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By Justin Dionne

Alberta Party promising mandatory vaccinations for publicly funded schools

Mar 8, 2019 | 10:39 AM

The Alberta Party has announced if Stephen Mandel is elected, vaccinations would be made mandatory for children attending publicly funded schools.

Grande Prairie candidate for the Alberta Party Grant Berg says vaccinations have been put in the spotlight after Canadians have recently been diagnosed with measles, and for the safety of children who are unable to receive vaccinations.

“The choice with this particular proposal is that if it’s a publicly funded school, children must have their immunizations. Now, if the parents don’t want their children immunized, that’s their choice, and then they would have to find a private school, or do homeschooling – again, for the safety of the children that can’t get vaccinated,” says Berg.

Berg explains the research and information that helped form the decision comes from Alberta Health Services. AHS issued a measles alert in early February after 49 cases of measles were confirmed in Washington State.

“It’s been alerts like this that have really put it back on the radar. The anti-vax movement continues to gain momentum, and that’s putting young children in jeopardy that aren’t able to get immunized such as babies, children with transplants. Also, there’s some kids who are allergic to it. So, we’re protecting those kids,” says Berg.

He adds that currently there’s no set date as to when the proposed changes would come into effect, and that the announcement has received plenty of support on social media. 

Berg also shared his thoughts on Stephen Mandel being able to run as a candidate in the province’s spring election after a judge ruled he had a reasonable excuse to miss the deadline for filing nomination expenses.

“Right from day one, we were very confident that Stephen would be allowed back in. One of the allowable excuses is that if the candidate or chief the financial officer become ill, then that’s an allowable excuse, and that’s exactly what happened with Stephen’s Chief Financial Officer,” says Mandel. “In this case, Stephens CFO was sadly very ill. Stephen I believe, in my conversations, said that he was on the road something like 123 straight days.”

If the judge ruled Mandel didn’t have a reasonable excuse to miss the deadline, he wouldn’t have been able to run again for the next five years.

by Justin Dionne