The 2025 federal election delivered an unexpected result before a single ballot was counted: young Canadians showed up. Turnout among Canadians 18-24 jumped nearly 10 percent from 2021, a shift significant enough to warrant attention. Did outreach and civic engagement efforts finally move the needle, or did the “elbows up” moment – the visceral backlash against the suggestion that Canada could become the United States’ “51st state” – galvanise a generation that had largely sat out previous elections?  What we do know is that the information environment young Canadians navigate every day is becoming harder to trust – and that poses a quieter, more structural threat to the engagement gains of 2025 than anything happening at the ballot box.

Canada’s elections are widely regarded as secure and professionally administered. Yet democratic legitimacy depends on more than procedural safeguards. It also depends on whether citizens trust the information environment that shapes political judgment. For younger Canadians navigating a digital ecosystem increasingly shaped by social media and AI-generated content, that trust is becoming harder to sustain.

This improvement should not lead to complacency. Sustaining youth voter engagement will require continued attention, particularly because turnout declines further in provincial and municipal elections. Addressing youth voter turnout therefore requires confronting more than apathy. It also requires confronting declining trust in the information environment that shapes political judgment. 

The Trust Gap in Canada’s Elections 

When we think about the integrity of Canada’s elections, we tend to focus on procedural safeguards: secure and secret ballots, an independent process free from interference, and equal treatment for candidates. These elements matter deeply. Canada’s election administration is strong by international standards. But integrity is not only procedural. It is also participatory. A system can be secure on paper and still struggle to inspire engagement. 

Accessibility is embedded in Canada’s Electoral Integrity Framework. This includes physical access to the ballot, but also access to reliable information and an inclusive process. Democratic resilience ultimately depends not just on sound administration, but on public confidence. 

Youth voter turnout in Canada has historically lagged behind older cohorts, however, trust in the mechanics of elections remains relatively strong. Trust in the broader political system, and in the information that shapes political judgment, is more fragile. While Canada continues to rank among comparatively high-trust democracies overall, recent surveys point to declining confidence among younger Canadians, particularly regarding government responsiveness and the information environment. That fragility is visible in the information ecosystem itself. According to the 2025 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, only 40 percent of Canadians say they trust the news. Among young Canadians, that figure drops to just 25 percent. 

This distinction is central to democratic legitimacy. Canadians may believe ballots are counted fairly, but if younger voters do not trust the information surrounding elections, participation begins to feel less meaningful. Do voters believe the process is legitimate? Do they have access to clear, reliable information? And do they feel that participating will make a difference? 

When the News Disappeared, What Filled the Gap?

Nowhere is this trust gap more visible than in the platforms where younger Canadians encounter political information. For younger Canadians, these questions are shaped by an information ecosystem that looks fundamentally different from that of previous generations. Social media platforms have become primary gateways to political information. Statistics Canada finds that 62 percent of Canadians aged 15 to 24 receive news through social media, making it their most common source. By contrast, 64 percent of Canadians aged 65 and older rely primarily on television. These generational differences shape not only where political information is accessed, but how it is encountered, interpreted, and shared. 

The implementation of Canada’s Online News Act in 2023 sought to rebalance the relationship between digital platforms and news publishers. However, the resulting standoff with Meta led to the removal of news content from Facebook and Instagram in Canada. More than a year later, a comprehensive agreement restoring consistent news distribution on those platforms has yet to materialize. Political content has not disappeared; it has simply been reshaped. 

When professional journalism is removed or deprioritized, the vacuum does not remain empty. It is filled with commentary, influencers, recycled clips, partisan framing, and increasingly AI-generated material that may be inaccurate, misleading, or deliberately manipulative. In Canada, political influencers now generate a substantial share of online political content and engagement, often outpacing traditional news outlets, particularly among younger audiences. The challenge, then, is not simply access to a ballot, but access to credible information. 

If younger generations participate less in elections, the perceived legitimacy of democratic institutions may gradually erode. Young Canadians are not disengaged from democracy altogether. Many remain active through protests, boycotts, and political engagement online. But the pathway between engagement and voting has become less direct, shaped by a fragmented information environment and declining trust in institutional sources. The linkage between engagement and voting is no longer straightforward, and the hurdles are greater than for previous generations. 

AI Does Not Need to Rig Elections. It Only Needs to Make Them Feel Rigged.

These platform dynamics already complicate how political information circulates. Generative AI introduces an additional layer of risk. The procedural foundations of Canadian democracy remain strong, with robust election management and security backstops in place. The greater vulnerability lies in perception. AI has the potential to further distort an already crowded information environment that erodes trust even when procedures remain secure and intact. 

This distortion will almost certainly be exploited by foreign actors or by those seeking to sow confusion. Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister Nathalie Drouin warned a parliamentary committee earlier this month that it is only a matter of time before efforts to disrupt Canada’s next federal election using AI intensify. We saw glimpses of this during the 2025 federal election, with AI-generated content flooding social media — including deepfakes depicting Prime Minister Carney on Epstein Island. It is not difficult to imagine how much more sophisticated these efforts could become between election cycles. 

Distrust can lead to disengagement. If young voters, who do not necessarily share the traditional notion of voting as a civic duty, are constantly questioning the credibility of what they see online, skipping election day may begin to feel rational rather than apathetic. An entire generation becomes underrepresented. Government priorities feel increasingly misaligned with their interests. The gap widens, and participation feels further out of reach, even as procedures remain accessible and secure. If participation among younger voters continues to decline, the perceived legitimacy of Canada’s elections could weaken even as procedural safeguards remain strong.

What We Actually Need to Protect

Young Canadians are not indifferent. They are navigating the same digital challenges as everyone else, compounded by the economic and social realities of being young in 2026. We ask them to trust democratic institutions while they scroll through content that encourages skepticism about everything. No previous generation has been asked to place trust in institutions while simultaneously questioning the credibility of nearly every piece of information they encounter. 

Safeguarding Canada’s elections must therefore mean safeguarding trust, especially among young voters. This does not require abandoning healthy skepticism — democracy depends on it. But it cannot allow skepticism to harden into passivity. If we want young Canadians to participate rather than observe from the sidelines, they must be shown that their democratic engagement is consequential. Democratic legitimacy depends not only on how ballots are counted, but on whether citizens trust the information surrounding them. In an AI-shaped information ecosystem, safeguarding elections increasingly means safeguarding information integrity.

Going forward, lowering the barrier for Canadian youth to access credible news is one way to reinforce information integrity. Norway’s leading newspaper group Amedia did just this last year, and saw an astonishing uptick in subscriptions from Norwegian youth: more than 36,000 subscriptions in just seven weeks.  

Canada should act on this lesson. If the problem is not access to elections, but access to trustworthy information, then policy responses must reflect that reality. This could include expanding public support for youth access to verified news, such as subsidized or free subscriptions to major Canadian outlets for those under 25, paired with incentives for publishers to participate. It could also include requiring platforms to prioritize credible sources and investing in Canadian public-interest digital infrastructure that connects young people to reliable information where they already are.

The next phase of election security will not be decided at the ballot box alone. It will be shaped by the information environments that precede it. If Canada wants to sustain the engagement gains of 2025, it must move beyond protecting elections as events and begin protecting the conditions that make participation meaningful. In an AI-shaped information ecosystem, safeguarding democracy increasingly means safeguarding trust.

© OpenCanada