The Current - These young Canadians want their peers to get out and vote

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

Young voters aren’t known for high turnout on polling day, but some hope that’ll be different in what they see as a high-stakes election. We speak to three voters about what matters to them in this vote, and why they want their peers to overcome their apathy.

While there are plenty of toxic social media personalities, few are as vicious and influential as Andrew Tate. Online, he brags about being a misogynist and his videos have been viewed billions of times. Now, Tate and his brother are under investigation for human trafficking. I'm Kathleen Goltar and this week on Crime Story, I speak with two journalists who spent four years inside Andrew Tate's Manosphere. Find Crime Story wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, it's Mark Kelly here. You might know me from my regular gig as co-host of the CBC's The Fifth Estate. You'll be hearing more from me when I fill in for Matt as he crosses the country talking to Canadians about the election. I hope you tune in, and please enjoy the current podcast. Sunny ways, my friends, sunny ways. Boy, that seems so long ago. When Justin Trudeau first became Prime Minister back in 2015, he seemed to appeal to young Canadians promising change. Voters 18 to 24 came out in unprecedented numbers. In this election, as leaders announced plans to tackle cost of living, housing and the

economy, we wanted to get a sense of how their campaigns are landing with young voters. So we've convened a panel of voters in their 20s. Alexandre Lavec is an accounting major at l'Université de Moncton and heading to law school in the fall. He's also a reservist in the Canadian Armed Forces. He's voting for the Conservatives. Kanira Udekamaran is studying biomedical engineering at McMaster University. She also works part-time as a research assistant. She's leaning liberal and she's in Hamilton. And Chris Mohan studies software engineering and business administration at Western University. He now works as a system

analyst at a nonprofit in Toronto and is an advocate for electoral reform. He's leaning NDP. He joins me in studio. Good morning to you all. Good morning. Morning folks. Alexander, let's start with you. We mentioned conservative. Polls have shown that more and more young people are leaning conservative. I'm interested about that. What's your story? What's drawn you to the conservatives? It's not a shock to me.

The Gen Z-ers, if you really think about it, is the generation of people who watched their parents comfortably with two or one average income living in an average house, one or two cars, the occasional family night out or the occasional family vacation. They've been that generation who got to see that and then now are seeing them living nearly paycheck to paycheck, needing to refinance their house, cut on family activities, maybe not being able to afford a post-secondary education anymore. So I think the whole economic issue is one of the biggest issues when we're looking at Gen Z and what they're looking for. Kanira, what about you? What's driving you in this election? What's the issue that is really top of mind for you?

Sure, I definitely resonate with the concerns about economic and social insecurity. There's a lot of concerns with high education costs, underemployment, a really precarious nature of our early career. And it's driving a strong desire to see change at the federal level, but also for all of Gen Z. But beyond that, a large concern that I've been hearing from my peers and also for myself is concern about Canadian sovereignty.

And the most frequent question is about our democracy. What are our values? What are we defined by? And how can we reform the democracy in Canada so that our civic engagement is increased and there's more responsibility and we have a little bit more trust in our leaders? There's definitely been an increase in polarization and that's been affecting our youth engagement in the civic discourse. So including spaces for dialogue and reducing this decisiveness is, I think, very imperative at the moment. So I understand, when you mentioned about your concern for sovereignty, is that with

regards to the United States and Donald Trump talking about becoming our 51st state or are you just talking about what makes us Canadian and the values that we need to really drill down on? It's definitely been inspired by the 51st state comments. It's definitely unsettling as a Gen Z knowing that our futures are at risk in that regard and especially with the tariffs at least in Ontario, one in five Ontario jobs are tied to trade with the US so it creates this fear and instability for all of us, families, especially with the tariffs, at least in Ontario, one in five Ontario jobs are tied to trade with the US. So it creates this fear and instability for all of us, families, workers, and businesses. And beyond that, we're seeing a lot of discourse from party leaders about Canadian values,

and it's unclear where exactly each party stands with regards to their commitments and their overall visions for the future of Canada. So I think just combating that polarization and knowing that we have a lot of more foundational strength in our values, our culture and our economy is what we're looking for. Chris, what about you? What do you want to hear from politicians? What's the issue that's really going to inspire you to cast your vote for one party or the other? I would love to see the political parties or political leadership come together and talk about the same issue of protecting and strengthening Canadian democracy. We started off this segment with that call back

to Sunnyways and that promise. One of those big promises was for electoral reform. And when we talk about disengagement from younger generations, that was a huge promise that was meant to change the way we do politics, change the way what was possible for Canadian democracy. And very quickly we saw, you know, Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister at the time, and the Liberal Party kind of pushed those recommendations aside made by their own parliamentary committee. And I think now we're in a moment where we have to ask ourselves with all this instability happening south of the border, a big threat is to our democracy. And are we going to continue to lean on the same systems, the same stories for what Canadian democracy could be?

