With measles By making an alarming return across the country, more Canadians think that vaccines should be compulsory for children at school, but a significant number of parents are still not convinced, according to a new survey.
Angus Reid surveyPublished Thursday, shows the support for compulsory vaccination of measles on childhood jumped in the past year, but one in five parent remains hesitant or opposed.
While most provinces do not need vaccines for school entry, Ontario and New Brunswick show the immunization of the mandate for children who frequent school or daycare.
Nearly seven Canadian adults out of 10 – and 60% in Alberta – said children should be vaccinated to attend the daycare or school, the survey revealed. This takes place compared to last year, while only 55% of Canadians and 48% of Albertans felt the same thing.
These figures align with a Poll Ipsos made for Global News in March 2024Who found that seven in 10 Canadians believe that all children should be required to obtain measles vaccination unless they are prohibited for medical reasons, according to the survey. And six out of 10 children thought that children should be fired even if their parents are personally opposed to vaccinations.
Among parents with children under the age of 12, 37% believe that vaccination should be the choice of parents. And with regard to people with children under the age of 18, more than one in five falls into the hesitant category (13%) or downright opposite (nine percent) when it comes to following the calendar of recommended vaccines.
Although 69% of Canadians support compulsory childhood vaccination, the bad news is that this does not become the 95% vaccination rate necessary to reach the immunity of the herd.
How bad is the measles at the moment?
At the end of May 2025, Canada was experiencing its largest measles epidemic in more than 25 years.
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Since the beginning of 2025, 2,515 cases of measles have been reported in nine provinces, including Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia, according to the latest figures Canada Public Health Agency (PHAC).
Ontario has been particularly affected, with more than 1,800 cases reported, exceeding the total number of cases in the United States during the same period.
Most cases have been in non -vaccinated communities with low vaccination rates.
This is why health officials urge people to get their photos, because it is the most effective way to avoid catching very contagious disease. A dose given at 12 or 15 months provides protection of approximately 85 to 95%, and a second dose increases up to almost 100%.
The Angus Reid survey also highlighted the perceived gravity of measles.
Only one of the Canadians out of 10 agrees with the declaration “measles is not as bad as people think so”, although this is close to one in five (18%) among those who voted for the Conservative Party in the federal elections of April and is an almost nonexistent opinion for other party supporters.
The survey also revealed that many Canadians are not convinced that their provincial governments can effectively manage the epidemic of measles.
One in four respondents said they had no confidence, this number of 37% in Alberta, 30% in Saskatchewan and 27% in Ontario.
At the same time, most people always trust the vaccines. Eighty-one percent thought that measles fire worked to protect the individual and 89% said the vaccines help reduce the propagation of the community, according to the survey.
The IPSOS 2024 survey has also revealed similar numbers, showing that 83% of Canadians trust the safety of the measles vaccine, slightly higher than 80% that declared the same thing on the flu and well above the 71% for the COVVI-19 vaccine.
But the concerns of the side effects have not disappeared.
Three in 10 Canadians thought that vaccines have a real risk of serious side effects, and this number increases to 50% among recent conservative voters. The conviction that science around vaccines is not clear has also dropped, from 29% in 2019 and 2024 to 23% now.
The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from May 20 to 23, 2025, among a randomized sample of 1,685 Canadian adults members of the Angus Reid Forum. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationally according to the region, sex, 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. Differences in or between the totals are due to the rounding. The survey was self -proclaimed and paid by Ari.