A new poll has found an increase in support for mandatory vaccinations in Canada, but that support is still significantly lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The online survey by Research Co. found that 72 per cent of Canadians think vaccinations for children should “definitely” or “probably” be mandatory in their province, which is up five per cent from last year.
“If somebody who was infected with measles and was in the infectious state was in a room, left the room, and say an hour and a half later somebody who was unvaccinated walked into that room, they stood a very high chance of getting measles because it’s that contagious,” Dr. Anna Wolak, a family physician in Vancouver, said.
Twenty-three per cent of Canadians believe parents should “definitely” or “probably” be the ones deciding whether their children should be vaccinated, which is down six points from 2024.
“While support for mandatory childhood vaccinations increased to 72 per cent in 2025, it is still nowhere near the levels observed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mario Canseco, president of Research Co., said.
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“In 2018, almost nine in 10 Canadians (88 per cent) were in favour of a mandate.”
Even though a study in the late 1990s that tried to link vaccines to autism has been widely discredited, more than a third of Canadians still believe there is “definitely” or “probably” a connection between the childhood vaccine for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) and autism.
When it comes to women, 30 per cent of women in Canada believe there is a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, but that rises to 42 per cent among men.
In B.C., notifications with a booking link for influenza and COVID-19 immunizations are going out from Oct. 7 and into November to everyone six months and older who is registered in the Get Vaccinated system.
Methodology: Results are based on an online survey conducted from Sept. 10 to Sept. 12, 2025, among 1,003 adults in Canada. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in Canada. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.1 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