And it kind of risk falling into the same pattern that the United States has fallen into they have two major political parties that Have a monopoly on their system And you know it political science research shows that if you don't have a system where the majority of citizens Can actually cast a ballot for their preferred candidate you will end up with two parties and that's what's happening what we're seeing with the NDP. That's my big fear is, you know, I would say I lean NDP. I'm a strategic voter. We're seeing a lot of folks who are to the left of the Liberals voting Liberal, and we might see at this election, because they're more worried about electing a pure Poliof

Prime Minister than actually communicating their values through the ballot. And if we're left with two major parties in Canada we have to ask the question is this really representative of our country? So I'm really hoping to see change on this front. It's not front and center in the discourse right now but I fear that if we're only focusing on the issues of the day and we're not looking at the more systemic levels of why we haven't been able to solve these problems, we're going to be in trouble very soon. Alex, let me ask you a question about where you get your information. I'm curious to know, as you inform yourself about this election campaign, and you're hearing

the leaders and their policies and their priorities. Where are you getting your information? Yeah, I try to stay on the most neutral sites possible, I guess. So I do find sites like CBC, Radio Canada, CTV News, stuff like that. I try to stay away the politically leaning personalities or new media outlets. I think it's a right way to attack politics and to form your opinions is to consult as neutral information as possible and then do your own research after that.

Something that I try to convince others to do, I know that today with social media and all that, it's easy to find political activists on both sides. And they are very entertaining, I must say, but it is biased information at its finest. But can those people, I'm curious to know from you, can those people inspire young people to go out and vote? You know, these influencers who may have a big voice and a big platform, but can they actually lead people

to go out and vote? Alexandre, what's your opinion on that? I believe so. I believe that any media outlet, anybody talking about politics has the potential to force, or not force, but encourage people to go out and vote. I think it does put fear into people.

It devises people here go out and vote. I think it does put fear into people, it devises people here in Canada and abroad. And that fear that it installs in people, I think that can go and bring people to vote. And so I think it's kind of a trickle down effect of Gen Zers being often on social media and seeing interacting with these political figures that might be leaning too much on one side. Right. And that's for those who actually come out and vote. And that's really when the big concerns is, it's like 46, almost 47% of young electors aged 18 to 24 voted in the 2021 federal election. That's lower than any other group. And, and Kinira, I know that you've been working on, on dealing with this idea of trying to engage young people, to overcome the apathy.

Tell me about the challenges of trying to get people your age out to vote. I'm sure Generation Z has become the third largest generation in Canada, and we've now surpassed Gen X, but we just haven't been seeing these numbers reflect in the polls. And so I've been volunteering with New Majority,

and we're a national nonprofit just dedicated to mobilizing youth voters and amplifying the concerns of the Canada's new majority. But the issues in coming to terms with the low voter turnout is trying to figure out ways to reach them where they're at. Social media and digital platforms have been used pretty effectively in the past to organize, debate and influence political processes. But given the nature of algorithms and how individualized the social media experience is, it's pretty hard to actually reach Gen Z where they are. And there is a sense of urgency and almost a sense of desperation from a lot of Gen Z,

especially from the more active members of them engaging in political activities, like expressing their views online and signing petitions, but it doesn't necessarily expand to all of Gen Z in particular. And I think when it comes to meeting with them, there's a general sense of apathy and distress when it comes to everything related to politics. You know, I've tried to convince some of my friends to vote and I very commonly push back with, oh, I just I don't do politics or it's too much for me and I can't keep track of everything going on. And growing up as GenC, you know, we've seen disinformation online and it's too much for me and I can't keep track of everything going on. And growing up as Gen Z, we've seen disinformation online and it's pretty much our understanding

of social media and the online world is innate to how we've been raised and grown up. So we have a pretty strong instinct for when things are disinformation or not. And in the context of politics, you just hear opposing viewpoints all the time, you hear a lot of conflict. It's pretty easy to grow disillusioned with the idea of voting and seeing how one's impact can actually make meaningful change within Canada. So it's definitely a very hard concern, but we've been trying to think of fun and creative ways to engage with youth, whether it be processes of running to the polls with youth run clubs that are in our area, there's a campus one nearby and we've tried to work with

them to organize kind of those events on campus, debate, watch parties and some other social media trends that we've been trying to take off. And I guess overall though, it's trying to combat that disillusionment that Gen Z have with the voting process and the political process. I'm Zing Singh. And I'm Simon Jack. And together we host Good Bad Billionaire. voting process and the political process. we think they're good, bad, or just another billionaire. That's Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Find it on bbc.com or wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Chris, you were mentioning before about this idea that it becomes a binary choice, which we see in the United States.

