Ontario Premier Doug Ford says anyone seeking to run for his party in the 2022 general election will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Well all our candidates are going to be vaccinated – if not they just aren’t running for our party, simple as that,” Ford told reporters when asked by Queen’s Park Briefing on Wednesday.

Ford said he could not urge members of the public to get the vaccine if those seeking to represent his party would not also commit to do the same thing.

“I can’t be up here preaching to get vaccinated and our own team isn’t vaccinated – so as of right now, every single candidate that’s running for the Ontario PC party has been vaccinated or will be vaccinated or they won’t be running for our party.”

His stance contrasts that of federal Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, who said he was vaccinated and any health minister appointed by him in a future government would be, but would not say how many of his candidates were vaccinated.

He also opposed vaccine certificate programs across the country that didn’t also allow for unvaccinated people to submit to frequent rapid testing instead of vaccination in certain circumstances.

Last month, Ford turfed Chatham-Kent-Leamington MPP Rick Nicholls over his refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Another PC MPP, Scarborough Centre’s Christina Mitas, was given a medical exemption.

Nicholls, who was also deputy speaker of the house, went on to speak at an anti-vaccine protest in Toronto on Sept. 18.

Asked on Wednesday, the opposition NDP told CP24 anyone who runs for the party next year will also need to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

“The only exemption would be bona fide medical exemptions,” Horwath told reporters.

A spokesperson for the Liberals also told CP24 that all of their candidates will need to be fully vaccinated in 2022.

More than 85 per cent of those 12 and up have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in the province, and roughly 69 per cent of the entire population is fully immunized.

The provincial vaccination strategy has shifted in the past month from large permanent sites to smaller temporary vaccination ones set up in places where the vaccine-hesitant would be passing through anyways, such as transit stations and malls.

Fresh from his period away from the limelight during the federal election campaign, Ford has not had a public media availability in three weeks.

Ontarians head to the polls on or before June 2, 2022.