The federal New Democrats are demanding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau use the Canadian Armed forces to help distribute vaccines in the face of the Omicron variant surge.

NDP health critic Don Davies said in a December 21 release that the Liberal government should use "all tools at their disposal" to "immediately" get the vaccines to all Canadians.

“Canadians are trying to follow public health advice by getting the booster shot," Davies, MP for Vancouver Kingsway, said in the release. "People are lining up for hours in the cold for their third dose—they’re doing their part. Yet many Canadians are not able to get timely access to their booster dose."

Today (December 21), Quebec announced a record number of new COVID-19 cases, 5,043, and Montreal mayor Valérie Plante declared a "state of emergency" this morning via a virtual news conference after testing positive for the novel coronavirus on December 18.

Ontario announced 3,453 COVID-19 cases today. That province's seven-day average more than doubled in one week, from 1,400 to 3,153.

In B.C., the provincial NDP government announced on December 20 a three-day weekend total of 2,550 new cases.

“Health care workers need help, Davies said. "If there is anything the federal government can do to make things better for them—they need to do it now. We have relied on these frontline health care workers and they’ve gone above and beyond for Canadians. Let’s make sure they have the help they need to get everyone their booster shots.”