Canada’s prime minister has a lot on his plate right now. Whether it’s managing an increasingly erratic and potentially vengeful Donald Trump after the midterm elections, defining our new relationship with Europe or renegotiating Canada’s relationship with its Indigenous Peoples — oh, and a federal budget due later this week — there’s no shortage of issues that ought to be commanding Mark Carney’s attention. 

But amid all the geopolitics and economic statecraft, he shouldn’t forget about the plight of younger Canadians, who continue to bear the brunt of a brutal housing market, a sluggish economy and new technology that threatens to wipe out the jobs and careers they haven’t even had yet. Yes, some of them came back to the political fold in the last election, and many still support Carney’s Liberals. But if events in the rest of the world are any indication, their patience may soon run out.

In France, youth-led demonstrations over education and the cost of living have been building for weeks, with anywhere from 550,000 to 800,000 people — mostly young ones — hitting the streets on Oct. 17. This past weekend’s numbers were lower, but the protesters in France were joined by ones in Germany and Italy, where similar concerns over the dismal economic prospects of young people are roiling their domestic politics. Youth unemployment in many European countries is now above 20 per cent, and the ever-expanding social payments to senior citizens and older........

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