Student vote shows Manitoba youth picking Conservative Party to win seats

University of Manitoba’s Chris Adams provides analysis on the federal election outcome and what’s next.

While election night saw Mark Carney and the Liberal Party win a fourth mandate from voters, it was a different story with students.

The annual Student Vote Canada saw students vote for the Conservative Party of Canada to form government. Across the country, students gave the Conservatives 165 seats and 36.4 per cent of the popular vote, compared to 145 seats and 31.7 per cent of the popular vote for the Liberals.

The Conservatives also received a larger vote share in Manitoba, with 35.6 per cent of students in the province voting for their candidates, compared to 29.3 per cent for the Liberals, 21.6 per cent for the NDP, seven per cent for the Greens and 6.5 per cent for other candidates.

When broken down by seat, the votes from students largely aligned with the results on election night in Manitoba, except for two ridings.

Students had Niki Ashton retaining the riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, which was won by Rebecca Chartrand for the Liberal Party of Canada on Monday. Students also selected Shola Agboola with the Conservative Party to represent St. Boniface-St. Vital, while voters went with Ginette Lavack of the Liberals.

According to Student Vote, 41,778 students from 338 schools in Manitoba cast ballots this year.

Student Vote is run by non-profit organization CIVIX, which is dedicated to strengthening democracy through civic education.