
It was a rainy March evening in British Columbia, but that didn’t stop 29-year-old Giancarlo Zorrilla from attending his first political rally. Like many young Canadians, Zorrilla is fed up – and he’s placing his hopes in Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, while the Liberal Party is seeking a fourth term after globalist Justin Trudeau was forced to take the L.

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada [File: Dave Chan/AFP Photo]
“It’s time for a change,” Zorrilla told Bloomberg, heading into a Poilievre campaign stop near Vancouver. Though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is out of the picture, Zorrilla isn’t buying the Liberals' rebrand. “Still the same rock band,” he quipped.
That frustration is bubbling over across Canada’s younger voters. Once wooed by promises of legalized pot and eco-friendly reforms, Millennials and Gen Z are now reeling from runaway housing prices and a cost-of-living crisis that’s left dreams of home ownership and early retirement in the dust.
While Poilievre has found resonance among the youth – roughly 39% of 18-to-34-year-olds back the Conservatives vs. 36% for the Liberals, per Nanos Research, not enough to catapult him ahead but still significant. With less than two weeks before election day, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals are holding a narrow lead overall, thanks in part to strong support from Canadian boomers.

Carney, 60, is virtually a stranger to the TikTok generation. His political playbook caters more to Baby Boomers (more…)