A group of students at Dalhousie University say they have noticed more young people engaging in this year’s election than ever.

First-year students in the masters of business administration program at the university say there are several issues catching their attention. 

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership was definitely something that weighed heavily on how I voted,” said student Geoff Hutchinson.

They say all of them have already voted, and the rest intend to vote.

“We're going to be the ones taking over the business world in the next 10 to 20 years,” said student Kayla Sabharwal.

The students say they are well aware that many political leaders think they don’t care.

“It's extremely discouraging,” said student Sean Butler.

They say many will cast their ballots with the subject of marijuana legalization in mind.

“It might be easy to think that that's because we all want to get high or something like that, but I think people actually come at it from a more rationale perspective,” said Butler.

The students say they’ve done the research, and their political concerns are more in depth.

“I think the niqab debate is inherently racist,” said Butler.

“Our reputation and how other countries in the world view us in terms of partnership and the economy,” said Sabharwal.

Professors at Dalhousie have organized ‘brown bag’ events where students bring their lunch and discuss politics. The event isn’t graded and there’s no extra credit, but students are showing up.

“We expected maybe five or six would show up, but actually almost three quarters of the class showed up. We were shocked,” said professor Rick Nason.

The students say it’s a sign that students are looking for change.

“There was a great infographic going around that said the number of young people who didn't vote last election was greater than the amount of people who actually voted to elect the Conservatives, which is a startling statistic, but also shows that the power of a generation, a young generation, if they actually go out and make their voice heard could be overwhelming,” said Hutchinson.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kayla Hounsell.