians (based on this data from statscan).
And that's when it really hit me, when someone in the top 15% of society can barely afford an average independent lifestyle let alone dream of raising kids or home ownership with his spouse, then that can only mean our whole economy has become a joke.
Because how do average people get by?
It is no wonder then depression and debt levels are on the rise.
How are the even less fortunate getting by?
It is no wonder then that homelessness and drug abuse are on the rise.
Why did 20 years of lib-con governments just watch our quality of life decline?
It is no wonder then that people are losing faith in our democracy.
I realize how fortunate I am today but I do want to raise my kids here and to do that I cannot settle for slow decline, Canada MUST have a brighter future, I will not accept any less... I cannot.
The second cause for my anger is how hard it is for anybody to challenge the top parties. They all take advantage of our first past the post system to win seats without majorities and that is absolutely ridiculous.
The third reason is the sheer amount of potential that is being wasted around Canada. From the real economy stagnating to the badly managed immigration system. From the untapped development opportunities to the deteriorating conditions in rural and indigenous regions. From The aging healthcare system to the worsening drug crisis. There are many problems that can still be addressed before they become too big to tackle, but we do have what we need to start. It will be difficult and will require bold decisions, but the right time is now. It is not too late. It almost never is.
WHY AM I OPTIMISTIC?
So after that rant about why I'm angry, you might be wondering why stubborn optimism is one of the parties values. While a big part of it is to help with not losing hope, it is based on my genuine belief that Canada has a lot of potential that is being wasted. All we really lack as a country is the political will to act now.
So what is that potential?
Our people, I know it sounds like a cop-out politician answer, but I do genuinely believe that that is Canada's greatest strength. We have a highly educated population, on of the highest in the world actually, with a wide variety of skillsets. That population enjoys a very high degree of freedom in terms of belief, expression, the right to protest, and the right to criticize our leadership without the fear of violence. This freedom is backed by a Charter of Rights and Freedoms to be proud of, a flawed but well-functioning legal system, democratic elections (why I'm here), and relatively low levels of corruption. I really do believe that if given the chance to have, and the ability to afford, an honest life where they can follow their ideals and dreams, Canadians will be able to achieve a whole new level of prosperity for Canada and our problems will once again be trivial. The next two paragraphs are what ground my rosy vision for Canada's future in political reality.
Geography might be a boring topic but it is fundamental to any country's decision making, so it's a good starting point. Canada has a large landmass, 2nd largest in the world, which by itself grants us a huge source of economic and strategic potential. We have access to, and are protected by, three oceans which boosts trade potential and makes achieving national security easier. This land is home to a wealth of natural resources, plenty of farm land, a reliable supply of fresh water, and more than enough space for cities and towns to grow in size and support advanced industries. This all means that, if handled right, Canada can comfortably support a prosperous population much larger than our current one. It is just a matter of having good policy, as difficult as that is to achieve.
A country's political neighbourhood is crucial to its outlook and can define some of its future challenges. A country can't take advantage of its potential if it has to constantly worry about its neighbour invading it. Fortunately, we share deep, stable cultural and economic ties with our one and only neighbour, who also happens to be the world's largest superpower. We are also on excellent terms with the countries across our ocean borders.
These optimistic factors are what make my anger constructive, because for every single one of the major systemic issues we face there is a whole bunch of Canadian experts and concerned citizens providing real solutions. Once again, the only thing Canada truly lacks is the political will to take bold long-term actions.
THE
MONOLOGUE
Over the past 20 years, a lot has changed and I think we all kind of know it, feel it all around us. The world is facing a perfect storm of instability:
Economically, globalization is on the decline, inequality is on the rise, and new technologies promise massive disruption.
Politically, the world is more uncertain, unsafe, war rears it's ugly heads more often, and the threat of even more conflict hangs in the air.
Technologically, we have barely started to wrap our heads around the effects of the internet and social media, only to watch generative AI explode onto the scene; so we won't be catching a break there I guess.
