‘Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation’: Political Orientations and Activities of a Cohort of Canadian University Students in the Mid‐Sixties

Abstract

AbstractWhile Canadian scholars have documented some of the beliefs and behaviours of student activists in the 1960s, little has been said of the ‘average’ Canadian university student. As a result, this article deals with the political orientations and activities of students who entered Glendon College, York University, in 1963 and who graduated by 1967. It will be shown that upon entry to the university this cohort of students was primarily Liberal. Despite fundamental changes that were occurring at a macro‐social level, by and large, the distribution of students’ political orientations was the same in 1967 as it had been in 1963. The virtual absence of collective action with a political objective was consistent with this reality.