Measles surge boosts support for mandatory school vaccines: poll
With measles making an alarming comeback across the country, more Canadians believe vaccines should be mandatory for kids in school, but a significant number of parents still aren’t convinced, according to a new poll.
Polling by Angus Reid, published Thursday, shows support for mandatory childhood measles vaccination has jumped over the past year, yet one in five parents remain hesitant or opposed.
While most provinces don’t require vaccines for school entry, Ontario and New Brunswick do mandate proof of immunization for kids attending school or daycare.
Nearly seven in 10 Canadian adults — and 60 per cent in Alberta — said kids should be required to get vaccinated to attend daycare or school, the poll found. That’s up from last year, when just 55 per cent of Canadians and 48 per cent of Albertans felt the same way.
These numbers line up with an Ipsos poll conducted for Global News in March 2024, which found seven in 10 Canadians believe all children should be required to get the measles vaccination unless they are prohibited for medical reasons, the poll found. And six in 10 believed children should be required to get the shot even if their parents personally object to vaccinations.
Among parents with kids under 12, 37 per cent believe vaccination should be the parents’ choice. And when it comes to those with children under 18, more than one in five fall into the hesitant (13 per cent) or outright opposed (nine per cent) category when it comes to following the recommended vaccine schedule.
Although 69 per cent of Canadians support mandatory childhood vaccination, the bad news is that this still falls short of the 95 per cent immunization rate needed to achieve herd immunity.
As of late May 2025, Canada is experiencing its most significant measles outbreak in over 25 years.
Since the beginning of 2025, 2,515 measles cases have been reported across nine provinces, including Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia, according to the latest numbers from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
Ontario has been particularly affected, with over 1,800 cases reported, surpassing the total number of cases in the United States during the same period.
Most of the cases have been in unvaccinated people from communities with low immunization rates.
That’s why health officials are urging people to get their shots, since it’s the most effective way to avoid catching the highly contagious disease. One dose given at 12 or 15 months offers about 85 to 95 per cent protection, and a second dose bumps that up to nearly 100 per cent.
The Angus Reid poll also underscored the perceived seriousness of measles.
Just one in 10 Canadians agree with the statement “measles isn’t as bad as people think it is,” though this rises closer to one in five (18 per cent) among those who voted for the Conservative Party in the April federal election and is a nearly non-existent opinion for other party supporters.
The poll also found that many Canadians aren’t confident their provincial governments can handle the measles outbreak effectively.
One in four respondents said they have no confidence at all, with that number rising to 37 per cent in Alberta, 30 per cent in Saskatchewan and 27 per cent in Ontario.
At the same time, most people still trust vaccines. Ninety-one per cent believed the measles shots work to protect the individual and 89 per cent said vaccines help reduce the spread in the community, the poll found.
The 2024 Ipsos poll also found similar numbers, showing that 83 per cent of Canadians trust the safety of the measles vaccine, slightly higher than the 80 per cent who said the same about the flu shot and well above the 71 per cent for the COVID-19 vaccine.
But worries about side effects haven’t gone away.
Three in 10 Canadians believed vaccines carry a real risk of serious side effects, and that number jumps to 50 per cent among recent Conservative voters. Belief that the science around vaccines is unclear has also dropped, from 29 per cent in 2019 and 2024 to 23 per cent now.
The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from May 20-23, 2025, among a randomized sample of 1,685 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to region, gender, age, household income, and education, based on the Canadian census. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for by ARI.
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