Thursday October 23, 2025 | OTTAWA, ON [Filing from VICTORIA, BC | Posted at 10:43 am | Updated 10:52 am PT]
Political news analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Prime Minister Mark Carney may have been ‘telling it like it is’ in his pre-budget speech about economic conditions to a university audience on Wednesday evening, but politically-speaking it opened a wide opportunity for the Opposition Leader to point out the already difficult challenges for today’s young adults.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in a media availability today in Ottawa pointed out how young adults are struggling with the cost of home ownership (or rent), raising a family, or groceries — and have been for at least 10 years.
He said that Conservatives watched Carney’s speech “with great interest because of how much misery and suffering our young people have endured over the last decade of Liberal inflation, crime and chaos”. Though it should be noted that employment of youth out of university was already a challenge as far back as 2009 in the wake of the Great Recession; it just took a while for mainstream society to see that.
“He went on at length about how much worse life is for today’s youth than it was when he was young,” said Poiievre about Carney’s speech last night.
Indeed, whoever struggled to write Carney’s speech to prelude a challenging upcoming Budget 2025 only rubbed salt in the wound of today’s young adults who have been short-changed for a generation by an out-of-control economy bent on financial gain at all costs (e.g. the commodity-investment-driven housing market).
“The sacrifice speech”:
“You will not find another period in our history when it’s been worse to be a young person,” said Poilievre today, referencing back to post-WWII.
Poilivre’s message to young adults this morning: “You have sacrificed enough under this Liberal government. You don’t have to live like this.”
He referred to Carney’s speech as “a big hyped up speech to Canadian youth” and called it “the sacrifice speech”.
“Young people now are forced to downgrade their diets and line up at food banks,” Poilievre articulated today as an example of current challenges for young families.
“Youth employment numbers are now the worst in a generation,” said Poilievre, though his analysis of why may not be shared among other parties or economists.
“All they have done for the last 10 years is sacrifice,” said Poilievre about today’s youth. Frankly, in this context, it’s no wonder that so-called ‘mental health’ is a concern for many people today. Quite simply, it’s distress at a situation that for many has no evident resolution.
Conservative lens:
“Your suffering today is not your fault. It was imposed on you by your Liberal government, but we can change these things, that is the hopeful future,” said Poilievre, in politicizing his insights with a Conservative lens.
“We can turn the hurt of the last decade into the hope of the future,” said Poilievre, leaning on the free enterprise model to achieve that through “hard work and entrepreneurship” but also tacking on lowering income taxes (which are government revenue) and “getting rid of deficit spending” (even though the hope of that is unlikely for a long time given commitment to social programs and especially a government commitment to increased spending on national defence).
He emphasized the private sector role in building major projects (which is already in the Carney plan, with a boost from the support available through the Major Projects Office).
Still pipeline-hopeful:
“We were looking for Mr Carney to reverse course,” said Poilievre. He did highlight Carney’s statement yesterday about doubling exports to non-US markets, but also took the opportunity to indirectly support Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s goal to see an oil pipeline to the BC coast which Carney has the potential to include in the realm of national major projects (five of which are already pre-selected for handling by the Major Projects Office that Carney announced in August).
Three MPs with Poilievre today:
Poilievre doesn’t often share his scrum time with other MPs. Today he did, in appealing to the youth audience.
One of the Conservative MPs at this morning’s media scrum with Poilievre said about youth: “Your future is not going to be as good as my past,” said Sandra Cobena, MP (Newmarket—Aurora).
Conservative MP Vincent Ho (Richmond Hill South) today described how in times past people who showed up for job search with a good attitude could find a job that same weekend.
Quebec MP Pierre Paul-Hus (Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles) also shared the scrum today with Poilievre.
Political timeline:
Poilievre doesn’t often share his scrum time with other MPs. But as he approaches his leadership review in January he is being seen to surround himself with more MPs that Canadians may not already know nationally.
The Liberal government’s Budget 2025 speech is set for release on Tuesday November 4.
===== RELATED:
Carney’s sobering pre-budget speech delivered to university students (October 22, 2025)
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