Justin Trudeau is not a proper representative for young Canadians

Photo by Matt Smith
Photo by Matt Smith

While most voters could tell you Justin Trudeau is our prime minister, not a lot of voters could tell you that he also holds the position of minister of intergovernmental affairs and youth. Trudeau, beyond leading our nation, is also in the House of Commons to represent the interests of the young people in Canada.

How is he doing in his secondary role? When it comes to several of the things we care about, Trudeau certainly falls short.

On the surface, the infatuation with our young prime minister makes sense. Trudeau is a good looking, young, selfie-taking, modern politician.

The Huffington Post reports that over 45 per cent of millennials supported the Liberals in the election, with higher than average young voter turn out proving a catalyst for the Liberal mandate.

He understands our troubles with student debt, a weak job market and an ever changing economy. At least that’s the conventional wisdom you might hear from young voters.

In my opinion, this is a misconception.

The latest data, as reported in the Toronto Star, indicates that Canada lost an alarming rate of jobs that were meant for young people in July alone.

When handling rising costs of living, record high housing prices and massive student debt, it’s disappointing that the youth jobs in Canada are in low-pay, part-time service sector jobs.

Meanwhile, we continue to shed higher-paying full-time work. Just getting by with part-time work under the Trudeau economy is difficult enough, let alone paying down debts, thinking about purchasing a house, or saving for retirement.

How does Trudeau perform when it comes to controlling Canada’s debt levels?

As our prime minister and our minister of youth, we understand that he cannot fund everything we want.

However, I would hope that policy prescriptions would be in place to help alleviate weak job growth, while keeping an eye on our debt.

Unsurprisingly, Trudeau does neither. It appears Trudeau finds better political opportunity paying off interest groups at the expense of future millennial taxpayers.

Despite promising modest deficits of 10 billion dollars, the first Liberal budget is estimated at 30 billion dollars.

Only 4 billion dollars of this deficit is going towards infrastructure, the area Trudeau cites for the extra 20 billion dollars.

Much of the infrastructure money is going to build sports facilities, museums and government buildings to special interest groups.

These are hardly the promised investments in our economy that will give millennials an advantage over the rest of the world.

That 30 billion dollar deficit will be similar size next year, the year after and there is no clear end in sight, according to Fraser Institute.

For all the problems with the Conservative government, one thing that should unite young voters was the Tax-Free Savings Account.

It’s becoming ever more clear that the Canada Pension Plan will not be enough to retire on. The importance of being able to save for retirement as young Canadians and let our money compound cannot be understated.

Considering the average Canadian household’s largest expense is taxes, it is hard to see how cuts to the TFSA is anything but a money grab on young savers to pay for current baby boomers.

The appearance of caring and compassion for our problems is nothing but a mirage. Whether it is lack of reforms to get young Canadians to work and climbing the job ladder, rising government debt, lack of infrastructure, or cutting our best tool to save for the retirement the government cannot provide (but could provide for our parents), there is reason to be angry.

I understand that he is likable, but with each passing day it is clear his policies aren’t. The feeling of my fellow millennials is of adoration for our charming prime minister, but facts don’t care about your feelings. Those facts are having clear, detrimental effects on our future.

Leave a Reply