In Generation Z, a new kind of voter emerges, focused more on issues, less on parties

When the country next elects a national government, there will be about 4.5 million Canadians under the age of 30 eligible to vote, a group that demographers have labelled Generation Z, and that pollsters here and around the world say engage in politics in different ways than older voters.

The arrival of Generation Z — this cohort will be about 14 per cent of all eligible voters in 2025 — is almost certain to have a significant and growing impact on the political culture of Western democracies, including Canada, as this youngest group of voters focuses their political activity on solving the problems their generation has identified as top priorities — climate change and housing are currently the top two in Canada — and are prepared to move their support across the political spectrum to match those priorities.

“It’s interesting because I think my generation has a little bit more of a cynical approach to thinking about how politicians are going to be helping us out right now,” said Russell Van Raalte, a 21-year-old third-year economics student at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON.  “I think we look at the housing crisis and the environment and we say to ourselves, really, can the government do very much? I’m not exactly sure.”

While there is no hard-and-fast rule about the dividing line between Gen Z and its predecessor Millennial generation, many demographers say anyone born in 1997 and later belongs to Generation Z. The oldest Gen Z, then, would be somewhere around 28-years-old in the fall of the 2025 when the next federal election is scheduled to take place.

A 2023 survey of American adultsby the Walton Family Foundation found “Gen Z feels stressed, unprepared for life after graduation and has little faith in political