By Trevor Kraus, Managing Editor

Students For Liberty has alumni in public office all over the world. Jorge Miguel Teixeira is a Member of Parliament in Brazil. Admir Čavalić is an MP in Bosnia, where he’s known as “Mr. Economics” and the Father of Libertarianism. And Sasmit Pokharel was elected in 2026 as one of the youngest lawmakers in the House of Representatives of Nepal.

We’re proud of those stories, and they’re well-known in our circles. Of course, so is the story of Thomas Massie, the libertarian-leaning candidate from Kentucky for the House of Representatives, who was such a thorn in the side of the Republican Party that it poured more than $30 million into Massie’s opponent’s campaign and ousted him.

But what if I told you the same thing happened in Canada? And to an SFL volunteer, no less.

A shockingly similar scenario played out for Michael Harris, an SFLer from small-town Alberta, who brands himself “Your Friendly Neighborhood Cowboy.” At 20 years of age, in the summer of 2025, he was campaigning with his cowboy hat and running neck-and-neck with one other candidate to be Battle River-Crowfoot’s next Member of Parliament. He was running as a libertarian and would have represented around 87,000 people, had he won.

“I am passionate above all about policy change,” he said. His platform was “focused on individual liberty, Albertan autonomy, and ending federal programs like equalization and supply management.”

But as the August 18 election drew near, Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s opposition Conservative Party, found himself without a seat in Parliament. And he picked Battle River-Crowfoot to “parachute” into, as Harris said. “He thinks of himself as libertarian-leaning, but he’s not really. Battle River-Crowfoot certainly is, though. So politically, it made sense. But as soon as he put HIS name in, the floodgates opened.”

In the national media, Harris called out Poilievre as “running to be Prime Minister” with “Battle River–Crowfoot just a stepping stone for his national ambitions. We deserve an MP who lives here, knows the issues, and will fight for us every day.”

It turned into the largest and longest ballot in Canadian history. Harris had originally been one of just a handful of names on it. But by the time of the election, there were 214 — you read that right — names on the ballot.

“I was born and raised here,” Harris said, “and I was confident I could win. But then Poilievre entered, and tons of attention and protest entries and, most of all, money came pouring in.”

Harris finished eighth but remains proud of the campaign he ran. “I wanted to show people that folks are willing to go out into the community and listen to them. And that there’s an alternative to the status quo. I did that.”

There’s a silver lining to the loss: Harris was chosen in the Spring of 2026 as Deputy Leader (that is, second-in-command) for the Libertarian Party of Canada, which will offer him more legitimacy and name recognition for future elections.

His first order of business?

“We created our own youth wing; almost the next Students For Liberty,” he laughed. “I want to take what SFL taught me and mobilize the hunger for change, just like SFL does, and turn it into something productive. Giving young people access to literature and Austrian Economics … that’s what SFL did for me, and it opened a whole new world. And that’s what I’ll do for the next generation of young people.”

Quebec’s Free-Market Champion

Meanwhile, across the Canadian plains — the vast expanses of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario — over in Westmount, Quebec, another young man was opening a new world.

Massimo Mazza had been finishing his Econ studies at Concordia University in Montreal when he met SFL’s Garreth Conner at a retreat in Saskatchewan.

Read more about Garreth Conner: How I Attacked the Canadian Carbon Tax

He already considered himself a classical liberal, but that label is as far as it had gone.

“It was at that retreat when I really started to think about why Canada is lagging behind the U.S. economically,” he said, “not in a defeated way, but in a way that I thought I could actually try to do something about it.”

That something was an open seat on the Westmount City Council: the seat for District 4, representing around 1,900 eligible voters. Westmount comprises eight districts and is situated on the island of Montreal, but is independent from the city; it has its own mayor and government.

Massimo was balancing a full course load and wasn’t sure he was ready for the challenge. But the backing of Students For Liberty’s network helped Massimo realize: A run for office was NOT impossible.

“I was always interested in getting into politics, but SFL gave me opportunities to network that I didn’t know existed. There was CATO U, a seminar in D.C., and just great chances to learn about Austrian economics and free trade, and I was inspired. SFL is such a great network to encourage people to participate in the liberty movement. I’m very grateful for the doors that it opened.”

Over the summer of 2025, with the election looming in early November, Massimo felt the continued encouragement of his peers in SFL.

“I decided there’d be no better opportunity to learn about politics on the ground: mainly, how to write a platform that appeals to people. That’s when I started knocking on doors,” he said.

The more doors he knocked on, the more he saw: People in Westmount weren’t being listened to.

“Quebec has the highest taxes in the western hemisphere,” he said, “and just so many things that have discouraged investment. Licensing issues. Bad healthcare policy. And of course, there’s the language police.”

One of the planks of Massimo’s platform was to recognize the rights of English speakers. Officially, Quebec only recognizes French, and as Massimo said, “efforts to promote French often mean creating issues for people who only speak English, including higher rates at our universities for people who don’t speak French, but who want to come here from abroad to study.”

Massimo was running against an incumbent who’d been in office for eight years, plus someone who had worked as an advisor for the federal government, and another candidate who had worked for the provincial government. He was by far the youngest candidate, but also the only classical liberal candidate.

He was nervous during the debate; it was Massimo’s first time speaking in that context, under that pressure. But then he got into the issues that mattered to him, and it began to flow.

“I narrowed down to what people are most interested in: communication and transparency in their government. It’s hard to get a hold of the city in general for laws, permits, and regulations. So I proposed a 48-hour max wait time before getting a response for your permit.”

That focus on transparency in government turned into his broader campaign platform. He wrote on his website:

My priorities are:

• Efficient, responsive city services and open communication.

• Well-maintained roads and green infrastructure built to last.

• Support for local businesses and preservation of our unique heritage.

 • Fiscal discipline and smarter, modern governance.

At just 24 years old, Massimo finished third in his first run for public office.

“I went out and fought for what I believe in. I had so many great interactions when knocking on doors. I got in the local papers … I put together a good campaign that I can be really proud of,” he said. “And there’s more to come.”

After finishing his degree, he launched the next phase of his life and career in politics by submitting a paper to the Southern Economic Association. It was accepted for presentation at the SEA’s annual meeting in November of 2026. The topic, Language Policy as an Institutional Constraint: Market Coordination and Economic Outcomes in Quebec, was informed directly by his campaign — by the doors he knocked on and the people he met, and the things that were affecting their daily lives.

His campaign, and his compassion for those people, were informed directly by Students For Liberty.