Large-scale student-driven political action is being reported worldwide, from Brazil to Albania, yet critiques of apathy haunt Generation Z. Disaffected, disengaged, disinterested — these accusations seem incongruous with the mass mobilization of youth protesting government negligence and disrupting civic complacency.
Ongoing nationwide student protests in France are intensifying, drawing mass media attention and online support. For more than a month, young people have protested against unsustainable learning conditions caused by cuts to educational funding. Despite thousands of arrests and multiple serious injuries to protesters, demonstrations have only been gaining in severity.
In India, amid immense youth disenfranchisement, a movement that began as political satire demands a better system and an end to corruption. During a Supreme Court hearing in May, the Chief Justice of India equated unemployed youth, termed NEETs, to “cockroaches.” Then 30-year-old Abhijeet Dhipke, a political communications strategist, jokingly called for collective action on X, posting “What if all cockroaches came together?”
Dhipke formed the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which has now evolved into a widespread youth-led movement, garnering millions of members and organizing protests with tens of thousands of youth that led to the resignation of India’s Minister of Education in July.
Countries actively defunding their social services, war-mongering against public opinion, and/or prioritizing corporate interests are facing a nihilistic reckoning. Canada, with Mark Carney at the helm, might soon be at the crossroads of this political upheaval.
The youth social climate is torrential. It is a restless illustration of desperate discontent. Young people are keenly aware that the future awaiting them is marked by impossible conditions driven by austerity and growing conservative ideology.
Feelings of isolation and disconnection from community, spurred by A.I. and predatory social media tactics, are pervasive. The United States of America’s jingoistic threats of annexation have propelled an outpouring of Canadian nationalism in young men. It has also boosted the popularity of career politicians like Brad Bradford.
Chiara Padovani, a candidate running for city councillor in Ward 5, notices that, “When I knock on doors in York South-Weston and speak with youth, even if they’re not old enough to vote, the biggest issues they raise are housing and jobs … Young people often feel like they’re not being listened to, they’re not feeling represented in the halls of power.”
The comfortable future that was promised, conditional on attending university and earning a STEM degree, is now unrealistic. Historically stable industries no longer guarantee job security. Systems and technical models are usurping human choices that led to material change, enacting their own will.
According to a report by Mental Health Resource Canada, three-quarters of people aged 16-29 “believe that no matter how hard they work, bigger forces out of their control will influence their financial future.”
Systemic instability has reinforced Gen Z’s absurdist worldview. Some youth claim attending a Computer Science course has no material benefit over a “basket-weaving” course, making both choices equally as futile as they are viable.
Most would argue that access to education is an undeniable public good. Doug Ford, it appears, would disagree.
In Ontario, education has been comprehensively defunded. CUPE reports Ford’s Conservative government “cut the Classroom Staffing Fund by $56.2 million.” According to Ontario MPP and Liberal House Leader John Fraser, the government has cut $1500 per student since 2018, and FAOO’s review shows: “The spending plan in the 2026 Ontario Budget has decreased by a total of $0.5 billion from 2025-26 to 2027-28.”
Doug Ford and his government have a string of serious political scandals, the latest of which is his tie to private career colleges. His mismanagement of funds, which led to the collapse of OSAP, has recently been reported by the Ontario Liberal Party.
In February of 2026, he claimed OSAP was unsustainable and blamed students for abusing the system. His government restructured loans to start at 75 per cent of funding, up from the previous 15 per cent. These actions exemplify his larger disconnection from the lived realities of young Canadians.
Following this announcement, students staged walkouts and province-wide protests. In Toronto, youth mobilized in Queen’s Park.
Ontario youth care deeply about their education, but they are the lowest demographic of active voters.
Ford called a snap election for February of 2025; the turnout was approximately 45 per cent of eligible voters. When Doug Ford was reelected, a stream of active and enraged people flooded TikTok and Instagram, to no end. The lowest turnout by demographic in the 2025 Federal election was among people aged 18-24 at 56 per cent.
A lecture event hosted by The Walrus titled “Community Reborn” saw speakers take to the stage to comment on community building within a changing Canadian landscape. Some spoke of the necessity of focused and applied listening, others of the importance of third spaces, but one theme was clear: young people are the actors of change.
Speaker Sabreena Delhon, CEO of the Samara Centre for Democracy, champions youth. She claims they show up in informal ways through protests, petitions, and volunteering. Yet according to a 2024 survey conducted by Apathy is Boring, “94 per cent of youth agree that an opportunity to elect representatives is a key feature of society.”
