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Geoff Russ: Canadian voters are aging out of mainstream conservatism

The Liberals have ensured voters are dependent on the state

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The Conservative Party faces the problem of a changing country, not a change in ethnic diversity or gender identity, but a change in age brackets. In fact, the electorate is aging out of their preferred conservatism, and they are not getting any younger.

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In this changed country, appeals to tax cuts and smaller government simply do not have the attraction they once did. Dependence on the state has grown. Part of that dependence stems from the outsized expansion of the public service since 2015, but that is not the main culprit. The real culprit is the growing share of the population made up of retirees and pensioners.

Geoff Russ: Canadian voters are aging out of mainstream conservatism Back to video

Compounding this is the failure of the Liberal government since 2015 to foster a dynamic private-sector economy that actually makes voters open to risk, entrepreneurship, and “powerful paycheques,” a phrase Pierre Poilievre began using in 2024.

As fewer people participate meaningfully in the economy and more people retire from the workforce, that combination only reinforces the party’s central problem. The Conservative Party of Canada’s problem is not only one of messaging. The country to which tax-cuts and........

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