Grade school students swing to Poilievre, even as he falls short in federal election
Article content
Article content
The students' votes led to a Conservative minority government, with Pierre Poilievre's party earning a hypothetical 165 seats from 36.4 per cent of the vote. This is a major jump from the 2021 Student Vote results, where the Conservatives placed third. The Liberals earned the second most seats among students this time around, securing 145. Essentially, the results between the main two parties were flipped from the current real-world projections.
Article content
Article content
While the NDP had a disappointing election, they performed better in terms of seat count among student voters. The NDP won 13 seats, with 14.5 per cent of the vote to barely hold onto official party status in the student vote scenario.
Article content
Article content
This is far from a positive for the NDP's future though, as they lost hypothetical 95 seats from the 2021 Student Vote. They previously earned 108 hypothetical seats, which was only ten fewer seats than the governing Liberals.
Article content
The Bloc Quebecois did slightly worse than their projected seat total, earning 17 seats from 2.19 per cent of the vote. The Green Party earned 7.5 per cent of the students' votes, giving them two seats, with longtime party leader Elizabeth May and Kitchener Centre incumbent Mike Morrice maintaining their spots in the hypothetical Parliament.
Article content
Article content
The Student Vote is an initiative run by CIVIX, an organization dedicated to 'strengthening democracy through civics and citizenship education for school-aged youth.' For the vote, they polled over 900,000 students across the country, with representation in each riding.
Article content
Article content
CIVIX, in collaboration with Abacus Data, also ran the Student Budget Consultation between December 2024 and March 2025. This consultation surveyed students about what the government's financial priorities should be. The most important issues per surveyed students were the cost of living, housing and health care.
Article content
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
25 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Alberta and Poilievre are a match made in heaven
An Alberta riding sizes up Pierre Poilievre as its next MP, July 19 The more I learn about Bonnie Critchley, a candidate running against Pierre Poilievre in the Alberta byelection, the more I'm impressed. I hope the people of the Battle River–Crowfoot riding have the courage and foresight to elect her and perhaps help end Poilievre's political career. The Conservative leader's cynical and opportunistic attempt to weasel back into Parliament is consistent with his sense of entitlement and his apparent disdain for voters. Critchley is running as an independent and is not beholden to any political parties or vested interests. She is exactly the kind of voice Alberta needs in Ottawa to build bridges and foster unity in this country that we are so privileged to call home. Opinion articles are based on the author's interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Over 200 candidates sign up for Poilievre's byelection — doubling previous record
Social Sharing More than 200 candidates, mostly associated with a group of electoral reform advocates, have signed up to run in an upcoming federal byelection next month. The number more than doubles the previous record on a single ballot. Former Alberta MP Damien Kurek vacated his seat in Battle River-Crowfoot to give Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre a chance to rejoin the House of Commons. Poilievre lost his longtime Carleton riding in April's general election. A group known as the Longest Ballot Committee has been organizing candidates to run in byelections in recent years in an effort to push for electoral reform. The committee's organizers want to put a citizens' assembly in charge of electoral reform and say political parties are too reluctant to make government more representative of the electorate. As of Sunday evening, 209 candidates had registered to run in Battle River-Crowfoot, exceeding than committee's goal of 200. That's more than double the previous record of 91 which has occurred twice in the past year: during a byelection in LaSalle-Emard-Verdun last September and Carleton during the last general election. That number of candidates resulted in a ballot roughly a metre long. The massive ballots have resulted in delays in vote counting and have confounded some voters. Elections Canada told CBC News on Wednesday that it will finalize ways to minimize disruptions from the long ballots. "We are looking at ways to [simplify] things based on recent experiences with elections involving a higher-than-usual number of candidates. We will finalize our plans after the deadline for candidate nominations," spokesperson Matthew McKenna said in an email. Elections Canada has already had to make changes to accommodate the mammoth-sized ballots — mostly through early counting and bringing in extra workers. Although the Longest Ballot Committee has organized in two elections where Poilievre is running, the group has also targeted Liberal strongholds such as Toronto-St. Paul's and LaSalle-Émard-Verdun in 2024. But the advocates' efforts to push the limits of a ballot have sparked calls for changes, most recently from Poilievre himself which he refers to as a "scam." The Conservative leader wrote a letter to government House leader Steven MacKinnon on Tuesday, calling for legislation to change Canada's election rules in an effort to curb the long ballot protests. A spokesperson for MacKinnon's office said the Liberals share those concerns and are open to changes. MPs were debating legislation last Parliamentary session that could have implemented some of Poilievre's proposed changes — specifically to limit electors to only signing one nomination form. The advocates have voters sign multiple forms. Elections Canada head Stéphane Perrault himself made the suggestion in front of a committee of MPs that was studying a bill to amend the Canada Elections Act before Parliament was prorogued. Perrault argued that "certain penalties" should be imposed on individuals who sign — or encourage others to sign — multiple nomination papers in an effort to get as many candidates on a ballot as possible, though he didn't say what those penalties should be. The deadline to register as a candidate in Battle River-Crowfoot is Monday. Voters head to the polls on Aug. 18.
