Quebec Youth Want Politicians to Actually Listen

As a new legislature begins sitting in Quebec City, teenagers across the province are sending elected officials a blunt message: they want to be heard, taken seriously, and given a real say in the decisions that shape their lives. The finding comes from a survey of young people who frequent Quebec's youth centres, released today by the Regroupement des maisons des jeunes du Quebec, known as the RMJQ, to mark the 29th edition of the Semaine des maisons des jeunes, the annual youth centres week running October 12 through 18 under the theme of teens as agents of social change.

According to the RMJQ survey, 41.3 percent of Quebec youth feel that adults and elected representatives listen to them very little, not really, or not at all. That is roughly two in five young people who say the adults in power barely register their voices. When asked how decision-makers could do better, the respondents gave a strikingly simple answer: come meet them directly at their youth centres, instead of asking them to show up somewhere else on someone else's terms.

"Even though they don't yet have the right to vote, teenagers are not just the citizens of tomorrow, they are active participants in our society, directly affected by the decisions taken today, yet their voices are still too often ignored in decisions that affect them," said RMJQ executive director Nicholas Legault, as reported by CNW in the association's announcement. He added that in the wake of the elections, newly elected officials should reach out to teens, listen to them and take what they have to say seriously.

What Quebec youth actually want prioritized

The survey asked the young people which issues elected representatives should put first, and mental health topped the list at 48.6 percent, followed by bullying and cyberbullying at 34.5 percent and education at 32.4 percent. Their written answers went further, naming concrete demands: more mental health resources, stronger action against bullying, schools better suited to their realities, more places to gather, and better support for the youth centres themselves.

Beyond the policy asks, one observation stands out. Quebec youth are calling for a change in how adults see them. They want to be recognized as people who can think for themselves, take part in debates, and help make the decisions that affect them, not just as an audience to be consulted and sent home. The distinction matters: consultation asks teens what they think and then carries on; participation gives them a seat at the table where the follow-through happens.

Youth centres as training grounds for democracy

The numbers suggest these centres are already doing that work. More than nine in ten respondents, 92.5 percent, say their youth centre helps them express their opinion, while 90.5 percent say it builds their self-confidence and 88.4 percent say it helps them get involved in their neighbourhood or community. Nearly as many, 87 percent, say the centres help them better understand what is happening in society, and 95.2 percent say the centres help them respect different opinions.

That engagement is not abstract. Inside the centres, young people help plan activities, organize events and projects, take part in real decision-making, and in some cases sit on their centre's board of directors. "Youth centres are places where young people learn to exercise their citizenship," Legault said, according to the RMJQ announcement. He also tied the findings to a funding request: for the centres to keep playing that role, they need stable funding suited to their mission, because supporting youth centres means investing directly in the empowerment, well-being and future of young people across Quebec. The network is not small, with the RMJQ supporting more than 250 youth centres in nearly 340 communities.

Why this moment matters

The survey lands at a telling point. Quebec just came through an election that reshaped its politics, with young voters playing a visible part in the result, as covered in our recent look at Quebec's election. A new cohort of elected officials is taking its seats just as teenagers are spelling out exactly how they want to be engaged. For more Canadian stories, see our Canada section.

The wider data backs up the teens' skepticism. Research from the Environics Institute found that 67 percent of Canadians aged 18 to 29 say that half or more of the politicians in the country are involved in corruption, compared with 30 percent of Canadians aged 60 and older. Young adults are more than twice as likely as their grandparents' generation to hold that view. A separate 2026 CIVIX youth survey of more than six thousand young Canadians found Quebec's young people comparatively more optimistic than their peers elsewhere, which makes the RMJQ finding land differently: these are not disaffected teens checking out, but engaged ones asking to be let in.

The counterpoint worth naming is that elected officials do have reasons to be cautious. Teens cannot vote yet, so politicians face no electoral pressure to answer them, and youth engagement efforts can easily become photo opportunities rather than real influence. The RMJQ's answer to that is structural: give the centres stable funding, and let the places where teens already practice citizenship keep doing it. Whether the new legislature takes the invitation, starting with a visit to a youth centre rather than a press release, is the test the teens themselves have set.