The Ontario Liberal party manifested on Saturday that it plans, if elected, to include the COVID-19 vaccine within the regimen of vaccines required for all school children in the province.
"Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca says the party would add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required vaccines for students - if the party wins the election," said Global News' Colin D'Mello.
NEW: Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca says the party would add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required vaccines for students - if the party wins the election. #onpoli pic.twitter.com/vw5VUQOTwb
— Colin D'Mello | Global News (@ColinDMello) May 7, 2022
"The best way to get back to normal is to make classrooms safer," Del Duca said in his Saturday speech. "Ontario Liberals will do just that by expanding the list of universal vaccines to include the COVID-19 vaccine and requiring all frontline education workers to be vaccinated" — something the provincial Liberal leader has previously called for.
"The Ford Conservatives Dismantled the infrastructure we need to boost vaccine uptake on a voluntary basis. Ontario Liberals will make a different choice: Partnering with parents, educators and healthcare professionals to positively promote vaccination as the best available too to keep kids safe."
Del Duca in February 2021 criticized the lockdown implemented by Conservative Premier Doug Ford for being too strict and too hard on small businesses.
Yet this year, ahead of a provincial election, he has been firmly on the side of government intervention, criticizing the incumbent Ontario government for allowing kids to go to school maskless.
Ontario voters will head to the polls in June.