Where does the dissonance lie between youth’s desire for change and their insufficient electoral presence?
I had hoped to find a few answers through my own local politics.
This past year, a canvasser knocked on my door and introduced me to Chiara Padovani’s city council campaign. With the tenacious grit necessary to be a social worker and politician, Padovani came within 94 votes of winning the seat against Ward 5’s long-held incumbent, Frances Nunziata. After the 2022 municipal election, she kept her campaign office open as a community hub and has spearheaded the Toronto Tenant Union.
My first volunteering opportunity was named Midnight Madness. It was a mad dash to turn the town red—well, the campaign’s signature purple—installing lawn signs before the strike of midnight. My partner and I, an older gentleman named Wilson, were paired to take on a small part of a neighbourhood.
We drove down adjoining streets I hadn’t known the names of, and met with people smoking cigarettes on their front porches in the late evening. We placed campaign signs, distributed flyers, and I petted watchful neighbourhood cats while we talked about the campaign. He met Padovani through her tenant organizing, and maintained his relationship with the campaign.
Most volunteers, be they old or young, were intensely passionate about the need for change.
Sarbjit Kauldhar, one of the youngest members on the campaign team, argues that “people are tired, and the youth, especially are tired, and everyone is desiring change, and I think that is exactly what Chiara has tapped into and it I think she’s in the perfect embodiment of change is very much needed for a better tomorrow.” (10:14-10:28)
At 22 years old, she’s worked in politics for over half a decade. Alongside her Constituency Assistant position for City Councillor Anthony Perruzza at Humber River-Black Creek, she’s currently working in outreach for Padovani while finishing her last year in the Psychology program at York University.
She was facilitating Midnight Madness on her birthday, adorned with a birthday pin and a fervent gleam in her eye. She insisted the only present she desired was for everyone to sign up for an election-day shift. I obliged her request.
The campaign office is located in the heart of Mount Dennis, right by the library I spent every day of middle school in, and the coffee shop whose iced tea I bribed my younger brother with to join me. Everyone was warm but busy, offering snacks while fielding calls and paperwork. In the whirl of news tracking and volunteer briefings, I was put to task canvassing.
Kauldhar noted that the campaign is made up of different ages and backgrounds, “a very diverse tapestry of age ranges and age groups and people from different walks of life … coming together because they want a change.” (11:59-12:29).
Peter, a union organizer and paramedic, was assigned to my training. He was pulled away at times to utilize his charm, effective in drawing civic support. He claimed social charms aren’t as important to campaigning as an open curiosity for people.
I’d bump into canvassers while waiting for my bus to work, or walk past my old high school on the way to a volunteer’s car to move around the ward. In these moments, I was reminded of all the ways I loved my neighbourhood and this city, and all the things I would love to change about it.
Ayesha Khan, a political operative and advocate also working with Padovani, began her career in politics as a student in her early 20s and intimately understands their role in “[making] up the basis of a campaign.” (7:20-8:00)
The onus has been placed on youth to take action, but Khan believes it is “incumbent upon campaigns to provide some support for young people in return for their participation, instead of to just treat them like resources to be extracted.” (13:11-21)
Transportation, snacks, and a “hospitable environment” are all a part of ensuring “these kids will stay civically engaged, because they’ll have a positive experience with your campaign and it will likely inspire them to keep getting involved, even further at stages in their lives.” (13:44-13:59).
Nationwide non-profits like Fora: Network for Change and Apathy is Boring created programs that open doors for young people to make actionable changes in their communities. In York South—Weston, Padovani brought 416 United to my attention: “A youth athletics initiative run by Ahmed Suleiman tries to provide opportunities for young people to grow, learn and develop in a healthy environment with positive role models.”
These organizations are hugely important in getting youth engaged with positions in and systems of governance, but the government has the biggest impact on the material conditions of youth.
Padovani notes that the City has a role to play in creating jobs and opportunities for young people. She promises to “throw the doors of City Hall open to youth in our community. One of my ideas is to have a community council with seats for youth representatives, to give them space and a platform to engage with local politics so they have a voice and are heard.”
Youth have been “deeply political and active through many different other avenues even if “they don’t vote in the traditional way,” Kauldhar believes (7:30-44). But she thinks people, after seeing the effects of their vote in governments like Ford’s, are slowly realizing that “now more than ever, their vote has weight” (10:03-8).