But in many ways, this election is shaping up to be that way. If you look at the polls, it's been harder for the NDP to get traction, harder for the Greens, and in Quebec, even for the Bloc Québécois. Do you see yourself now being forced into that and now looking at it's carnier poilier, even though your instincts are saying it's dangerous to do that?

Yeah, I think a lot of voters see that as the reality and decide well why should I participate in this, right? Like this is impacting voter turnout. If I were a green voter and it's like well they're never gonna win and it doesn't do anything why should I vote, right? But for myself personally I live in what might be a liberal safe seat who knows nothing is you know nothing can be told in the future. And so the first question I ask myself is, would casting a ballot for a party that is not the liberals risk me splitting the vote and resulting in a conservative win? It happens quite often. It's

happened quite a few times in the past provincial election in Ontario happened once where the liberals split the vote and the greens couldn't win in one riding, which is I think a funny situation. But yeah, I'm not sure yet. And there's, I think it's really unfortunate that fear is a driving motivator of my vote. I walk around my neighborhood and I'm seeing more conservative signs. I'm like, okay, well, is this an indicator that maybe it's not safe to vote my values? I should vote liberal. And I know folks across the country are doing this math. We shouldn't have to do this math, right? We should have a system that where I'm able to, you know, in a very pure form, reflect my values. And it should be up to the politicians,

that's what we're paying them for, to sort out these differences. And, you know, talking about polarization, it's really unfortunate because of this system we have, the incentive is, you know, I was just watching the CBC on the way to the studio, you have Poliev saying, well, Carney did this and Carney did that,

and this is why these policies are bad. And the exact same thing is happening with the other political parties. It's always railing against something else, a motivating factor is you're voting against somebody else. Why couldn't we have a system where we're actually able to bring folks together and collaborate? And I think that's how we strengthen our democracy.

And that's how we make more people feel like our democracy can do something, more than just, you know, we're fighting back and forth in the House of Commons. Alex, let me ask you about you. You are a conservative, and is this because of Pierre Poiliev and his leadership? Is there something in the message that you find appealing, or are you just a lifelong

conservative no matter who's running the party? I'll be honest with you, I started paying attention to politics in the last four or five years. So prior, I haven't really been paying attention before Trudeau got into office. So basically, I've gotten to see and paid attention to what the liberals have done. And basically, things have not been going ideally for somebody who hopes to own a house or save up for the future. It's not looking too promising for me. I've spoken with a lot of people around my age a little bit younger, a little bit older. It's the same thing. We've seen problems when it comes to immigration, crime, the economy. So overall it's not a thing of, oh I want Palyet where I want the

conservatives. I've had an experience with the liberal government. It hasn't it's not a thing of, oh, I want Paglia where I want the conservatives, is I've had an experience with the Liberal government. It hasn't been great. I think it's time for a change. And bumping off of Chris's point, it is sad that we do only have two options. Now I do align more with the conservative side of things, but it would be interesting if we could have more than two parties and that it would force parties to develop their ideas instead of simply going against or the complete opposite of the other party. I think Chris said it really well that it is, well it might not be a direct quote, but in my opinion it is sad that we only have two parties and it is sad that the whole election is not about what we're going to do.

It's about what the other party is doing and how bad that is. I think that's the main reason of division in this country and we're seeing it in other countries as well. Elections should be about uniting people and finding solutions for everybody, in my opinion. Well, it's interesting, as you talk about two parties. And of course, yes, there are two parties who are definitely dominating in the polls right now. But of course, you all have many options out there. So we're not advocating, we're not sending the message out

that there are only two parties, but the polls are reflecting that. But it also is coming across that there's only been one issue, the dominant issue, of course, has been dealing with the United States, dealing with Trump. And I wonder, Kinira, you're someone trying to overcome voter apathy, and there may be people who want to talk about climate change. They may want to talk about citizenship. They may want to talk about so many other issues. Do you feel that those issues are really being heard in this campaign?

