Federal Byelection 2026: Beaches-East York Canadian Future Party candidate Cameron Thomas answers our questions

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Beach Metro Community News sent these questions to the federal candidates in this month’s Beaches-East York federal byelection Please visit our website at www.beachmetro.com for more information on the candidates.)

QUESTION 1: Please tell our readers a little bit about yourself and why you are running in this byelection?

Seventeen years ago, I moved to Beaches-East York and rented an apartment in a building that, remarkably, has stayed affordable this whole time. That’s rare enough in this city that it’s shaped how I think about almost everything else. Most housing debates treat affordability as an abstraction, something you argue about in theory. For me it’s just where I live. It’s my address, not a talking point.

Professionally, I’ve spent more than three decades as a communications strategist, advising executives and political leaders. For six years I also sat on the board of Margaret’s Housing and Community Services, a Toronto organization that supports women experiencing homelessness, and that work gave me a much closer look at what happens when housing policy fails the people who need it most. These days I’m Chief of Staff and Press Secretary for the Canadian Future Party. I chose this party because it’s the only one that will let MPs vote their conscience instead of whatever leadership tells them to.

Honestly, I’m running because it’s time for something different. This riding has only ever been represented by two parties, going back more than a decade, and I don’t think that’s served Beaches-East York particularly well. I’m also the only candidate in this byelection releasing a full platform. Housing, free votes, public safety, tax reform, one plank every week, each one built around what this specific riding needs. This is a riding that deserves someone who already knows it, and who’s willing to be straight about what it’s missing. I’ve watched an entire generation of young adults get priced out of living on their own here. I’ve watched health care access get tighter. And I’ve watched our own outgoing MP run the federal housing file without a single project landing in this riding.

To me, democracy means the riding comes first, not the party. I’m not interested in offering more of the same. I want to be the kind of representative who votes the way this community expects, every time, on every bill.

QUESTION 2: What do you see as the top local issues that will be on the minds of Beaches-East York voters in this federal byelection?

Housing affordability is at the top, and here it’s not an abstract policy debate, it’s daily life. Nearly two in five renter households in this riding are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities. Average rent is around $1,370 a month, and roughly 13,000 residents fall below the low-income threshold. Young people are struggling to establish an independent household here more than almost anywhere else in the city. And when Ottawa announced its newest federal housing investment on Aug. 5, a $2.7 billion partnership funding 18 projects across Toronto, not one of them landed in Beaches-East York, even though our outgoing MP ran the federal housing department himself.

Healthcare isn’t far behind. People here are dealing with the same pressures as the rest of the country: it’s harder to find a family doctor, wait times keep growing, and the system needs Parliament to fund it properly instead of treating it like background noise between elections. Tax reform comes up too. Families are stretched between rent, groceries, and paycheques that just aren’t keeping pace, and people want an honest, evidence-based look at the tax system instead of more small fixes around the edges: we’ve already seen that eliminating intra-provincial trade barriers unleashes over five per cent of our GDP – imagine what comprehensive tax reform would bring. Public safety and bail reform get raised constantly at the door, especially concerns about repeat violent offenders ending up back in the community.

And underneath all of it is a bigger question about representation: will the next MP actually vote the way this riding expects, or will they vote however their party tells them to? That question is why I structured my campaign around a four-week platform rollout instead of one glossy launch document. Housing came first, free votes and public safety are next, and tax reform wraps it up. It’s the closing argument of this whole campaign, and it’s what I hear most often on doorsteps: people are ready for a change after a decade of only two parties representing this riding.

QUESTION 3: Though the federal government announced last month that it would not support an expansion of Billy Bishop Airport to allow jets, can you clarify you and your party’s position on any other future expansion plans for the island airport and address concerns among some that this issue will come up again once the Beaches-East York byelection has concluded?

The federal Liberals tried to dodge a bullet by saying they won’t, for now, support the expansion of Billy Bishop. That position isn’t evidence-based. The Canadian Future Party recognizes the importance of the airport and the importance of quality of life for residents. What’s required are clear noise and pollution standards, and a long-term relationship between the federal government, Ontario, and the city where plans for the airport are developed based on a clear plan on evidence, not an artificial conflict based on politics.

QUESTION 4: What actions will you and your party take to protect jobs in Toronto and the rest of Canada in light of the ongoing tariff, trade and economic threats coming from U.S. President Donald Trump?

The United States under President Trump cannot be trusted and that no deals signed with his administration can be relied upon. We need to accelerate the diversification begun by Prime Minister Carney, but to avoid the mistake of embracing other unreliable and undemocratic countries, like China.

The Canadian Future Party’s approach comes down to one idea that runs through our whole platform: build the sovereign capacity to withstand this kind of pressure instead of hoping it eventually goes away. Practically, that means real investment in our own economic and defence independence, so Canada is negotiating from a position of strength rather than dependence. It means backing Canadian manufacturing and critical minerals processing so we’re supplying our own defence and industrial base instead of shipping raw materials south and buying back the finished product. And it means diversifying our trade relationships so no single administration in Washington gets to hold the Canadian economy hostage every few years.

For Beaches-East York and Toronto more broadly, that translates into protecting the manufacturing, logistics, and small business jobs that depend on stable cross-border trade, and making sure federal support reaches the workers and employers caught in a tariff fight they didn’t start.

But there’s a deeper problem here. Parliament keeps responding to these shocks with whatever the governing party decides behind closed doors, with MPs falling in line rather than standing up for industries and workers in their ridings. We believe MPs should have the independence to push back, tariff fight or not, and to represent their constituents’ real economic interests. That’s what I’d bring: someone who treats a trade threat to Toronto jobs as an actual emergency for this riding, not a talking point to manage.