Conservatives are leading by a wide margin with young voters, according to the latest Nanos Research poll.
The survey found that 39.21% of voters aged 18- to 29-years-old would vote Conservative.
That figure is well ahead of the Liberals who polled at 15.97% among that group. In second place with these young voters were the NDP with 30.92%.
The Liberals have plunged to third place despite polling at 26.8% with 18- to 29-year-olds earlier this month.
According to the polling company’s chief data scientist and founder Nik Nanos, the Liberals have a lot of reasons to worry about the latest polling data.
“I would be very concerned if I were the Liberals,” said Nanos.
“Right now the Conservatives are really doing well among male voters, they’re more competitive among female voters than they have been, and the Conservatives are now doing well among younger voters.”
Nanos said that it looks like the coalition Prime Minister Justin Trudeau built to get elected in 2015 is “slowly unraveling.”
“That means that the Liberal coalition that was built in 2015, the movement led by Justin Trudeau, is slowly unraveling, and they’ve got to reverse this trend if they want to have any chance to hold on to government,” said Nanos.
Trudeau’s failure to address affordability issues and the housing crises has caused a rift among young voters but some who are more interested in climate change and progressive politics are lending their support to the NDP.
“The Liberals are getting squeezed on both sides, where young people are swinging to the progressive left because they want action, and then to the Conservatives for those young Canadians that are struggling to pay the bills and figure they’ve got nothing to lose by potentially having Pierre Poilievre as prime minister,” explained Nanos.
Other polling shows that young Canadians are among the hardest hit by rising interest rates and inflation.
According to a July Yahoo/Maru survey, 52% of young adults reported suffering from anxiety due to borrowing costs.
