Millennials Love Affair with Justin Trudeau on Shaky Ground

As Canada’s election quickly approach it remains unclear whether millennials will come out in support Justin Trudeau.  The Liberal Prime Minister desperately needs the support from millennials voters to win re-election.

Millennials could have a significant impact on the upcoming federal election, but only if they come out to vote in droves. However recent polls indicate there isn’t the same motivation among millennial voters that were present in the last federal election.

Millennial were paramount in electing Trudeau and his center-left Liberals in 2015. After he promised to tackle climate change, legalize marijuana and reform the electoral system. – issues that resonated with the younger voters.

Pollsters say, the trouble for Trudeau, is that millennial voters are now frustrated with him and his party. After a series of scandals, and the oil pipeline fiasco young voters have lost faith in their youthful leader.

Trudeau – who spent Friday marching alongside thousands of young climate strikers in Montreal. Saying his party’s record of leadership and its plans on the environment would keep young voters in his corner.

But a Nanos poll on Tuesday, found the proportion of 18-to-29-year-olds who plan on voting Liberal was 27%, down from 38% in August. Conservative support from millennial has increased to 23% compared with 19% in August.

POLITICAL BAGGAGE

In August, an official watchdog ruled Trudeau had improperly interfered with SNC-Lavalin avoided a corruption trial. The prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrong doing and says he was simply trying to save jobs.

Last month, Trudeau was again on the defensive after images and a video emerged showing him donning a blackface in the early 1990s and 2001.

Trudeau has also acknowledged another instance in which he wore a blackface during high school.

The story made international headlines, and polls showed younger voters initially recoiled away from Trudeau. Ipsos polling data found the news gave Conservatives a four-point lead over the Liberals among all Canadians.

If too many millennial voters opt for other left-leaning parties such as the New Democrats and the Greens. It could split the liberal vote and put the Conservatives in power.

Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto said  “For a lot of people (Trudeau) has turned out to be more like a conventional-style politician.” Adding “he also didn’t have any of that baggage last time.”