Why Is The Legacy Media Actively Ignoring Ontario’s Largest New Party?

During the leadup and since the writ dropped in the 2022 Ontario provincial election all the legacy media has been focused almost entirely on the increasingly similar three major establishment parties.

Of course, the PCs, NDP, and Liberals are getting the most attention being the highest polling parties in Ontario, but at the same time, one would think the media would be interested in talking about a new party (only slightly over a year old) that has managed to field a full slate of candidates before any other party and that almost has EDAs in every riding.

The New Blue Party of Ontario had been largely ignored by legacy media; only ever being mentioned when lists of candidates on the ballot in each riding are being reported on, which feels like deliberate underreporting in order to slow the party’s momentum.

New Blue MPP Belinda Karahalios and New Blue leader Jim Karahalios have been open to taking interviews and, Jim especially used to be interviewed fairly frequently about his activism within the PC Party, but the media seems to be deliberately ignoring them since they started competing with the establishment parties.

Outlets like the CBC, National Post, and Global News are instead covering the Ontario Party, led by Derek Sloan as if it was at all comparable to New Blue or the Green Party.

The Ontario Party does not have a full slate of candidates, only a few EDAs, and is being run by someone who registered a federal party headquartered in Red Deer he is also supposedly operating making it obvious he is unlikely to be in Ontario politics for the long haul. 

MPP Rick Nicholls before changing his Independent affiliation to the Ontario Party even said he may become a government lobbyist after the next election, making his supposed principled run in the 2022 election seem rather hollow. 

On the other hand, Jim Karahalios has publicly stated several times that New Blue’s long-term goal is to replace the Ontario PC party as the home for conservatism in Ontario. Jim also has a track record with his ‘Axe the Carbon Tax’ and ‘Take Back Our PC Party’ campaigns demonstrating that he follows through with projects he starts, yet the media wants to talk about the Ontario Party instead. 

The legacy media seems to be trying to create confusion over what new alternative party is the most legitimate because the New Blue Party poses a real threat to the political establishment and the legacy media.

Unlike the Ontario Party, New Blue plans to ban election-rigging in internal party elections, revoke the online gambling licence granted to the failing Toronto Star, and tax all legacy media corporations that accepted government subsidies and bailouts.

MPP Belinda Karahalios has also proven despite being the only New Blue MPP in the provincial legislature that she can still be highly effective. Through her advocacy, Belinda stopped Bill 12 which sought to mandate vaccines for education and healthcare workers, as well as Bill 67 which was an NDP proposed bill the PC party was originally going to back which would have mandated Critical Race Theory be taught in schools.

MPP Nicholls had no such victories in the legislature and even voted for Bill 67 its second reading before Belinda and  New Blue pressured the PCs into stating they would not be supporting it on the final vote.

Jim Karahalios at the New Blue Party campaign launch made it clear that the party would not just talk about niche COVID-related issues and instead go after all forms of government waste, and corruption within the parties.

The legacy media, beholden to the political establishment, would like nothing more than for the New Blue Party to act like the Ontario Party and mostly focus on COVID, but because New Blue has a broader vision and is seeking to stick it out in provincial politics for the long-term the legacy media is seeking to box them out as well as they can. 

Based on the size of the New Blue Party’s campaign, the legacy media will have a hard time preventing the new party from becoming a large political force in Ontario.