Michael Higgins: Of course young people are losing faith in democracy

People wait to cast their votes at a polling station at the Canadian Museum of Nature on April 28, 2025 in Ottawa, Canada. Photo by Andrej Ivanov/Getty Images

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A vast number of young people brought up in the last decade and more of Liberal rule are now so disillusioned, dispirited and despondent that they would prefer a dictatorship rather than a democracy.

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The Liberals can take a fair amount of responsibility for leaving 18-to-29-year-olds so jaundiced, but educational leaders must also accept their role in failing to teach youngsters the importance of history.

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Magna Carta, the Canadian Bill of Rights, Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain, the vital importance of two world wars, the horrors under Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, why and how the parliamentary system has protected individual freedom — these and so many other matters of import are now either ignored or scorned.

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We have failed the very people needed to champion Canada into the future. Instead, we have left too many young people bereft of identity, meaning and purpose.

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A shocking finding in a new Abacus poll is that 47 per cent of people aged 18 to 29 “say a strong leader who does not have to bother with Parliament and elections would be a good way of governing.”

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But those who would prefer a “strong man” seem divided on what type they want. Abacus Data CEO David Coletto cautioned against ascribing the results to any particular party.

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“Thirty-five per cent of Liberal voters, 35 per cent of Conservative voters, 34 per cent of NDP voters and 34 per cent of Bloc voters say an unconstrained strong leader would be a good way to govern,” he wrote in his introduction to the poll results.

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“The authoritarian instinct in Canada appears to be more generational than partisan.”

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The poll indicates that for now democracy is safe. Most people, 72 per cent, have a positive view of democracy and 60 per cent believe it is preferable to any other form of government.

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In a thoughtful analysis, Coletto said most Canadians still favour democracy: “The Canadian electorate is not in a revolutionary mood, at least not in the sense that most people want to tear down the political and economic systems we have and start again.

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However, he added that he doesn’t “think the overall numbers should make anyone who favours the status quo complacent.” Forty per cent of Canadians believe the economic system needs “major or complete” change; 20 per cent want to try a different system altogether.

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Meanwhile, one-third of Canadians think a leader who doesn’t have to bother with Parliament and elections would be “a good way to govern.” That so many are willing to cast off democracy in favour of the strong man is alarming and radical. It is the first time Abacus has asked that question and comes at a hard time for young people.