Tory MPP won’t seek re-election in June
Christina Mitas was last unvaccinated member of caucus
The lone unvaccinated Progressive Conservative MPP is calling it quits.
Less than five months after Premier Doug Ford decreed that all Tory MPPs and candidates in the June 2 election must have their COVID-19 shots, Christina Mitas (Scarborough-Centre) has announced she will not seek re-election.
While Mitas had a “medical exemption” from vaccination for undisclosed reasons, insiders say her presence in the Tory caucus was a source of consternation to some of Ford’s advisers.
She disclosed her retirement Tuesday.
That was the same day new provincial rules took effect, requiring anyone with a vaccination exemption to have it verified by a local public health unit.
That information will then be included on the Verify Ontario QR code that is used to access indoor services that require proof of vaccination.
“I started off life as an elected official pregnant with my first child and will end this term with three babies three and under,” Mitas, who was first elected in 2018, said in a written statement.
“After careful and honest discussions as a family, I have decided that life as an elected official is not in the best interest of my family at this time.
“Thus, I am announcing that I will not be seeking re-election this June,” she said.
“I remain a true blue conservative — I believe in small government, family, God and freedom with all my heart.”
Mitas’s departure comes a little more than two months after fellow first-term MPP Lindsey Park (Durham) quit the Tory caucus amid claims from government house leader Paul Calandra that she “misrepresented her vaccination status” to her colleagues.
Park, who has denied that and accused the Tories of issuing a “false statement” about her decision not to get her COVID-19 shots, also had a doctor’s note excusing her from getting vaccinated. She is not running again.
Last August, Ford fired veteran MPP Rick Nicholls (ChathamKent-Leamington) from the PC caucus for refusing to get vaccinated.