Gould leadership bid appeals to young Liberals, paving future path, say Grits
The youngest candidate in the Liberal leadership race, Karina Gould appears to have traction among young Liberal voters, and while it remains to be seen how that support paves her path to the finish line, it could serve the three-term MP well into the future.
Gould, 37, launched her leadership campaign on Jan. 18 in her home riding of Burlington, Ont., and is widely seen as the third-place candidate in the race behind frontrunners Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland (University–Rosedale, Ont.). Also currently vying for the party’s top job is former MP Frank Baylis. The Liberal Party disqualified former MP Ruby Dhalla on Feb. 21.
Liberals will elect a new leader by preferential ballot on March 9.
Spark Insights senior director Alex Kohut, 32, said “young Liberals are a natural fit” for Gould as she looks to “build a base of support within the party,” and she’s “done a lot of outreach towards them”—work that he said “seems to be paying off.”
“Overall, certainly, she’s very far back [in polling], but with young Liberals she has almost twice the support as she has among the general voter base for the leadership race,” said Kohut, who remained undecided in the race when he spoke to The Hill Times on Feb. 18.
A former pollster in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s (Papineau, Que.) office, Kohut conducted his own survey of 675 likely Liberal leadership voters aged 18 years and up from Jan. 24-31, the findings of which he’s been analyzing in regular posts on Substack. Though his survey didn’t capture the moods of any Liberals aged 14 to 17 years who would be eligible to vote in the race, Kohut’s numbers suggest a boost for Gould among younger Liberals who were polled in the early days of the race. He shared some of his otherwise paywalled findings with The Hill Times.
As part of the survey, Kohut had asked respondents to fill out their ranked ballot. Among respondents generally, Gould ranked a solid third, garnering seven per cent support behind Freeland at 27 per cent and Carney at 54 per cent. But among younger Liberals aged 30 and below, Gould’s support jumped to 13 per cent, while Freeland’s dropped to 16 per cent—with Carney still “well ahead”—making Gould “competitive for second place,” said Kohut. He noted Gould’s potential for growth since the survey as she was “not well known at the start of the race among Liberals.”
Kohut said he’ll be interested to see how many 14-to-18-year-olds will ultimately be eligible to vote, and whether Liberal campus clubs mobilize for Gould or another candidate.
“But it definitely is a much-needed thing for the Liberal Party to be able to sign up some young people for this leadership race, to get some more enthusiasm among younger Canadians, and frankly, it looks like Carney and Freeland’s support base—especially Freeland’s—is a little bit older within the party, so it’s nice to have that variety, and have someone who’s speaking directly to young people,” he said of Gould.
Those connections could also serve Gould well in the future, said Kohut.
“Certainly a lot of those kind of 14-to-18-year-olds who are voting for the first time in their life, if they got excited about her—and she wants to run again in 10 years—that’s people that potentially she’s built lifelong relationships with,” he said.
“Even if she gets 12 per cent [support] in the leadership race and gets a good cabinet role or something out of this, people are going to be looking towards her because the party has been really struggling with young Canadians recently, and she’s kind of the first Liberal in a while that has shown an ability to really connect with that group and mobilize them.”
In a recent op-ed in The Toronto Star, Navigator’s Jaime Watt suggested that of all of Gould’s credentials, “none are as crucial to her long-term success as the sheer political instinct she’s demonstrating by running in this race.” He argued Gould is positioning herself as a potential “king or queen maker,” but beyond that, is setting up her political future “brilliantly.”
“Karina Gould may well lose this battle. But she’s playing a much longer game,” wrote Watt.
Kohut noted that while it will take more than the youth vote to propel Gould to victory this time around, “she’s definitely building up a bit of a support coalition around young people in the race, which is potentially really good for her long term.” And while he said he couldn’t speak to her personal goals, “if you’re looking at a two- or three-election strategy … it doesn’t hurt to have suddenly a support base of people who have voted for you before.”
Young Liberals on Gould’s campaign
Former PMO director of communications Cameron Ahmad, 32, is among those who’ve publicly endorsed Gould. Speaking to The Hill Times from New York where he now works as a director with the Malala Fund, Ahmad said he’s long respected Gould as a leader, and sees her as a “very genuine and authentic person who is in politics for the right reasons.”
“She has brought smart ideas to the race. She brings energy and enthusiasm to the race, and she also embodies—I think—the type of politician that a lot of people can be inspired by and can see themselves in based on where she comes from, her background,” he said. “All of those ingredients make for a really strong candidate—I think we’re lucky as a party to have multiple strong candidates.”
