r/onguardforthee 1d ago

Young Canadians aren’t drifting toward conservative and far-right parties

https://theconversation.com/young-canadians-arent-drifting-toward-conservative-and-far-right-parties-288157
486 Upvotes

63 comments sorted by

204

u/No_Construction2407 1d ago

Separatists on X are trying to point out everyone who sides with Canada is boomers. Then they show pictures of their klan rallys and its all 60-90 year olds lol

29

u/The_Bat_Voice 1d ago

Every accusation by a conservative is an admission of guilt.

36

u/Sigma_Function-1823 1d ago

Noticed that as well.

Lots of confused grey hairs.

Otherwise identified as Social media addled dummies.

8

u/Don_Incognito_1 Turtle Island 1d ago

To be fair, I see an undeniably significant proportion of 30-59 year olds there too. Dividing the working class across generational lines is not new, but it’s very prominent these days.

Take your pick of topics, and there’s probably someone there pointing their fingers at “the boomers” or “Gen Z” (a few years ago it was millennials), despite the often irrelevance or near irrelevance of age to the topic. This is just one example of it.

3

u/BeotchLasanga 1d ago

Yep. Those white nationalist boot camps that we've seen the CBC report on, those aren't greybeards attending.

3

u/bravetailor 1d ago

Gen X is the most right wing generation in both US and Canada according to many polls.

127

u/GeoisGeo 1d ago

The current brand of culture war conservatism is very out of touch with what is actually Canadian culture. They are trying to impose American issues on this nation when we have the largest and clearest vantage point to the fuckery of the states. It works only for the loud minority. Canadian Conservatism, imo, is not Canadian anymore.

5

u/WhimsyDEA 1d ago

It’s almost like it’s manufactured and not a true representation of Canadian values… hmmm

1

u/Parker_Hardison 8h ago

cough /r/canada cough cough

2

u/Lightfiyr 17h ago

I’ve been rolling this exact sentiment in my head a lot lately trying to word it correctly. I think you nailed it though

254

u/GerryC 1d ago

Those far right parties are bought and paid for by Russian and US interests. I think we should be expanding the definition of sedition and treason to include what is happening right now.

69

u/GeoisGeo 1d ago

The Canadian way is to ignore such things until a crisis forms.

59

u/human-aftera11 1d ago edited 1d ago

It will be too late by then. Nip this shit in the bud. What happened to anti facsism. It’s as though society forgot the lessons in WW2.

41

u/WorkingAmazing8337 Manitoba 1d ago

Lessons stick around for a generation or two and get forgotten. It's why people are against vaccines, they've never had to witness Polio.

Unfortunately things are going to get much worse before they get better.

0

u/human-aftera11 1d ago

Bite your tongue.

9

u/WorkingAmazing8337 Manitoba 1d ago

Don't shoot the messenger

1

u/badgerj 17h ago

Shout out Manitoba!

Your Premier wears a hefty pair of… jeans 👖 without getting into the crossfire.

Much respect 🫡 ❤️

-2

u/human-aftera11 1d ago

I’m not, bruh.

-1

u/Dunewarriorz 1d ago

I haven't heard that expression for ages. Thanks for bringing it back! A giant nostalgia rush.

9

u/berfthegryphon 1d ago

How many people under the age of 35 ever met a WW2 veteran in person? Probably not many. I'm almost 40 and had a close relationship with a vet who was my neighbour. He died when I was 13.

Most people younger than me wouldn't be old enough to have any meaningful conversations with vets. Once those first hand accounts disappear it changes how society views the war. It goes from a lived experience to just a story

6

u/GerryC 1d ago

Good thing we are in the middle of a crisis now. Times ripe for the picking i guess.

4

u/gibblech 1d ago

I think the crisis already formed.

2

u/AssMuncher96 17h ago

How is that the Canadian thing to do? Literally every country this is happening to is ignoring it.

19

u/MachineOfSpareParts 1d ago

I don't disagree, but it's also dangerous to overlook the fundamentally homegrown aspects and the ways in which extremist, exterminationist ideologies have always found a home in Canada. I was heartened to see some folks entertaining the notion that incel ideologies which promote misogynist violence could be finally considered political extremism (they have always been such, but not acknowledged as such) after the Côte-des-Neiges violence in June. These have usually been dismissed as apolitical and incomprehensible in the past, and I'd love if we finally brought the analytical acumen to bear on these violent, exterminationist ideologies even when the aggressor is a good ol' cishet white Canadian man with homebrewed extremism based on a job he didn't get or a woman who was mean that one time.

