One must give up his planned summer job on the golf course. Another wonders how she will cope with the burdens of office when she doesn't yet have a car (or a driving licence). A third was so convinced she didn't stand a chance that she devoted the big day to campaigning elsewhere; only to be alerted to her win by a tweet from a friend.
Among the surprises thrown up by the Canadian elections – in which the ruling Conservatives returned to power, the Liberals were routed, and the pro-independence Bloc Québecois was all but annihilated – is the fact that among the 66 new MPs representing the poll's standout performers (the previously little-known New Democratic Party) are six university students. Fielded as "placeholders" to make up the party's candidate numbers, half are under 21, and one is still a teenager.
At 19, "politics junkie" Pierre-Luc Dusseault from the University of Sherbrooke, is the youngest MP ever elected to Canada's parliament. A Twitter campaign helped him capture 43% of the vote in his constituency, a result it is safe to say he did not expect. His proudest previous achievement, Dusseault is on record as saying, was reaching the regional finals with his high-school swimming team.
Mylene Freeman, 22, who graduated from Montreal's McGill last month, spent the campaign working for an MP in another constituency, not even setting foot in the seat she eventually seized.
"I think the biggest challenge right now is proving to people that a 20-year-old can do a good job and that youth actually can have power and create change," Charmaine Borg told her local paper. "We're just as motivated."
More so, some might say. Even conservative commentators have conceded the youthful influx could do Canada's politics good. And the newcomers should appreciate their changed circumstances: C$157,000 (£99,500) a year makes a change from a student loan.
