What to know
- TMU journalism students have launched a TikTok campaign aimed at increasing youth voter turnout ahead of the Oct. 26 municipal election.
- The campaign will publish daily videos explaining civics, elections and the roles of different levels of government.
- Professor Angela Misri says TikTok was chosen because it is a key source of news for young people.
- The campaign is supported by the Toronto Foundation and is being led by 40 TMU journalism students.
With just three weeks to go until the municipal election, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) journalism students are launching a new TikTok campaign aimed at helping young voters cast their ballots and addressing low youth voter turnout.
The campaign, supported by the Toronto Foundation, is being launched by TMU’s student journalists and their newspaper, On The Record, in an effort to bridge the gap in youth civic participation.
The campaign comes as youth voter participation remains lower than that of older age groups. According to Elections Canada data, 55.9 per cent of eligible voters aged 18 to 24 voted in the 2025 federal election, compared with 77.6 per cent of voters aged 65 to 74. Turnout in municipal elections is typically much lower.
@ontherecordnews Toronto election turnout: the good, the bad and the terrible. Why do – and don't – people vote municipally? Julia Pen and Ethan Corpuz get to the bottom of it. #ontario #election #mayor #onpoli #mayor ♬ original sound – On The Record News
The campaign also comes as early data from the Toronto Foundation’s upcoming Toronto’s Vital Signs® report, set to be released in mid-November, shows that people who regularly consume local news are more likely to volunteer and participate in community organizations.
Angela Misri, a professor at TMU’s School of Journalism, is leading the campaign with 40 of her students this semester. She said TikTok was a natural platform for the campaign because of the role it plays in how young people consume news.
“We’re going to get the word out about civics. Like, this isn’t even just about who you vote for. This is literally understanding what voting is for,” she said in an interview with Now Toronto. “We are just doing basic civics and trying to get the word out as far as we can.”
Misri said she hired a professional who writes and produces TikTok content to help with editorial planning, but ultimately, the campaign is being led by students within the target demographic.
“This is a campaign specifically from this age group of students to the age group of students because this is where they get their news, right? So my students are creating the TikToks and they’re posting them,” she said.
While youth voter turnout has remained low, Misri said she has also noticed a broader decline in young people’s understanding of civics.
She said some students in her newsroom over the years have had little understanding of elections or the roles of different levels of government. As a result, the campaign is also giving her students an opportunity to strengthen their own civic knowledge and engagement.
“The best way to understand something is to be forced to explain it. So my students are being forced to not only learn about civics, but they have to explain it to someone in their own audience, in their own age group,” she said.
@ontherecordnews Toronto election turnout: the good, the bad and the terrible. Why do – and don't – people vote municipally? Julia Pen and Ethan Corpuz get to the bottom of it. #ontario #election #mayor #onpoli #mayor ♬ original sound – On The Record News
Misri attributed low youth participation to several factors, including education and what she described as “bad news” surrounding politics. She said some young voters may feel that nothing changes despite ongoing political debates, protests and advocacy.
“Literally nothing can change until you change the people in power,” she said.
That is the message the campaign hopes to get across, and students plan to do so consistently. The team will post new content every day for the remaining three weeks leading up to the municipal election.
For Misri, success will be measured in several ways.
“Success is, can we get 26 of these out, one every single day, to this audience? So that’s my first success. My second success is the conversations that are happening in the newsroom, and then the third success is feedback from our audience. Like, is this what you want more of?” she said.
Toronto voters and voters across the GTA can follow the campaign on TikTok. The municipal election is set for Oct. 26.