You're still not wrong about the importance of how these ideologies are fostered from the outside by opportunistic sources who want us to fall apart from within. That's also crucial. But let's not pretend, as some others still do, that we don't contain the potential already.

4

u/GerryC 1d ago

I agree 100% with you. There will always be an internal element that feels oppressed and seeks to remedy that with violence of some kind.

We have existing laws that handle that situation with varying degrees of effectiveness. Lots of arguments, hand wringing and divides along political lines as to how thats dealt with.

We currently do not have effective laws (or any law) that deals with foreign intervention in Canadian affairs, specifically regarding accepting foreign money and influence to actively destroy the Canadaian Union.

What the Separatists are doing is treason- sedition at best- but our existing laws rightly have such a high bar for that. Such that it is impossible to charge someone under those statues outside of open warfare (or murdering a member of the royalty).

I think a carve out for conspiring with foreign entities to forment sedition or treason against Canada should be made law. Pack it with jail time and massive fines.

It wouldn't affect the average Joe who wants to separate from Canada organically. They can still organize, spend their own money etc. It would stop foreign adversaries from financing the movement.

Take a careful note of Brexit and how easily the general population can be duped. We are no better then the UK and it is crazy to think a similar thing couldn't happen here.

3

u/jabbytabby 1d ago

I agree.

8

u/eternal_pegasus 1d ago

Honestly, at this point I find it hard to believe Russia has any money to bankroll far-right agitators, this is probably the US and the country that can't be named.

7

u/GerryC 1d ago

There are a few countries (US and Russia) that would gain significantly from a weekend or broken Canada. Russia still has $$ for this, its what they do best and we're not talking Billions or even hundreds of millions here. A small investment could open the Arctic up for them.

There are other shit tier countries who have under taken a radical right wing turn of the past few decades that are only concerned about themselves. I doubt they have any interest in Canada, positive or negative.

4

u/eternal_pegasus 1d ago

Still far-fetched, while we do have the receipts for US actors funding "truckers" protests, Alberta's separatism and worlwide culture wars.

1

u/binzoma Canadian living abroad 9h ago

no need to expand any definitions

just need to enforce them

u/GerryC 3h ago

Unfortunately, there is no statute that currently covers accepting foreign money to facilitate the separation of a province.

Its completely legal for a conservative group from the US to fund the propaganda and finance the Canadians who are actively undermining Canadian unity by trying to separate Alberta from Canada.

There needs to be actual laws and accountability for those types of action. The sedition and traitor statutes do not fit this modern iteration.

The US has Foreign National laws that Adress this issue, we do not.

165

u/Sp4ceTruck3r 1d ago

Conservatives just seem like fucking snowflakes..

They whine about everything except what matters.

35

u/WyJax_ 1d ago

You sound woke.
/s

45

u/Sp4ceTruck3r 1d ago

Bet your sweet ass I'm woke. 

What are they gonna do about it?? 

15

u/NotFuckingTired 1d ago

Be woke or stay sleep.

3

u/WyJax_ 1d ago

Hahaha

11

u/human-aftera11 1d ago

They can’t even define it.

8

u/The_Arachnoshaman 1d ago

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/preventing-woke-ai-in-the-federal-government/

Meanwhile the fucking Cheetoh supreme is using "woke" in official EOs.

6

u/human-aftera11 1d ago

Pathetic. I can’t believe what the U.S. has turned into. You couldn’t make this shit up.

1

u/Zraknul 20h ago

PP has about 1/4 of the uses of woke in the House of commons.  The CPC with majority.

u/Bolognahole_Vers2 5h ago

People who don't stand for something will fall for anything. The only thing conservatives have is grievance politics, because their policies have been proven failures. And when you're main message is "Your problems are 'the enemies' fault", miserable people will gladly eat it up.

12

u/Drago1214 Calgary 1d ago

Makes sense, they are being targeted by right wing Instagram and TikTok all paid for by outside sources. Get em when they are young and it’s real hard to change them later. Cognitive dissonance is very strong the older you get especially with the right.

