the plight of young people has faded into the background, as the trade war with the U.S. takes centre stage in Canada’s federal election. Meanwhile, political parties have said more about protecting seniors’ retirements than helping young Canadians get a head start.
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New polling conducted by Nanos Research for The Globe and Mail and CTV News suggests that while the trade war is the top issue for Canadians 55 years and older, the cost of living is the priority for younger Canadians. Only one in 10 Canadians polled under the age of 35 said the trade was their main issue.
Canadians under the age of 35 are also more likely to trust Mr. Poilievre (38 per cent) – who has made the cost of living a central focus of his campaign – than Mr. Carney (26 per cent) to help young people.
The trade war has “taken the oxygen out of the room,” said Mike Moffatt, founding director of the Missing Middle Initiative, a project housed in the University of Ottawa’s Institute for the Environment with the stated goal of reviving Canada’s urban middle class.
“Other than housing, there has been a real absence of any policy to help struggling young people.”
I recommend reading The Anxious Generation - it is extremely hard as a parent to control phone use (especially when they’re not banned at schools), and the internet today is much more engagement driven than the internet before phones. As a parent, I will be doing my best with my own kids to teach them about the dangers of social media, but it’ll take societal change to really address this problem.
I strongly believe that the younger cohort supporting conservatives is social media driven.