Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca said he would make the COVID vaccine mandatory for children to attend school.

“The best way to get back to normal is to make classrooms safer,” he said. 

“Ontario Liberals will do just that by expanding the list of universal vaccines to include the COVID-19 vaccine and requiring all frontline workers to be vaccinated,” Del Duca continued.

“… Ontario Liberals will make a different choice: partnering with parents, educators, and healthcare professionals to positively promote vaccination as the best available tool to keep kids safe.”

This policy would mean that about half of all children aged 5-11 would not be able to go to school. Or, it would coerce parents into having their kids vaccinated with something they feel is unnecessary or risky.

At the time of writing, COVID vaccination data in Ontario shows only 56 per cent of individuals 5-11 years old have received one shot or more.

Moreover, the infection rate for 5 to 11-year-olds in Ontario is higher for vaccinated children than for unvaccinated. For 12 to 17-year-olds, the infection rate for unvaccinated individuals is minuscule; in fact, it’s the same as the rate for individuals “fully vaccinated with a booster dose.”

As for death statistics, the 7-day average is less than one death per 100,000 for unvaccinated children aged 5-11 and 12-17.

Indeed, it’s unclear why Del Duca is adopting this position with all things COVID trending the way they are and only three weeks out from the election.

But his polling numbers suggest that he might be getting desperate, and this is a hail-Mary type of play to win over voters.

This isn’t the first time Del Duca’s employed such a tactic. Last month, along with NDP leader Andrea Horwath, he called for mask mandates for school children to return — just weeks after being lifted.

Afterwards, Ontario Liberals were photographed attending an indoor rally among hundreds of people without masks.