Doug Ford is Moving Heaven And Earth to Stop MPP Belinda Karahalios from Speaking

If you needed any more proof Ontario Premier Doug Ford and the PC Party hates the Karahalios’ the Speaker of the Legislature making up a new COVID rule to keep New Blue Party MPP Belinda Karahalios out of Queens Park should convince you.

Currently for an MPP to go and represent their constituents in Queens Park they either need to show proof of being vaccinated twice or take a rapid test. MPP Karahalios has been taking rapid tests to enter Queens Park, not wanting to disclose her vaccination status on principle, and up until last week that was good enough until she got COVID-19 and the Speaker changed the rules.

Now, despite Public Health Ontario sending MPP Karahalios an email stating that she did not need to test now that she has been verified to have already had COVID and is now naturally immune, the Speaker is still requiring a negative rapid test or proof of vaccination.

This clearly is a sleazy trick to keep MPP Karahalios out of the Legislature as the rules do not allow someone who has recovered from COVID-19 to have a rapid test they take accepted until after a 90 day period.

The Legislature Speaker Ted Arnott, the MPP for Wellington-Halton Hills, is indeed a member of the PC Caucus, so pretending that Arnott’s sudden change of rules to prevent MPP Karahalios from testing has nothing to do with Doug Ford would be naive. 

Both Jim and Belinda Karahalios even before starting the New Blue Party of Ontario were not friendly with the Ontario PC Party establishment.

Jim Karahalios was the political organizer who beat former PC Party leader Patrick Brown on the issue of the inclusion of a carbon tax in the party’s platform as well as made democratic reform a major issue inside of the party with Jim’s Take Back Our PC Party organization. 

Doug Ford and all the other PC leadership candidates in 2018 seeking to replace Brown embracing Jim’s Axe the Carbon Tax organization’s stance on the carbon tax because of its popularity with the grassroots. 

Regardless of Jim winning this policy argument inside the party, at the 2018 PC Party convention Jim was defeated in a race for the party presidency where far more ballots were submitted than there were eligible voters.