How to engage young voters in the upcoming federal election
Only 47% of those aged 18-24 voted in the 2021 federal election: Elections Canada
In the last federal election, young people aged 18 to 24 had the lowest turnout of all age groups — 47 per cent, per Elections Canada figures.
In order to increase youth turnout this election, students and experts say political parties should tailor their campaigns to younger voters.
Parties should first focus on educating new voters on the electoral process, says Ethan Evans, a fourth-year political science student at McMaster University in Hamilton.
"When I started my post-secondary education, I didn't even fully understand which issues were provincial and federal," Evans said.
His classmate, Jean-Luc Lambert agrees. He says many of his friends outside school don't follow politics at all — either because they don't think their vote matters, or because they believe political parties aren't targeting them enough in their campaigns.
"My friends have no idea what's going on," Lambert said. "They often hear different opinions from each political party and have no idea what to believe is true or false. That makes them care less about elections and voting."
Parties could do a better job targeting youth in their campaigns, especially when it comes to issues like housing affordability and climate change, says Mackenzie Barwell, another fourth-year political science student at McMaster.
"When the youth hear any politicians talking about our future and protecting it, even that word specifically really resonates," Barwell said. "We're not necessarily thinking about right now, we're thinking about down the line."
Reaching young voters through social media
Many young voters say social media is the best place for parties to reach people their age.
"That's where young people are at right now, and that's the direction they have to take to engage people," said Tynan Webb, another fourth-year political science student at McMaster.
Online platforms offer a variety of tools political parties can use to target young voters, according to Harneet Singh, managing principal and digital strategist at EOK Consults.
For instance, he says short-form content, such as Instagram reels or stories, tend to resonate with youth. Parties can also use microtargetting tools on these platforms to tailor content to the audience they want to reach.
"People can be targeted based on their interests in sustainability, fashion, online use," Singh said.
Some platforms also use artificial intelligence, which helps political parties draft captions for their posts and test which ones resonate best with audiences, Singh said.
"There's so much possibility in terms of how campaigns can smartly target the way these young people are consuming their media and their information and use that to engage more young people to get the results they want," he said.
Online platforms also allow politicians to collaborate with popular influencers — a trend politicians seem to be already following.
For instance, Liberal Leader Mark Carney chose to film a short video with comedian Mike Myers, which got millions of views on X, while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre chose to be interviewed by controversial psychologist and podcast host Jordan Peterson.
Despite the popularity of online platforms, some youth say the algorithms affect the type of political content they are seeing.
When fourth-year McMaster political science student Justin Duffy downloaded TikTok for the first time a few weeks ago, he says the majority of the videos in his feed were conservative leaning or were directly promoting Pierre Poilievre.
He says he believes many men his age get shown the same type of content, which could make it difficult for other parties to reach that demographic.
"Social media, based on any minimum information, will choose something to target towards you," Duffy said. "If that's all you're seeing, it's so easy to get swept up in that echo chamber. Obviously, that's what you're gonna believe."
In-person meetings recommended by some experts
Catherine Corriveau, a senior manager with the Democratic Engagement Exchange, says she views online content as merely a point of entry to engage youth.
Whether it be on college and university campuses or near transit stations, the best way to get young voters to the polls is through in-person conversations, Corriveau says.
"Voting is truly a muscle that needs to be exercised. For many young people, it's the first time they're going to have to do it. So we need to support them in this process," she said.
She says political parties should specifically focus on adapting the language they use in their campaigns to target young people.
"Otherwise, they'll say, 'this isn't really speaking to what matters to me' or 'I don't really understand what me going to vote is going to do for me because they're not speaking my language, they're not speaking to issues that impact my day to day life,'" Corriveau said.
What are political parties doing?
Liberal Party spokesperson Jean-Christophe Armstrong told Radio-Canada via email that the party's policies have been developed to ensure a better quality of life for all Canadians, youth included.
"From taking real action to fight climate change to cutting taxes for the middle class, and investing in affordable housing, Mark Carney's Liberals are focused on delivering change that will build a stronger Canada for young Canadians," Armstrong said.
Meanwhile, the Green Party says it's encouraging its candidates to visit university campuses before voting day, and the NDP says it's making greater use of digital platforms to reach more young people.
Young people are looking for a party that will fight to restore housing affordability and quality health care, in addition to taking action to protect the environment, NDP spokesperson Rebecca Elming said.
"Our party is speaking to these issues directly, and we're doing it in the places where young people are," she said. "We've got great ads running on digital platforms and Jagmeet Singh is engaging with young Canadians in the places where they spend their time."
The Conservative Party of Canada did not respond to Radio-Canada's request for comment prior to publication.
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