Environmentally, I mean what more can I say, we have more droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, tornadoes, thunderstorms, etc.
Socially, mental health is on the decline, addictions are up, birthrates are declining, and all kinds of extremism are on the rise.
Meanwhile in Canada, after 20 years: our affordability is a joke; our economy is a joke; our healthcare - a joke; our immigration system; our military; our government; our future; all a joke; and of course the biggest joke of all - our politics. Canada had a great starting position but it is slowly letting it slip away. In other words:
So Canada has, at best, been stagnating and all the while our politicians just watched it happen. Now we caaan give them the benefit of the doubt and say the changes were too gradual to notice, but in 2023 that shouldn't fly anymore. It is almost undeniable that we are walking towards the edge of a cliff and that our political inaction has put us in even rougher shape.
So what do our glorious politicians do today?
The Liberals are trying to gaslight us into believing things are fine
... and by offering band-aid solutions
The Conservatives are trying to manipulate us using our frustrations
... and still just offering band-aid solutions
All the while they throw mud at each other over non-issues on the media or go around pandering to what they think we want to hear.
But then again, where is the surprise in that, the Lib-Con establishment and their backers are the only real winners in today's Canada after all. On the other hand, the remaining parties outside of the big two kind of stopped trying or just focus on single issues. In other words, this is our political environment:
Now hope is not lost, Canada still has a lot going for it that can turn things around. We have an educated population, a large landmass, a safe strategic neighbourhood, relatively low corruption, and a mostly functioning democratic system. It just seems like our established politicians don't care enough to do their jobs or lack the incentive to.
This is where I found myself back in May... angry, frustrated, demotivated, and tired... so I decided that... well: fuck it, nothing lost, nothing gained. In this absurd situation, perhaps a more absurd ambition could actually get things done.
Perhaps, what we need is a brand new political party, with a brand new direction. A party that aims for a brighter tomorrow instead of the next election cycle. The future party was born.
WHY A NEW PARTY?
So why did I decide to start from scratch?
If you read the past few sections, you probably figured that I have no respect for our existing parties. So I rejected them on principle, and because I figured they will hold me back from achieving true reform. I will expand on some of my grievances with them here.
Over the past 20 years both big parties (and their supporting parties) have offered nothing but band-aid solutions while ignoring the growing structural issues. Don't get me wrong some of those band-aids are good, but they just don't solve anything, they just kick the can down the road to the next election cycle where they can then argue the same issues and offer slightly different band-aids.
For example, let's take today's hot topic, housing:
The Chart below is from the following, beautifully titled, article. Simply put it shows how much house prices and disposable incomes changed over time after adjusting for inflation.
As of June 2021, when compared to 1975:
The average Canadian makes around 2 times as much money
The average Canadian house costs around 4 times the price
Things aren't better in 2023.
A similar graph from the same article shows the same data for the US:
The average American makes around 2.25 times as much money
The average American house costs around 2 times as much
And that's the tragedy.
Now how does this relate to my lack for respect for our parties?
Poilievre and the conservatives are trying to blame it all on 8 years of Trudeau but as you can see above things started going wrong around the year 2005 for the US and Canada, before Trudeau even led the liberals. Now, there was a cute dip around the 2008 financial crisis, and another cute dip before COVID. In the US house prices corrected after 2008, in Canada it just got worse.
During the same period of time, we had a series of conservative AND liberal leaders that did nothing to address the problem early on:
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2004-2006: Liberals under Paul Martin.
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2006-2015: Conservatives under Harper. Poilievre brags about being a part of this one. Honestly, after seeing the above graph, I wouldn't if I was him.
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2015-2023: Liberals under Trudeau. No further comments needed... They objectively made things worse.
Now, here I'm going to make an educated guess and say that the reason both parties took no action to maintain affordability is because 38% of ALL current MPs are involved in real estate investment one way or another. Somehow shockingly, and not at the same time.