Ahmad said it was important for the party that this race be a “real” competition, and for new people to bring new ideas and offer a “real sense of renewal.”
“My decision to support Karina is based on knowing her, and believing that she is a really powerful addition to the mix, and that she can bring something to the table, especially when it comes to renewal and energy and enthusiasm,” he said.
Ahmad said while Gould is forging important new connections through her campaign, rather than shoring up future prospects, he thinks her run is motivated by her values, and her desire to “fight for things she knows are important to Canadians and for her generation” amid the “serious risk” of a potential Conservative majority.
“Getting involved in politics and throwing yourself into public office at a young age when you can do other things with your career—which comes with, of course, a lot of pressure and a lot of risk, especially when you’re raising a family at that stage of your life—you do that because you believe in what you’re fighting for,” he said.
Kiana Pilon, 22, is a new cabinet staffer and current federal vice-president of the Queen’s University Liberal Association, and is likewise supporting Gould. She said the MP “has always made a very strong effort” to engage with her campus club, including hosting the group last fall during its annual trip to Ottawa.
“Just having that really positive interaction with her, knowing that she’s someone that cares a lot about youth definitely drew me to her initially,” said Pilon, noting Gould was also the first candidate to visit Kingston, Ont., after the race started, and was “the first candidate to roll out such a robust block of policy.”
While “a lot of people are framing Karina’s campaign as kind of being specifically just youth related,” Pilon said “youth are choosing her” because they “really believe in her vision,” and “a big part of that is because she herself has been a Young Liberal.”
“I think because of that experience she really understands what it means to be a youth in politics, and to want to be like a driving force,” she said. “They’re empowered by her, and I think especially being a young woman in politics adds another lens.”
Young Liberals working on Gould’s campaign similarly told The Hill Times they were drawn to Gould’s personality, way of communicating, and her story as a former Young Liberal and woman in politics.
“I’ve always been a really big fan of Karina; I love the way that she communicates, and I think she’s such a strong, powerful young woman … I wasn’t sure who I was going to support for leadership, and then she announced that she was running, and to me it was just like a no brainer,” said Myah Tomasi, 24, a cabinet staffer who’s volunteering on Gould’s campaign during her off hours.
Emily Jackson, 22, comes from Gould’s riding, and first met the MP when she was 15 years old and Gould came to speak at her high school. Jackson said it was Gould who inspired her to pursue politics, and it was Gould who gave Jackson her first job on the Hill. After interning in Gould’s MP office since 2021, Jackson was hired to tackle communications in the House leader’s office then-held by Gould in 2023. (Gould has since resigned as House leader, and Jackson has taken leave from her job to work on the campaign full time.)
“The way she spoke, she really connected to my class,” recalled Jackson. “I’ve always looked up to Karina; in my four years working for her, those initial thoughts of being inspired never went away.”
Asked how key the campaign sees young Liberals to its path to success, both Tomasi and Jackson said that rather than a specific, concerted focus being put on getting out the youth vote, young Liberals seem “to be the most attracted to Karina.”
“I think she really appeals to that generation of young Liberals who are looking for significant change, and policies that make sense for them … I think a lot of young people feel very understood by her,” said Jackson, highlighting Gould’s pitch to restore the paid position of a Young Liberal national director to the party, and permanently cut the GST on items like children’s clothing or strollers.
Gould has proposed restoring the role of Young Liberals national director as part of her pitch to renew the party and re-engage its grassroots. Freeland has likewise promised to restore the Young Liberals national director position, among other party renewal pitches.
But Gould’s campaign has also made clear efforts to connect with young Liberals.
Tomasi is national Young Liberal director for Gould’s campaign, putting her in charge of ensuring there’s a “youth perspective on the team,” connecting with youth groups, getting feedback on policy ideas, and organizing and managing youth volunteers.
So far, Gould has taken part in five events specifically with Young Liberals, and early in the race hosted a Zoom call in which all Young Liberals were invited to take part.
“On top of that, though, every time she does events, every time she does meet and greets, if she’s in a community, we always do specific outreach to the youth in that riding or region or campaign club to make sure that they are aware, and we always have Young Liberals go to all of her events,” said Tomasi, adding that connecting with young Liberals and visiting campus clubs is something Gould has made a point of doing throughout her years in office.
“It’s not just about meeting young Liberals for the sake of getting votes.”
The Hill Times
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