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The panel Friday morning was led by Heather Scott-Marshall, president of Mission Research, who collected polling data, and Ted Kouri, the co-founder of marketing firm Incite, who collected qualitative data from Alberta youth.

They concluded that issues such as balancing the budget, fostering the shared economy and supporting entrepreneurs could offer Conservatives a chance at the millennial voting pool. But according to Scott-Marshall’s presentation, only 16 per cent of young Canadians identify as conservative and 20 per cent as right-of-centre on the political spectrum, according to data.

The numbers are based on an online survey last October of 2,000 people, aged 15-34, accurate within 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The age group represents 27 per cent of Canadians and 37 per cent of the labour force.

A full two-thirds of millennials feel Canada is “on the right track,” but only 10 per cent felt “strongly” about that, according to the survey. Only 26 per cent felt the country is going in the wrong direction, and eight per cent “strongly” so.

More challenging for conservatives — and in many ways a branding issue, as Kouri noted — is that few millennials are ready to identify themselves as conservatives. One in three see themselves as liberals; another 18 per cent say they’re centrist, and only 16 per cent conservative. Rounding out the list: 14 per cent identify as progressive, 11 per cent as socialist and seven per cent as libertarian.