Majority of Albertans support mandatory vaccinations for students, Vote Compass questionnaire finds

MostAlbertans believe vaccinations should be mandatory for all students in schools, according to the latest results from the online questionnaire Vote Compass.

Of the more than 74,000 respondents, 68 per cent strongly agreed with the statement "routine vaccinations should be mandatory for all students in Alberta schools."

Combined with those who agreed somewhat, a total of 87 per cent of online respondents believeroutine vaccinations should be mandatory.

Only eight per cent disagreed, with the remainderneutral onthe issue.

The findings are based on the responses to Vote Compass from March 20 to March 28.

Responses did not vary greatly between women and men, or by the respondents' education level.

However, people in the age bracket of 35 to 54 were less likely to strongly support mandatory immunizations thanyounger respondents.

The results come alongside health warnings in Alberta and an outbreak of measles in British Columbia which have prompted health experts to speak to the value of routine vaccinations.

• AHS warns of possible measles exposure at locations in Calgary and Cochrane
• AHS warns of potential measles exposure in Calgary
• Province launching measles immunization program in B.C. schools

Political views

Results based on voters' political views were also evenly distributed in the Vote Compass questionnaire, with the bulk of Vote Compass respondentsfavouringmandatory vaccinationsno matter which party they supported.

More than 70 per cent of those intending to vote for the Alberta Liberals, NDPand Alberta Party and 63 per centof thosevoting for the UCPstrongly supported vaccinations.

Only the Alberta Party hasreleased a policy platform requiring children to have up-to-date immunizations in order to attend public schools.

On March 7, leader Stephen Mandel said if elected, parents would need to provide proof that the child's immunizations are up to date under Alberta Health Services' routine immunization schedule when registering their child at any publicly-funded school.

Methodology

Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, Vote Compass is a civic engagement application offered in Canada exclusively by CBC News. The findings above are based on 74,624 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from from March 20 to March 28.

Unlike opinion polls, respondents to Vote Compass are not randomly selected. Vote Compass data have been weighted by geography, gender, age, educational attainment, occupation, religion, religiosity and civic engagement to ensure the sample's composition reflects that of the actual population of Canada according to census data and other population estimates.

Clickhereto find the detailed methodology.