Or has it all become about how do we deal with Donald Trump? For sure. I think ever since Donald Trump has come into office, it's every single day, all the headlines have been focused about that. I've seen less Canadian news, more American news in the past couple of months, and it's definitely a reflection of how the federal election campaign promises are going. And I am worried about whether these other issues will be sidelined in the event of a certain party winning or a certain party losing. It's concerning to know that a lot of the values that are being expressed by party leaders have been about sovereignty and just combating the US and figuring out how to navigate that situation. But mental health and

environmental sustainability still remain central issues to Gen Z. And I think that's another reason why we've been seeing that voter apathy because the specific issues that we care about have just not been addressed in that capacity. There was a mental health crisis growing among our generation before the pandemic, and then COVID-19 took it from bad to worse. And then Canada hasn't been on track to meet its Paris Agreement goals with net zero carbon emissions. And even our goals aren't even on track to achieving those targets. So it's unfortunate that we've had our issues kind of in silo as opposed to the issue of Canadian sovereignty. And I do understand that it's

important to combat that polarization at the moment and it is a big concern because it is topical and anything that happens within the next couple months or under the Trump presidency will affect us for many many years down the line but it is definitely driving that apathy in youth engagement. Chris, there was a study that was done, it was done in the US so I'll just take it with a grain of salt but it may sound familiar and was looking at Gen Z and it said, Gen Z feels stressed, unprepared for life after graduation and has little faith in political leaders to understand their challenges. Does that resonate at all for you when you hear that?

Of course. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it it's so hard hard to encapsulate to And alexandre did a really great job of outlining the story of our generation, right? Right? Education is very important. We're you know, I'm I have two degrees right like it's we're so educated and yet housing is so unaffordable. And the stories we were told growing up were found that these aren't true, it's not working for us, and yet we don't see that represented at all at the level of government. And so, of course, it resonates. And do you have concern though that when you look at these leaders that you have little faith in these leaders to understand your

challenges? I would say yes and part of it too might be you know we talk about the government level it's also the party level what are the parties doing to engage youth to engage younger people you know oftentimes you have folks running for office who are much older. And this is much more pronounced in the United States. Some would describe it as a gerontocracy, but I think we have a less severe version of that in Canada

where youth in many ways, and on the issue of housing affordability, I would say we were shafted in that sense, but we don't have that same voice to be able to drive the discussion discussion and it's kind of this Vicious cycle because we're known as this apathetic voter group. You know, they don't go we don't go to vote We don't engage but then we don't engage there's no solutions for the problems we face and then the apathy comes back Yeah, and I'm curious about that and alexandre just with the time we have left

I want to get a couple of last words in from all of you about the apathy a back. Yeah, and I'm curious about that. And, Alexandre, just with the time we have left, I want to get a couple of last words in from all of you about the apathy. Alexandre, what are you going to do to try to inspire, you know, your friends, your peers to get out and vote? Yeah, I mean, I've already been doing it. We've had provincial elections recently here in New Brunswick, and the Gen Z voter turnout was actually better than expected. And the message that I gave out during the provincial elections that I'm giving out here during the federal elections are,

right now the Gen Z age group, basically from 18 to 27, we currently have this reputation of we don't go out and vote, therefore the political parties don't really focus on us. They're not making any big promises towards us. They're not paying too much attention because at the end of the day, they want to make promises to the group of voters that they'll get the most votes out of. So if we go out and vote, we go out and make a statement, Gen Z has voted way more than people anticipated, way more than the previous records show. This is going to send out a message that we can go out and vote. We are important and

the political parties better make promises, pay attention to us. And Kinira, are you optimistic? I know you've been working on this to overcome the voter apathy in your age group. Are you optimistic that that message is getting through? At the moment, we haven't seen two heavy rises in voter turnout, especially with the recent Ontario election. I know that interest is there and it's really about building that information base for Gen Z, letting them know where they can vote, trying to really get the word out there about why it's important to vote and how they're able to do so in a safe and accessible manner,

and just trying to inspire hope in the future of Canadian democracy and also why it's important that we work towards building that hope further. And Chris I know you've had your your concerns as you've expressed them eloquently but you are gonna vote right? Absolutely, absolutely. And my message to my peers is we can do things differently. We can do things better. We can collaborate. And it's gonna require a lot of our generation

to get involved and demand change. And I think what I'm really heartened from this panel is we actually agree on a lot. And we're all voting for, like we may be voting for different parties, but we all have the same issues. We all want to have a better country for ourselves in the next generations. And so we need to demand a political system that's able to take all those views into account and produce good policy. And I think it's possible. We just need to keep at it.

Okay, let's hold on to that hope. Thank you all. This has been a great conversation. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Alexandre Lavec is an accounting major at Université de Moncton and a reservist in the Canadian Armed Forces. He's voting conservative. He's in Moncton, New Brunswick. Keneira Uday-Kumaran is studying biomedical engineering at McMaster University. She also volunteers with First Majority and she's voting liberal. She's in Hamilton.

And Chris Mohan is a systems analyst at a nonprofit in Toronto, an advocate for electoral reform. He's leaning NDP and he was in Toronto.