The New Blue Party of Ontario ( abbr. New Blue; french: Nouveau Parti Bleu de l'Ontario) is a minor

socially conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institution ...

political party in the Canadian province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. Founded in 2020, the party is led by

Jim Karahalios Jim Karahalios is a Canadian politician who has never been elected to public office, and lawyer who ran as the New Blue candidate for Kitchener—Conestoga in the 2022 Ontario general election. He is the co-founder and leader of the New Blue Par ...

, the husband of

Belinda Karahalios Belinda Carmen Karahalios is a Canadian politician who served as the member of Provincial Parliament for the riding of Cambridge in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2018 to 2022. Karahalios was originally elected in the 2018 provincia ...

, the party's first

MPP MPP or M.P.P. may refer to: * Marginal physical product * Master of Public Policy, an academic degree * Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), Canada * Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape), South Africa * ''Merriweather Post Pavilio ...

History

Prior to the party's formation

In late 2017,

, a corporate lawyer, was sued by the

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada ...

in retaliation for Karahalios's founding the activist groups "Axe The Carbon Tax" (opposing the party's pro-carbon tax position) and "Take Back Our PC Party" (challenging the party's acceptance of nominations that resulted in allegations of electoral fraud). Karahalios won the lawsuit when Superior Court Justice Paul Perell wrote a decision against the party, ruling that the lawsuit was a "strategic lawsuit against public participation” intended to stifle dissent. In 2018, following the resignation of Patrick Brown and the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

Doug Ford Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario since June 2018 and leader of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party since March 2018. He ...

as Ontario PC Party leader, Belinda Karahalios ran for and won the party's nomination in the riding of Cambridge. and in the 2018 Ontario election she was elected MPP for the riding."PC Belinda Karahalios wins in Cambridge riding"

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo CBLA-FM-2 is the CBC Radio One station licensed to Paris, Ontario, Canada but primarily serving the nearby Waterloo Region. It broadcasts on the FM band at 89.1 MHz. Previously licensed as a rebroadcaster of CBLA-FM in Toronto, it began origina ...

, June 7, 2018. In November 2018,

ran for the presidency of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party and later filed a lawsuit against the party after his defeat, alleging the election process was manipulated, election rules were breached and that ballot boxes were allegedly stuffed in order to elect his competitor, Brian Patterson, who was endorsed by Doug Ford. On July 21, 2020, Belinda Karahalios was expelled from the Progressive Conservative caucus by

after voting against Bill 195, the '' Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act'', which would expand the government's emergency authority during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Karahalios voted against the legislation, calling it an "unnecessary overreach on our parliamentary democracy." A month later, Belinda Karahalios, her husband Jim, and 18 other members of the Ontario PC Party were removed from the Cambridge PC Riding Association Board as a result of the party executive, led by Brian Patterson, voting to "de-register" the riding association with

Elections Ontario Elections Ontario (french: Élections Ontario) is an independent office of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario responsible for the administration of provincial elections and referendums. It is charged with the implementation and enforcement of t ...

After the party's formation

On October 12, 2020, Jim and

released a video announcing that they were forming a new political party, claiming that the Ontario PC Party was beyond redemption. Stating that there "is no party in the Ontario legislature defending the taxpayer, defending small business, defending places of worship, promoting freedom, promoting democracy or fighting political corruption." On January 7, 2021, the New Blue Party was officially registered by Elections Ontario. Party leader

stated that the party would focus on supporting the taxpayer, places of worship and small business. The party won no seats in the 2022 provincial election.

Ideology and principles

Ideology

The New Blue Party is a right-wing,

social conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social instituti ...

party that has been described as being to the right of the

from which it split. The party has publicly opposed all measures taken against

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

; at least one of the party's candidates for the 2022 Ontario general election took part in the Canada convoy protest. An article in the ''Simcoe Reformer'' described the New Blue party as being against "

woke ''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and Racial discrimination, discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social ineq ...

activism" and in favour of removing

critical race theory Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...

and " gender identity theory" from schools.

Election results

One New Blue candidate in

Ottawa West—Nepean Ottawa West—Nepean (french: Ottawa-Ouest—Nepean) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1997. Geography The district includes the neighbourhoods of Shirleys ...

was deregistered on May 17, 2022, due to Canadian military rules.

References

{{Canadian Conservative Parties 2020 establishments in Ontario Conservative parties in Canada Political parties established in 2020 Political schisms Provincial political parties in Ontario Right-wing populism in Canada Politics of Cambridge, Ontario Organizations established for the COVID-19 pandemic Cambridge, Ontario Social conservative parties