Recent Polling By Doug MacIver

Recent federal polling in Canada shows something that should stop everyone in their tracks.

January 20 2026

Via FACEBOOK

Re-printed without permission.

Recent federal polling in Canada shows something that should stop everyone in their tracks.

Younger Canadians are breaking hard in one direction.

Older Canadians are clustering in another.

This isn’t a normal political split.

It’s a generational fault line.

Canada is staring straight at a past vs future moment.

On one side are people who built their adult lives in a system that worked.

Stable careers.

Defined benefit pensions.

Homes purchased at prices that feel fictional today.

A media environment where one or two outlets shaped the national narrative.

On the other side are people who did everything they were told to do and still can’t get ahead.

Educated.

Working hard.

Running side hustles.

Still renting.

Still priced out.

Still watching full-time work become something you’re lucky to land.

This isn’t left vs right anymore.

It’s lived experience vs inherited comfort.

Polling shows older voters overwhelmingly backing the status quo.

Younger voters are drifting away from it at scale.

And that shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Older generations came up in a Canada where effort led to progress.

You could plan.

You could save.

You could reasonably expect tomorrow to be better than today.

Younger generations are coming of age in a Canada where the math doesn’t work.

Job security is fragile.

Wages lag.

Housing feels permanently out of reach.

And being told to “just be patient” sounds more insulting every year.

So of course they don’t trust the same institutions.

Polling also shows a divide in where people get information.

One group still relies heavily on legacy media like CBC and government-adjacent commentary.

The other group gets its worldview from real people.

Podcasts.

Long-form conversations.

Social media.

Friends comparing notes and realizing the same promises keep falling flat.

That isn’t ignorance.

That’s adaptation.

And here’s the part people keep avoiding.

The same voting bloc that kept the substitute drama, “people-kind” guy in office for nearly a decade is now backing his replacement.

Mark Carney.

A guy who, according to polling sentiment and lived reality, has very little to show for everyday Canadians in his first year.

Unless you count elite connections.

Global back-patting.

And alliances that just happen to line up nicely with future boardroom opportunities.

Including Brookfield, all conveniently wrapped in a “blind trust” that asks the public not to look too closely and just trust the process.

That arrangement is easy to accept if your home is paid off, your pension is locked in, and the system still works for you.

It’s a lot harder to accept if you’re young, renting, stretched thin, and watching the same people who benefited from the old system lecture you about patience.

Polling doesn’t lie about this divide.

It’s getting wider.

Older voters are protecting the Canada that worked for them.

Younger voters are trying to build a future inside a system that no longer rewards effort.

There’s an old lyric that says,

“The children are our future, let them lead the way.”

Instead, we ignored them.

Then talked down to them.

Then told them to wait while the door kept closing.

This polling shift isn’t radical.

It’s rational.

It shows who benefited from the old system.

And who is paying the price to preserve it.

Canada does not need better messaging.

It does not need more panels.

It does not need another “steady hand” protecting insiders.

Canada needs a change.

Now.

Because a country that sacrifices its future to protect its past doesn’t stay a country for long.