It was a rainy March evening in British Columbia, but that didn’t stop 29-year-old Giancarlo Zorrilla from attending his first political rally. Like many young Canadians, Zorrilla is fed up – and he’s placing his hopes in Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, while the Liberal Party is seeking a fourth term after globalist Justin Trudeau was forced to take the L.
“It’s time for a change,” Zorrilla told Bloomberg, heading into a Poilievre campaign stop near Vancouver. Though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is out of the picture, Zorrilla isn’t buying the Liberals’ rebrand. “Still the same rock band,” he quipped.
That frustration is bubbling over across Canada’s younger voters. Once wooed by promises of legalized pot and eco-friendly reforms, Millennials and Gen Z are now reeling from runaway housing prices and a cost-of-living crisis that’s left dreams of home ownership and early retirement in the dust.
While Poilievre has found resonance among the youth – roughly 39% of 18-to-34-year-olds back the Conservatives vs. 36% for the Liberals, per Nanos Research, not enough to catapult him ahead but still significant. With less than two weeks before election day, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals are holding a narrow lead overall, thanks in part to strong support from Canadian boomers.
Carney, 60, is virtually a stranger to the TikTok generation. His political playbook caters more to Baby Boomers than Zoomers, like the ad where he and “Austin Powers” star Mike Myers wax nostalgic about Mr. Dressup and The Tragically Hip. Good luck finding a Gen Z’er who knows who Howie Meeker is.
Yet it’s that very throwback charm that’s roped in voters like Tracy Nice, a 64-year-old lifelong Conservative who flipped blue over Carney’s steady hand and Canada’s souring relationship with the U.S.
“Carney just seems like a very smart, calm, thoughtful man who I trust,” Nice said. “And obviously the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England trusted him.”
Poilievre, meanwhile, has taken a different approach. He’s leaned into the social media era, ditching stuffy suits for tight tees, donning aviators, and even puffing hookah with a shawarma shop owner on YouTube while chatting about cryptocurrency. His message? Axe taxes, cut red tape, and let Canadians save – all wrapped in a swagger that channels online populism.
As Mark Jeftovic of Bombthrower.com notes, Canadian boomers are generally dicks:
The Liberal base has had it easy for a decade. With a compliant, sycophantic press and a loyal army of boomers—presumably the only ones still answering calls from pollsters on their wall-mounted rotary-dial landlines during CBC commercial breaks—they greet any resistance to the prospect of four more years of controlled demolition of the Canadian economy with smugness and derision.
There are endless cases caught on video of deranged elderly liberals gyrating in spasmodic fashion chanting “elbows up” at each other and the rest of us and they seem to think it’s some kind of “gotcha moment” to fly off the handle or flip us the bird…
Mating call of the white-haired Canadian boomer looking to fuck over their grandchildren. pic.twitter.com/XtAOBtLS40
— Tokyo Rosie (@RosieRocks29) April 19, 2025
But none of them has become more iconic than this one (at least not yet):
Elbows and/or fingers up. #cdnpoli #Brantford #Elxn45 #ProtestMania pic.twitter.com/jTKswfmgVp
— Caryma Sa’d – Lawyer + Political Satirist (@CarymaRules) April 19, 2025
Now, the “liberal boomer” image has gone viral and the guy who probably thought he was “0wning the opposition, lol” is a meme now – it has captured the essence of the Liberal Party’s campaign platform:
— Ryan Gerritsen🇨🇦🇳🇱 (@ryangerritsen) April 20, 2025
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Thus, it’s no mystery why young men are flocking to the Conservatives – though the gender gap is hard to ignore. Twice as many women support Carney’s Liberals, while nearly half of male voters back Poilievre. Liberals were quick to pounce on the Tory leader’s use of the phrase “biological clock” during a speech on housing affordability, accusing him of tone-deafness on gender issues.
“Poilievre’s style is coded masculine,” said Laura Stephenson, a political science professor at Western University. “And the Conservative Party in general… has often been favored by men over women.”
Still, the youth surge behind Poilievre marks a generational reversal. Traditionally, young Canadians leaned left, while older voters skewed conservative. Now, with sky-high rents and stalled economic growth, the Liberal record is falling flat — even as the party racks up wins on progressive policies like pharmacare and dental care.
“We have legalized marijuana, we have pharmacare, we have dental care,” said Stephenson. “What many [young voters] still struggle with, though, is paying rent, or buying a home.”
And that, for Poilievre, may be his most potent talking point yet. Whether it’s enough to close the gap before voters hit the polls, that’s the billion-dollar question.
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