A new Canadian political party

Stop moving the talent to the border. Move the border to the talent.

We believe young Canadians shouldn't have to choose between two per cent and a one-way ticket. We're building a party to bring Canada and the United States into one democratic union, and to reopen both constitutions for renewal.

Become a founding member Read the manifesto

Road to registration 250 founding members are needed before Elections Canada will recognize a new party. Be one of them.

Why we exist

Every young Canadian gets offered the same deal.

Stay, and you get two per cent. Two per cent growth, two per cent raises, and about two per cent of the ambition you started with. Except we can't even do two per cent anymore.

The floor we used to complain about

2.0%

Best case, rest of the decadeBank of Canada estimate

1.5%

This yearBank of Canada forecast

0.7%

Two per cent used to be the floor we complained about. Now it's a ceiling we can't reach.

The departures lounge

The Canadians we brag about most nearly all had to leave to become worth bragging about. The country's contribution was the plane ticket.

The pipe

In any industry, ambition runs through three unaffordable cities. In a united country, a young Canadian could also choose Omaha, Phoenix, Houston, Portland, or Nashville.

The public service ceiling

Are your dreams bigger than a public service job? Bigger than a pension, a parking spot, and thirty years of waiting your turn? Then you need the reforms this party was founded to deliver.

Read the full manifesto, The Maple Exit

“That’s a country’s worth of talent, and the country’s contribution was the plane ticket.”

From The Maple Exit

They had to leave

The departures board.

Led by the prime minister himself. Mark Carney needed an Irish passport to get hired by Goldman Sachs in London, and that career is what got him hired by the Bank of Canada. Years later, as chair of Brookfield Asset Management, he oversaw its head office's move from Toronto to New York. The door out exists. Only some families know where it is.

Canadians who left, with where they left from and where they went
Name	From	To	Status
Mark Carney	Edmonton	London	Departed
Ryan Reynolds	Vancouver	Los Angeles	Departed
Elon Musk	Kingston	Philadelphia	Departed
James Naismith	Ottawa Valley	Springfield, Mass.	Departed
Malcolm Gladwell	Elmira, Ont.	Washington	Departed
Todd McFarlane	Calgary	Tempe, Ariz.	Departed
Neil Young	Winnipeg	Los Angeles	Departed
Justin Bieber	Stratford	Atlanta	Departed
Frank Gehry	Toronto	Los Angeles	Departed
James Cameron	Ontario	Los Angeles	Departed
Mike Myers	Scarborough	New York	Departed
Lorne Michaels	Toronto	New York	Departed
Martin Short	Hamilton	Los Angeles	Departed
Jim Carrey	Toronto	Los Angeles	Departed
Keanu Reeves	Toronto	Los Angeles	Departed
Sandra Oh	Ottawa	Los Angeles	Departed
Brookfield Asset Mgmt.	Toronto	New York	Head office relocated

The arithmetic

Ontario came 48th out of 60.

All fifty states and ten provinces, ranked by output per person in 2024 (economist Trevor Tombe). Ontario is the red dot. Louisiana beat us. So did forty-two other states.

People call Canada a walled garden. It isn't. It's a walled tundra. It's a bog. Not a single flower.

To the ones who crossed an ocean

Immigrants and expats refused the two per cent box.

Anyone who has built a life across borders knows what it's like to be locked out of your own bank because you don't have a Canadian phone number, or to land here and find your credit history no longer counts.

In a continental union, an international life stops being an edge case. If you came here to build something bigger than where you started, this party is for you.

“The system isn’t cruel. It just can’t imagine you.”

From The Maple Exit

The vision

Six states. Three territories. Two constitutions, renewed.

A union of 56: fifty stars and six maple leaves.

Joining would reopen both constitutions for the first time in generations. A union would turn a dusty, stark democracy back into the living organ it was always meant to be. America needs that as badly as we do.

Abortion, guns, and health care don't need to be national, and a nation doesn't need agreement on them to be a nation. Let each state decide, and let the results do the arguing.

“Unforced consensus is simply democracy still in the making.”

Questions we get at dinner

What happens to health care?

It stays a state decision. A state that wants public health care keeps it. That's what states are for.

What about Quebec?

Every attempt to fix our constitution ends in the same fight over Quebec. As a state, Quebec would run its own language, schools, and culture by right.

Can't people just move south?

Only the lucky, the gifted, and the well-connected. We're proposing to take everybody.

Aren't we giving up a country?

We'd be gaining a vote in the most powerful one. Care about climate change? Canada produces under two per cent of the world's emissions. A vote in Washington moves the dial.

Would America even want us?

America needs renewal as badly as we do. Its constitution has it stuck too.

Do you take American money?

No. Canadian law allows donations only from Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and we follow it to the letter.

“Canada has plenty of cockroaches of its own.”

India's chief justice called unemployed young people cockroaches. Within a week, a satirical Cockroach Janta Party had more Instagram followers than the ruling party. Ottawa should take note.

Now accepting auditions for King Cockroach. Must be young, unemployed, and ready to dream. We already have a king. He doesn’t live here either. Apply below.

Be one of the first 250.

Founding members make registration possible. You must be 18 or older and eligible to vote in Canada. When it's time to file with Elections Canada, we'll ask founding members to sign the official declaration.