Grade school students swing to Poilievre, even as he falls short in federal election
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The students' votes led to a Conservative minority government, with Pierre Poilievre's party earning a hypothetical 165 seats from 36.4 per cent of the vote. This is a major jump from the 2021 Student Vote results, where the Conservatives placed third. The Liberals earned the second most seats among students this time around, securing 145. Essentially, the results between the main two parties were flipped from the current real-world projections.
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While the NDP had a disappointing election, they performed better in terms of seat count among student voters. The NDP won 13 seats, with 14.5 per cent of the vote to barely hold onto official party status in the student vote scenario.
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This is far from a positive for the NDP's future though, as they lost hypothetical 95 seats from the 2021 Student Vote. They previously earned 108 hypothetical seats, which was only ten fewer seats than the governing Liberals.
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The Bloc Quebecois did slightly worse than their projected seat total, earning 17 seats from 2.19 per cent of the vote. The Green Party earned 7.5 per cent of the students' votes, giving them two seats, with longtime party leader Elizabeth May and Kitchener Centre incumbent Mike Morrice maintaining their spots in the hypothetical Parliament.
The Student Vote is an initiative run by CIVIX, an organization dedicated to 'strengthening democracy through civics and citizenship education for school-aged youth.' For the vote, they polled over 900,000 students across the country, with representation in each riding.
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CIVIX, in collaboration with Abacus Data, also ran the Student Budget Consultation between December 2024 and March 2025. This consultation surveyed students about what the government's financial priorities should be. The most important issues per surveyed students were the cost of living, housing and health care.
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