(follow the link for a very detailed breakdown (and a map))
So yeah... I genuinely don't trust any of them to follow through with even their lip-service. It seems they would rather treat us like frogs in a stew. Both conservative and liberal politicians' promises for housing affordability will slow the decline of our quality of life instead of improving it.
We intend to actually address the problem at its very root. Find out how here.
Now, let's see our democratic system:
In 2015, the Conservative party ended a cheap fund that paid parties around $3 for every vote. Essentially, this guaranteed that only parties with rich donors (i.e. the Conservative party) will have a good time campaigning. Smaller parties have been struggling since.
Fun fact: In a twist of irony, Poilievre was apparently the Minister of State (Democratic Reform) when that happened...
The Liberal party already walked back on their promise to reform the electoral system after they won, despite Trudeau championing the cause. The wave of restrictive internet laws passed give the government a large role in what, and how, information is shared. What more can be said, some slopes are slippery.
And here once again, it seems they're just two sides of the same coin. These are my top two concerns, so I will stop here, but I will add that the rest of their promises follow the same pattern of uninspired band-aid solutions. The next section expands on our priorities.
If you have an issue you care about that they both don't actually address, please let us know through chat.
But what about the other parties? Why not join one of them?
I mean...
...let us be real for a second:
The NDP are basically the Liberals~ish these days and it seems they stopped trying to actually win.
The Greens and the Bloc are too narrow-minded (and I'm not a Quebecker).
All the rest are unfortunately irrelevant.
So yeah... that's why I said:
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
The sparknotes version of our 7 priorities, why, and how are below:
Follow the links at the end of each bullet-point for more details.
1. Responsibly Pop the Real Estate bubble & Bail-out Canadians
It has become a cancer to household budgets and the economy as a whole. Here we will:
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Broadly loosen land-use requirements to encourage private construction.
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Get cities to rely less on property taxes so they can afford policies that create affordable housing
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Severely restrict non-construction investment in the sector.
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Bail-out average Canadians when prices fall by reducing outstanding mortgage values.
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Increase the direct role of government in the market by creating a variety of affordable non-market housing.
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Freeze rents Canada-wide until price correction stops.
For a breakdown of the philosophy behind our priorities, click here.
For our full platform, click here.
HOW?
With a lot of (partially) unfounded confidence!
Jokes aside, I am confident that I am onto something!
It is just a matter of getting it out there and inspiring people to believe that a better future is actually possible.
To do that, I will be reaching out to as many academics and public figures as possible, and then to build momentum on top of that through a shock and awe campaign across social media.
The campaign will rely on a mix of serious and light hearted content throughout. We will tailor our language to suit different groups, but we will never pander or misrepresent ourselves, our values, or our policies for votes.
Now will it be easy?
Hell no, this is going to be an extremely difficult task with absolutely zero guarantees. I am well aware that this is a ridiculous idea, effectively a pipe dream.
But clowning on our lib-con politicians is worth a shot, so what do I have to lose?
CAN I HELP YOU?
Yes please!
I can't do this alone.
I need 250 endorsements minimum to be recognized as a real party, and that's where you come in. It will cost you nothing more than a signature when the time comes to apply.
I am also looking for help to flesh out everything, for example:
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A certified Accountant - I need one to apply for party registration, if you are one or know one who would be interested please let me know through the email below.
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Legal advice.
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Policy advice: suggestions, refinements, hole poking, etc.
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Design advice, Marketing, Social Media, etc.
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Party organization, expansion, motivation, etc.
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Good conversation
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Proof readers
Heads up though, this will all be volunteer based for now. Once donations roll in, I'll be able to look into how paid positions would work. As such, if you decide to be involved at this early stage I will be extremely grateful, respect your time, and find a way to thank you regardless of the outcome.
If you are interested, please send me an email at: amr.nosir@thefutureparty.ca
And we can see what we can do together.