She’s been doing it every day since the fall semester started, but each time Sarah Hassanein approaches another stranger on campus to talk about politics, a few butterflies flutter in her stomach.

On Monday, the 26-year-old working for Future Majority, a non-partisan organization trying to get more young people to vote, approaches a pair of first-year students at the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus and asks if they plan to vote in the upcoming federal election.

“I’m excited!” one of the young women says. “I want to be more informed.”

The students say they’re concerned about the environment, pipelines, carbon taxes and paying for school in light of cuts to the provincial Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).

“All these common issues, we can accelerate into politics,” if we vote, Hassanein tells the students.

Young Canadians, aged 18 to 38, make up 37 per cent of eligible voters, the largest voting bloc in this election, according to Abacus Data. Typically, voter turnout tends to be lower than the rest of the population, but in 2015 participation from young people surged, playing a major role in sending the Liberals and Justin Trudeau to power.

Future Majority, created earlier this year by a group of millennials based in Toronto, wants to see another surge this year. That’s why it is placing “fellows” like Hassanein with a team of volunteers on 21 campuses across the country to try to harness the power of young voters by educating them and encouraging them to get to the polls. They canvas, speak in classrooms and reach out to student groups to get the message across. The group’s philosophy is that if politicians see they can’t win without votes from this cohort, they’ll be more likely to address big issues that matter to younger generations.

Hassanein, who’s placed at the Mississauga campus ahead of the Oct. 21 election, explains all this to the two students and they’re convinced. They pull out their phones as Hassanein holds up a QR code they can scan to sign up on Future Majority’s website with a pledge to vote.

“Students and young people are feeling the impacts of different policies, of the unaffordable life here,” she says. “What I’m noticing on this campus is that they are excited to use their power in some type of way.”

The group, funded by a partnership with Environmental Defence Canada and support from the Ivey Foundation, the David Suzuki Foundation and individual donors, has managed to collect about 13,000 pledges to vote since late August and is aiming for 80,000, says one of the five founders, Tyler Valiquette.

He is convinced that will translate to real votes come election day. Valiquette points to the fact that this year, 121 Elections Canada voting offices will be open on 109 post-secondary campuses across the country, compared to 39 campuses in the 2015 election.

The 39 campuses for the last election was part of a pilot project by Elections Canada to target the youth vote. Any elector could register and vote at the campus offices or update their information. More than 70,000 people voted through the initiative, according to Elections Canada.

Those who filled out an exit survey said the offices made it more convenient to vote and a quarter said “they would not have voted, or were not sure if they would have voted, had these offices not been available,” says the Elections Canada website.

In light of the response, the agency turned the pilot into the official Vote on Campus Program and expanded its scope.

“Voting has never been as accessible,” Valiquette, 29, says, adding that Future Majority volunteers and staffers will be on hand to walk students over to polling stations to make it even easier. “I think the motivating factor is that young people have power. We are instilling that sense of hope.”

In 2015, participation from voters aged 18 to 24 went up by 18.3 percentage points from 2011, to 57.1 per cent, while 57.4 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds turned out, up 12.3 percentage points. Turnout across all ages was 66.1 per cent in 2015, up 7.6 percentage points.

“The voter turnout depends to some extent on how exciting the election is,” says Lorne Bozinoff, president and chief executive officer of Forum Research. “Last time there was some excitement especially with Justin Trudeau running, and I think that might have motivated more people to vote, especially young people.”

He said part of the excitement was that people were excited about a potential change in government. This time, Trudeau and his star power are no longer agents of change but running for re-election.

“It’s possible we won’t see the same voter participation this time,” Bozinoff said. “I don’t see a lot of excitement around Andrew Scheer, and Jagmeet Singh and the NDP have kind of been behind the pack.”

According to a Forum survey conducted on Sept. 11, the day the election was called, Conservatives were leading in support amongst people aged 18 to 34, at 34 per cent, similar to 36 per cent in the general population. But the left vote was more widely split amongst young people — while 32 per cent of the general population favoured the Liberals, the party only had 25 per cent support from young people.

