Michael Higgins: Of course young people are losing faith in democracy
- A significant portion of young Canadians aged 18 to 29, disillusioned by Liberal governance and a lack of historical education, express a preference for authoritarian leadership over democracy.
- A recent Abacus poll reveals that 47% of young adults favor a “strong leader” who bypasses Parliament and elections, with this preference cutting across political affiliations and reflecting a generational, not partisan, trend.
- Despite overall Canadian support for democracy remaining strong, there is growing dissatisfaction among youth due to economic challenges like high unemployment, housing unaffordability, and rising living costs, which fuels openness to alternative government forms such as socialism and authoritarianism.
- The article criticizes failures in educating youth about Canadian history and democratic values, arguing that undermining national identity and institutions has contributed to the loss of faith in democracy among the country's younger generation.
A vast number of young people brought up in the last decade and more of Liberal rule are now so disillusioned, dispirited and despondent that they would prefer a dictatorship rather than a democracy.
The Liberals can take a fair amount of responsibility for leaving 18-to-29-year-olds so jaundiced, but educational leaders must also accept their role in failing to teach youngsters the importance of history.
Magna Carta, the Canadian Bill of Rights, Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain, the vital importance of two world wars, the horrors under Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, why and how the parliamentary system has protected individual freedom — these and so many other matters of import are now either ignored or scorned.
We have failed the very people needed to champion Canada into the future. Instead, we have left too many young people bereft of identity, meaning and purpose.
A shocking finding in a new Abacus poll is that 47 per cent of people aged 18 to 29 “say a strong leader who does not have to bother with Parliament and elections would be a good way of governing.”
But those who would prefer a “strong man” seem divided on what type they want. Abacus Data CEO David Coletto cautioned against ascribing the results to any particular party.
“Thirty-five per cent of Liberal voters, 35 per cent of Conservative voters, 34 per cent of NDP voters and 34 per cent of Bloc voters say an unconstrained strong leader would be a good way to govern,” he wrote in his introduction to the poll results.
“The authoritarian instinct in Canada appears to be more generational than partisan.”
The poll indicates that for now democracy is safe. Most people, 72 per cent, have a positive view of democracy and 60 per cent believe it is preferable to any other form of government.
In a thoughtful analysis, Coletto said most Canadians still favour democracy: “The Canadian electorate is not in a revolutionary mood, at least not in the sense that most people want to tear down the political and economic systems we have and start again.
However, he added that he doesn’t “think the overall numbers should make anyone who favours the status quo complacent.” Forty per cent of Canadians believe the economic system needs “major or complete” change; 20 per cent want to try a different system altogether.
Meanwhile, one-third of Canadians think a leader who doesn’t have to bother with Parliament and elections would be “a good way to govern.” That so many are willing to cast off democracy in favour of the strong man is alarming and radical. It is the first time Abacus has asked that question and comes at a hard time for young people.
The unemployment rate among those aged 15 to 24 is 12.7 per cent (down from 14.4 per cent in December 2024); owning a home is “increasingly seen as impossible,” says Habitat for Humanity, and, as the government admits, rising food prices are “making it harder for many Canadians and their families to access sufficient nutritious food at an affordable price.”
Jobless, hungry and without a home of their own is the future of too many young people.
Coletto noted that many young Canadians “entered adulthood amid high housing costs, precarious work, weaker public services and a sense that getting ahead is harder than it was for their parents.”
These problems are probably why young people are more open to other forms of leadership.
Another question in the poll asked people for their impression of other forms of government. Among the 18-to-29 age bracket, socialism was seen positively by 39 per cent, communism by 26 per cent and authoritarianism by 17 per cent.
While most Canadians “still prefer democracy” and would prefer to improve the current system rather than dispose of it, Coletto cautioned that “underneath that broad preference for reform is a substantial appetite for major change, particularly among younger adults.” The electorate “is becoming less firmly attached to the systems and institutions that have traditionally defined Canadian politics.”
It is those very systems and institutions — piloted by the Liberal government itself — that are making us ashamed to be Canadians. We have torn down statues, denigrated our heroes and former leaders, renamed squares and guilted a nation into thinking they are colonizers in their own country.
Of course young people are losing faith in democracy; they have been taught to lose faith in everything. Being denied a past and living a dire present, what hope have they for the future?
More than a century ago, John McCrae wrote, “If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders Fields.”
We have broken the faith.
National Post