Youth’s low presence in parliament: the perspective of candidates and elected representatives

Abstract

ABSTRACT Canada is one of many representative democracies with low youth representation in parliament of the age cohorts 30 years or under, 35 years or under, and 40 years or under. While most research tries to examine structural- or party-level factors responsible for youth’s low presence in politics, our study is interested in politicians’ perspectives. Are candidates and elected officials aware of youth’s low presence in the Canadian House of Commons? Do they find this dearth of representation problematic, and if so, what remedies do they suggest to alleviate the situation? We try to answer these questions through original survey research of candidates and elected representatives of the 2019 and 2021 Canadian general elections. Our results reveal interesting patterns. Most of the surveyed are aware that youth representation is lacking behind youth’s distributive share of the population in Canada. However, only a minority of the survey respondents finds this problematic. Interestingly, there is also not enough support for proactive measures such as youth quotas or term limits to increase youth representation in the House of Commons.