The search for the body of a canoeist missing after capsizing in Lake Erie continued Monday night.

If confirmed a drowning, it will bring the death toll to three in Southwestern Ontario this year.

A 25-year-old man was fishing in the lake near Kingsville Sunday at 5 p.m. when friends on shore saw him capsize.

The man, a Mexican national living in Kingsville, wasn’t wearing a life-jacket and couldn’t swim, Essex OPP said.

Police set up a command centre Monday in Leamington, bringing in divers and a helicopter to assist in the recovery effort, but the man’s body still wasn’t found.

Both of the London region’s two previous drownings involved boating accidents where the male victims weren’t wearing life-jackets.

That’s no surprise to Barbara Byers, public education director at the Lifesaving Society of Canada in Toronto.

Men make up 80 per cent of drowning victims and 88 per cent of boating deaths involve victims not wearing life-jackets, society figures show.

“A life-jacket buys you time to get rescued,” Byers said.

Too often, boaters don’t wear life-jackets because they’re not going far from shore, or believe they’re strong swimmers, she said.

Twenty-seven people have drowned in Ontario this year, down slightly from 29 this time last year. Across Canada, there have been 81 drownings, compared with 71 in 2016, the Lifesaving Society said.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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2017 drownings in Southwestern Ontario

- April 7:Nicholas St. Pierre-Beke, 23, of Cambridge was canoeing with a friend — neither of the men were wearing life jackets — on the Nine Mile River northeast of Goderich when their boat struck a downed tree and overturned. St. Pierre-Beke became trapped under the canoe before his friend pulled him to the shore, where he couldn’t be resuscitated.

- May 4: Arva Flour Mill co-owner Steven Matthews, 43, drowned while jet-skiing on Arva Pond. Authorities had warned citizens to stay away from water during the time because intense rains had swelled the river, ponds and creeks.