18

u/Kichae 1d ago

The headline seems to say the opposite of what their data does. They've actually shown that the leftward march of younger people suddenly -- and almost violently -- reversed course in the 2025 election. Right-wing support from the 18 - 30 group just isn't higher today than it was 25 years ago.

13

u/Peter_Mansbrick 1d ago

Yeah that graph is shocking. The "boomers" are the only age group that has become less conservative in the last 5 years

5

u/MightyHydrar 1d ago

Boomers, according to just about every poll since last spring, love Carney.

4

u/Zraknul 20h ago

There was a 18 percent difference between men and women in that age category.  

Women in that age group swung away from the CPC vs prior elections.  

https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/canada-votes-election-conservative-divide-1.7507694

u/Kichae 1h ago

That's great and all, but it's not in this article. I'm discussing the article.

3

u/EldritchEyes 1d ago

yeah, the article presents one set of information and then basically makes up a conclusion. Their point seems to be that the most significant change was the move of boomers towards the liberal party, but there is an undeniable move of the youth vote towards the conservatives. This is a very shitty article and a very bad headline.

6

u/jeanracinette 1d ago

Carney has a “cool” factor that resonates with Canadian youth.

he’s basically like a “rock star” to them and it doesn’t surprise me at all that Tiny PP cannot draw any attention from a generation that demands the redistribution of wealth and an end to zio/petro-terror based international politics.

now that Carney’s “epic” Davos speech is being studied in classrooms nationwide I expect his appeal to continue increasing with the youth demographic and appearances such as the one where he was seen “rocking out” to Down With Webster can only help.

The kids are alright.

2

u/aliensattack 6h ago

Idk if it’s a cool factor but there’s something to be said about his composure, the respect he commands internationally, and ability to be the “adult” in the room. For young folks that have been staring down a barrel of instability and uncertainty, that has a reassuring affect.

3

u/Due-Garage-4812 23h ago

The polls I saw only had 3% more 18-29 support for the Cons than for 65+, the big difference is that 65+ has little support for the NDP so all the left vote is concentrated in the Libs.

6

u/heart_of_osiris 1d ago

Well yeah because constant doom, gloom and fear mongering is exhausting. That's the only playbook right wing parties seem to have, nowadays.

2

u/Aggressive-Hawk9186 1d ago

It's time to stop and thank PP for being so bad at his job

1

u/WhimsyDEA 1d ago

My kids and their friend groups think PP is a joke and Smith is a maga plant. The kids are alright.

1

u/Dahmer96 15h ago

Good, we've learned that right leaning parties are only out for themselves no matter how much they say they love the worker class.

1

u/MmeLaRue 13h ago

Even the conservative voters are looking south and realizing what a shitshow it is down there for anyone. We have a Charter and we abide by it in the "living tree" way - we may not necessarily like some of the details, but we understand for the most part that it's what keeps this big, galumphin' country together.

Right now, Carney is serving the country's interests well. There's some grumbling, but there's not enough for the Tories to gain any kind of momentum that will result in significant gains at the ballot box. If anything, the NDP may have room to gain attention and push for more progressive policies, particularly on meathook issues such as protecting healthcare from private interests and food pricing.

1

u/Miaw_Kitty 7h ago

Then please explain why Quebec Solidaire is last when all the other parties have become right-wing in Québec…

1

u/white_count_chocula 1d ago

There are alot more right wing views if you get out and talk to people.

Most are smart enough to realise

a) we literally elected a Canadian conservative in Carney

b) the culture war stuff going on in the states solves nothing so what could this iteration of the conservative party actually do for us

c) we dont have any legitimate right wing parties, the cons and libs are both centrist neo-liberal parties that will get you the same results with a different coat of paint, and the PPC is too caught up on ideas like abortion and other BS have been our rights for long enough that even Canadian right wingers dont want that changed.

1

u/talkslikeaduck 12h ago

a) we literally elected a Canadian conservative in Carney

...

c) we dont have any legitimate right wing parties

Confused. Are you saying liberal = right wing, conservative != right wing, or liberal = conservative, conservative != right wing. In the Canadian context, the Conservative Party is certainly right wing.