Political allegiances swing back and forth as we elect governments and eventually replace them. Although the Liberals won this year’s federal election, it was not without a leadership change, a U-turn in policy, and some help from U.S. President Donald Trump. The most interesting part of Canada’s recent shift to the political right is where it came from: young people.
As a high school student in 2021, the Liberals and NDP seemed to hold iron-clad support from my peers. Election results in that year from Student Vote Canada, an organization that runs mock federal elections for Canadian high school students, yielded a Liberal government with an NDP opposition. These two parties combined for 226 seats — a solid 2/3 majority. This year, I was shocked to learn that high school students elected a minority Conservative government. Conservative seats shot up from 88 in 2021 to 163 in 2025, while NDP seats plummeted from 108 to 13. Even those who voted Liberal supported a much more right-leaning party than its past incarnation. Overall, these results show a distinct shift to the political right among young Canadians. Why has this shift happened, and what does it mean for the future of Canada?
The most obvious explanation, and the one that holds the most weight, is an economic one. The cost of living has radically increased over the last four years. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) from Statistics Canada illustrates the increasing financial plight of young Canadians. More specifically, prices for rented accommodation, a cost that is especially relevant for young Canadians, have remained elevated above pre-COVID levels. When you can’t afford a home or struggle to pay your rent, it’s hard not to want change. The Conservatives, more particularly Pierre Poilievre, picked up on this discontent and attracted young people who wanted change. Not only that, but the Conservative message, one where the government gets out of the way, was the kind of change people thought was needed. In the end, the arrival of Mark Carney, an economist by trade, may have helped to attract some voters back to the Liberal fold.
It’s also reasonable to credit social changes for young people’s shift to the right. Central to this argument is that young men are driving the rightward shift. Indeed, several polling agencies reported an opening chasm between young men’s and women’s voting preferences. The CBC cites an Abacus Data survey from late March 2025, which showed that men aged 30 and under were almost twice as likely to vote Conservative than women of the same age. Economics can only account for part of this difference: men and women face similar financial pressures. Instead, social factors must be at play.
I propose three perspectives for understanding the divergence between young men’s and women’s voting preferences. The first is a privilege-based explanation that is common to hear from the political left. Society has trended noticeably in a progressive direction. DEI policies, affirmative action, and social movements like #MeToo and BLM have created a more bias-conscious and equitable world where men have less of an advantage than they used to. A shift to the political right amongst young men may be a backlash to these changes and reflect a desire to see male privilege restored. Although this argument holds some weight, I think it accounts for less change than you might think, especially in a Canadian context.
Instead, I’m inclined to think that the greater share of young men are tired of the left’s social policies, not because of animosity towards women or minorities, but because they perceive an over-emphasis on progressive policies and see other issues as more pressing and relevant. Many young women care more about progressive social priorities, arguably because they want to maintain and grow the recent social changes that have worked in their favour. Men may not share the same perspective. Anecdotally, I have talked to several of my peers who believe that we have lost our way with DEI policies. They see these policies as necessary to some extent but perceive their present manifestation as over-the-top. In essence, when young people, especially young Ïmen, saw the forest fire that was a lack of job prospects, a very high cost of living, the overdose crisis, extraordinary immigration rates, and the like, they questioned the government’s continued policies like lenient bail, open immigration, and the carbon tax. My peers were willing to prioritize change in these areas over progressivism. In fact, many of them seem to have drawn a connection between an over-emphasis on progressive policies and the aforementioned issues.
Finally, I propose another social motivation for the rightward shift, which I argue is distinct from those previous — a search for meaning. Bear with me. The past decade has not only given rise to stronger progressivism but also secularism. First, it was the New Atheism movement that worked to discredit belief in God and the practice of religion as irrational. Now, faith and religion are seen as vestiges of an oppressive social hierarchy. Despite these critiques, religion and belief in God give structure and purpose to many people’s lives. I believe that young people have discovered what it’s like to live without a higher meaning and have, as a result, become much more open to belief in God, practicing religion, or even just spirituality. In a culture that emphasizes other demographics, young men may be finding a home in religious circles, and as we all know, the religious demographic typically skews right. Some of my readers may not find this argument convincing, and that is fine. That said, it’s something to keep an eye on.
Given all these varied explanations for the rightward shift of young Canadians, what can we conclude about the future of Canada? It may not be as progressive as we think. Let’s not forget who we ultimately elected — a central banker who abolished the carbon tax. The political will does swing back and forth, even for young Canadians. Young Canadians are willing to guide the political discourse to the core, pressing issues, even if that means siding with Conservatives. We also see a gender gap forming across political lines. Will it persist? That depends on whether young women will feel that progressivism has gone far enough and whether young men will believe that the scales tip back in favour of caring about social progress rather than prosperity. We may also be witnessing a change in young people’s motivation — a search for meaning in a secular culture.
Ultimately, as students at UW, we need to recognize these shifts and changes in our peers both on and off campus. There is a growing world of conservative young people both inside and outside of UW. If we are going to shape the future, it should be a future for all of us, even those who are not progressives. True inclusion looks like being able to engage in productive conversations with each other, even with those we disagree with. Hopefully, this article has been a helpful exercise in engaging with a new perspective.
