Canadian youth vote: Apathy isn't the problem—it's accessibility

By Ashlyn Nguyen and Negin Amini, World Vision Canada National Youth Council

“Civic action” isn’t limited to voting—it is about advocacy and opportunities that help youth take a bolder action to create a positive change within their society.

With the UN's International Youth Day upon us, we're presented with some sobering statistics. In Canada, youth aged 18–24 consistently show the lowest voter turnout compared to other age groups, as reflected in data from the last four federal elections. In the most recent 2025 election, only 47 per cent of youth in this age group cast their vote, compared to an overall voter turnout of 69 per cent. This ongoing gap highlights the urgent need to re-engage young Canadians in the democratic process.

But, blaming youth apathy and disinterest in politics to rationalize youth voter turnout is a poor excuse and can actually further marginalize and disengage young citizens from political systems. Instead, we’d argue the issue is access to diverse and equitable opportunities for young Canadians to engage with decision-makers.

We are asking a critical question to ensure future generations are meaningfully and substantially engaged in our political system: how can we provide sufficient access to resources to help youth put their perspectives in action and make a contribution to a better Canada?

In reality, youth are the most politically vocal demographic in Canada.

Instead of wielding power with a voter’s ballot once every four years, youth are engaging politically 24/7 through social media—arguably the most powerful tool for advocacy and awareness today. In fact, nearly half of young Canadians aged 15–30 signed an online petition in the past year, and almost one in four shared their views on political or social issues via online forums or news websites. While youth aged 18–24 had the lowest voter turnout in the 2025 federal election at just 47 per cent, they remain the most politically active age group online, using digital platforms to influence change beyond the ballot box.

So, this begs another question: If we are so passionate, why won’t we take our voices to the ballot box?

In our experience as youth newly exposed to politics, we noticed that although youth are very vocal and passionate, they do not see voting as an effective method to raise their concerns. Political parties fail to cater their platforms that appeal to youth. Youth have specific concerns, but these concerns are often unrepresented in party platforms. Hence, youth are distanced from the electoral process and voters’ apathy develops.

So, you might then pose a question to youth: Why then don't youth engage directly with politicians to express their concerns?

To mitigate the barriers between youth and politics, we are advocating for greater investments to promote youth civic participation and these include the following recommendations:

More advocacy resources catered to youth need to be available to boost youth political engagement. Our team, the World Vision Canada Youth Council, drives advocacy by connecting key global issues to topics Canadians youth care about.

Through our work, we noticed the gap in resources to guide aspiring youth advocates on connecting with government representatives to enact action for change. For that, we built the Youth Political Advocacy Framework: an interactive guide that covers the basics of how youth can engage in social activism, political participation, and decision-making processes.

It provides a step-by-step guide on how to use youth advantages to influence legislation, what advocacy looks like in Canada’s parliamentary system, and how to meet with a Member of Parliament (MP).

The framework also provides a tool kit to support youth in their advocacy. Our government needs to scale up their investments in resources like the Youth Political Advocacy Framework to boost youth civic engagement.

Education is critical to encourage young people to become more involved in political discourse. Moreover, learning about civic rights, obligations, and responsibilities in citizenship through active engagement are foundational to youth development and their transition to adulthood.

Governments and non-profit organizations can collaborate in developing resources and educational material to help reduce barriers to engagement and de-stigmatize youth political presence.

For example, the 2018 youth program launched by the Canadian government is a solid start and helps encourage youth to share their perspective and adopt policies that will better serve Canadians. We’d like to see even more resources and opportunities to create a real change on this issue.

Effort is needed to debunk misconceptions around youth disengagement in politics. It’s time to challenge the misconception that youth are disengaged from politics. While voter turnout among youth aged 18–24 was just 47% in the 2025 federal election —the lowest of any age group—this doesn’t reflect a lack of political interest.

In fact, young Canadians are highly active in non-electoral political activities:

• 67% searched for information on political causes.
• Nearly 50% signed online petitions.
• Around 25% expressed their views on forums or news sites.
• Many participated in marches and demonstrations.

These figures show that youth are politically engaged—just not always through traditional voting channels. The Canadian government has acknowledged this shift and emphasized the need to identify new pathways for youth to integrate more deeply into political advocacy and decision-making.

While it’s true that youth participation in formal political institutions is significantly lower than the older population, youth are actually dealing with the bulk of societal challenges: climate change, access to affordable housing, education funding, Canada’s involvement in international development to help shape a peaceful world, and more.

This International Youth Day, we ask the Government to engage even more with our generation. We value resources, education, clarity in political processes, and access to dialogues to be a part of change. We deeply care about Canada and we want to be an empowered, informed and equipped force for positive change in the world.

Canadian youth and decision-makers, are you with us?