Sixty years ago this summer, the most severe polio epidemic on record claimed more than 8,000 victims across the country. About a quarter of those stricken with so-called infantile paralysis were in Ontario. Three-year-old Davie Onley, who would grow up to be the province's lieutenant-governor, was one. That Polio Season: Lt.-Gov. David Onley and the Epidemic of 1953, by award-winning Toronto Star feature writer Jennifer Wells, is a moving chronicle of the disease's terrible march through Ontario that year, as well as an intimate look at the devastation that befell Onley and his family.
Sixty years ago this summer, the most severe polio epidemic on record claimed more than 8,000 victims across the country. About a quarter of those stricken with so-called infantile paralysis were in Ontario. Three-year-old Davie Onley, who would grow up to be the province's lieutenant-governor, was one. That Polio Season: Lt.-Gov. David Onley and the Epidemic of 1953, by award-winning Toronto Star feature writer Jennifer Wells, is a moving chronicle of the disease's terrible march through Ontario that year, as well as an intimate look at the devastation that befell Onley and his family.