Conservative MPPs from Pickering to Oshawa confirm full vaccination status
Published August 12, 2021 at 4:36 pm
The ruling Ontario Progressive Conservative Party have been reluctant to reveal the vaccination status of its MPPs, says a news organization charged with monitoring Queen’s Park politics.
QP Briefing, which offers commentary and analysis on Ontario government issues, reached out to each party to confirm whether their members were vaccinated and while opposition parties “jumped at the chance” to say all their MPPs had received both doses (except for one NDP member, who has the second shot booked for Monday), the ruling PCs did not.
The Progressive Conservative party, and a spokesperson for the premier’s office, did not respond to multiple requests about MPP vaccine coverage sent over five days, according to QP Briefing.
The news group reached out to individual riding offices as well and were able to confirm that some MPPs had received a single dose, while a couple of dozen said (or tweeted) they were fully vaccinated – including Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who got his second shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine in front of the cameras.
That left 27 MPPs with unknown vaccine standings, including the four PC MPPs in Durham Region.
Staff at the local riding offices of Rod Phillips (Ajax) and Lorne Coe (Whitby) were quick to say their bosses were fully vaccinated, while it took a call to Queen’s Park to confirm that Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy (Pickering-Uxbridge) was also fully vaccinated.
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His Press Secretary, Emily Hogeveen, said he declared that status in response to a question at a press briefing that morning.
Durham MPP Lindsey Park has not yet responded to a message left by phone while Oshawa MPP Jennifer French (NDP) had already declared she was fully vaccinated.
Randy Hillier (Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston), a vocal skeptic of the virus and the vaccines, declined to share his vaccination status with QB Briefing.
“I share my medical history with my doctor.,” he said in an email.
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