That missing vote is moving to the New Democratic Party, which came in at 17 per cent for the younger group, compared to just 9 per cent generally. The Greens were at 12 per cent generally and 13 per cent for young people.

“The Liberals know that among the millennials, they really have to deal with the New Democrats,” Bozinoff said. “They either have to portray themselves as more progressive or try and position the NDP as less progressive in order to target their supporters. But they also have to recognize that among millennials a substantial portion are still voting Conservative.”

In terms of issues, both the general public and young people cared most about the environment (23 per cent for both cohorts) and the economy (23 per cent generally and 20 per cent for young people).

Climate change is one issue motivating 23-year-old Brandon Xuereb to vote in this election, but the centre-left-leaning UTM student hasn’t decided who he wants to vote for yet.

“I like to see change happen,” but the Conservatives haven’t impressed him much, says Xuereb, who also voted in 2015.

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“Back then it was the first year I was eligible to vote. I had less awareness of what was going on, so a bit of it was just indoctrination, vote for who your parents vote for. The motivation wasn’t as personal as it is now,” he says.

For many, the motivation will come from learning about the power of their vote, says Kyle Visvanathan, the Future Majority fellow placed at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus.

Climate change, rising tuition and student debt, high rents and long, expensive commutes are concerns he hears about daily. But the idea that young voters could actually influence policy on those issues if they all came out to vote is a game-changer, Visvanathan says.

“It’s a light switch moment,” he says of the reaction he gets when he tells people that millennials and Generation Z now make up the largest voting bloc. “People feel hopeful that their vote can make a difference, that there can be a change.”

Though general issues important to voters might be similar across age groups, a message and platform tailored for young people isn’t reaching them, Valiquette says.

“We’re out talking to young people on campuses. Where are the politicians?” he says.

Future Majority is also releasing new interactive online tools this week to educate people about where, when and how to vote, as well as a breakdown of parties’ policies to help voters figure out whose values fit best with theirs. It’s all a part of the goal of making politics more accessible to young people.

“Politicians have never given them a reason to vote,” Valiquette says. “They need to meet young people where they are.”

That’s what Future Majority is doing, Valiquette says, adding they have fellows everywhere from Charlottetown, P.E.I., to Saskatoon, Sask., to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. They chose campuses that had more than 4,000 students and were around ridings where the 2015 race was decided with a few thousand votes.

That has at times required a fellow moving across the country, like Emmett Keyserlingk did for the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick, leaving Vancouver, where he studied and worked in the non-profit sector for years. Keyserlingk, who is originally from Montreal, heard about Future Majority from a friend and wanted to offer his bilingual skills to a good cause.

“Which is a real risk,” he says. “I gave up my whole little life in Vancouver, because I think this is something really worth doing.”

Being on campuses all over Canada gives fellows a perspective on what issues are important to young people in each corner of the country, says MK Hickox, a 22-year-old P.E.I.-native stationed at the University of Saskatchewan.

“Issues of Indigenous rights are so much more visible here,” Hickox says. “I’ve talked to so many students who have told me the most traumatic stories about the structural barriers they’ve faced and how difficult it can be for them to find resources.”

It makes it even more important for young people to unite and mobilize to influence change, she says.

Back at U of T’s Mississauga campus, Hassanein and Future Majority field manager Tanvir Janmohamed target students loitering around campus between classes.

Hassanein got was able to easily pursuade the pair of young women excited to vote, but a few feet away, Janmohamed has to work a little harder. She chats up another young student, who says she’s not sure if she’ll vote because she knows nothing about politics. Janmohamed engages her in a conversation about what matters to her and reminds her that worries about student debt and affordability are all connected to politics. Janmohamed ends up getting her pledge to vote.

“How do you think your politicians can do something about the issues that affect you?” Janmohamed says. “People think politics is just about the drama and the scandals, but that’s not what young people care about.”