Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Vancouver Centre residents for putting their trust in me again, for the 11th time. I will work hard to represent them.
I speak to them now, though, not as an MP but as a physician. I fear for the health of our children. Canada faces an outbreak of measles as has been unseen in decades. We eliminated measles in 1998, and now it is back. Measles is the most contagious of all viruses and can live in the air for 48 hours. Measles is deadly. Hundreds of thousands of young children died in the fifties from measles, and those who survived faced permanent brain damage.
I want to dispel some myths. Getting a kid to visit a friend with measles is risky. Measles is not chicken pox, so do not play Russian roulette with a child's life. Measles is preventable with the MMR vaccine. I beg parents to vaccinate their children. Women of child-bearing age should get the vaccine before becoming pregnant. Provinces should not allow unvaccinated kids to attend school. Surely, we owe our children that much.