Vancouver Sun
14 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
'They were just hell-bent': Mayor battling Ottawa over 'really left' housing mandate
In a very civil tone, the mayor of Windsor, Ont., is asking the fresh faces in the Mark Carney-led Liberal government to butt out of city planning. Mayor Drew Dilkens especially wants to see an end to Trudeau-era affordable housing mandates from Ottawa that don't serve his community. 'They were just hell-bent on putting forward this really left-principled version of what housing should be,' Drew says of the conditions imposed on cities under the $4-billion housing accelerator fund launched in 2023 by then federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser. Unlike most other big cities in Canada, Windsor chose not to apply for the housing accelerator dollars — turning down the possibility of a $30-million cash infusion into the city's densification strategies. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. City council didn't dare to accept the funds and later renege on the feds' conditions, Drew says: 'We basically walked away from $30 million because we refused to succumb, or be co-opted into something we felt was bad for the community.' Then-Liberal MP for Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, Irek Kusmierczyk (who lost the 2025 election by just four votes to Conservative MP Kathy Borrelli), implored Windsor's city council to reconsider, insisting the feds were only asking for 'gentle density.' It's not so gentle, Drew counters, if you find yourself living next door to a new four-plex and you bought your house based on the community's single-family residential character. 'We did it in our way,' Drew explains in a recent conversation, 'because there's no one who knows their community better, no level of government that knows their community better,' than the local council. The 53-year-old lawyer-cum-mayor grew up in Windsor, and has served on the city's council for nearly two decades, 11 as mayor. And when you look at Canada's Constitution, Drew points out, these issues are 'under the bailiwick of the provincial government … who delegate it to the municipalities.' The city's locally generated housing strategies — intense densification along transit routes; blanket rezoning in new neighbourhoods to allow for greater density; repurposing several municipally owned properties for housing — were rejected by the fund's managers as 'not ambitious enough.' 'Ambition' was their favourite word, Drew grumbles: 'We weren't ambitious enough and they wanted to work with municipalities who had greater ambition.' One of the biggest sticking points for Drew? The minimum ticket to entry for this fund was city-wide rezoning to allow four-plexes to be built on any residential lot, as a right — removing the public hearing process and the possibility for appeals. In the suburban Calgary neighbourhood where I live, blanket rezoning means neighbours hold their breath when a lot comes up for sale. The province of Ontario already mandates three buildings on a residential lot, the bureaucrats told Drew, so what's the big deal about adding four? His rebuttal: 'Then what's the big deal about adding five? I mean, where does it stop? And when do you get to say enough's enough; that we have processes in place that allow us to look at sewer capacity, that allow us to deal with parking, that allow us to deal with garbage control? 'We hope to work with the federal government — who wants to truly be a partner in helping build more housing — without jamming down our throats something residents don't want,' pleads the veteran mayor. To that end, after Carney took power, the mayor sent a letter — as yet, unanswered — to the government, asking for a re-evaluation of this rigid approach to the housing accelerator fund. Drew has previously worked with Gregor Robertson, former mayor of Vancouver and now Carney's point man on housing and infrastructure. He's optimistic Robertson will bring practical insights about the correlation between affordable housing and density to the federal table. I noted that if increased density brought affordability, Vancouver would be cheap by now. 'I think the benefit of having a fresh government,' Drew offers, 'is they can come in and say, 'Listen, we looked at the program … while we appreciate the intention the past government was trying to employ here, we think there's a better way of working with municipalities, allowing them the flexibility to determine how to accomplish the goal. We'll set the goals and then we'll hold them to account.'' Drew's suggestion echoes what I heard Pierre Poilievre say in the last election campaign. But, we agree, there's nothing wrong with the Liberals stealing good ideas from the Conservatives. We hope to work with the federal government ... without jamming down our throats something residents don't want While the housing accelerator initiative is the focus of Windsor council's attention, Drew's not happy these blanket zoning mandates are being applied to other programs — including federal public transit and housing infrastructure funding available to municipalities. 'And it gets even better,' Drew continues, his tone increasingly agitated. 'Guess who doesn't have to do this? The entire province of Quebec. They have an exemption. They carved out a different pathway … four units as of right was not a requirement in the province of Quebec.' Indeed, Premier Francois Legault trumpeted his $900-million deal with Ottawa as being 'free of conditions.' The economy of Windsor has taken a sharp downturn in the past 18 months. Before Donald Trump's re-election, the Conference Board of Canada predicted Windsor would be the fastest-growing city by GDP of the 24 big cities they studied. 'We had the battery factory well under construction,' Drew reports, 'and we've got the Gordie Howe bridge that is winding up construction and should open officially the first week of December this year. 'But the reality is, there's a lot of fear here,' he shares. 'Our unemployment rate was almost 11 per cent and people are in rainy day mode. People are pinching their pennies … The housing market is very slow and everyone's just in a wait-and-see mode.' Property developers are on standby, he says, waiting to see if the Carney Liberals will cut development charges by 50 per cent at the municipal level (as promised during the election campaign), and whether the feds will offer low-interest loans for multi-storey residential units. 'Things have just kind of ground to a halt here,' Drew says with a sigh. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
