Political neophyte ready for learning curve as new Cambridge MPP
CAMBRIDGE — The last two months have been a whirlwind for Belinda Karahalios, the new Tory MPP for Cambridge.
In April, the Mississauga-born Karahalios won the local party nomination by 13 votes with a come-from-behind victory as a last-minute entrant. She went straight from there into the election, knocking on some 35,000 doors during the campaign.
Thursday night she learned she had won, defeating incumbent Liberal and cabinet minister Kathryn McGarry. Karahalios won 17,793 votes, garnering 37 per cent of votes cast and winning by a margin of 2,154 votes.
On Friday, she agreed to a media interview as she recovered at home from minor surgery. Even though she was supposed to be resting, she said emails from community groups, wanting to meet and speak with her, are flooding in.
Karahalios, 36, admits she’s a political neophyte, fresh from her first stint as a candidate. She’s been a stay-at-home mom for the last two years since the birth of her son, Victor, but says she’s keen to take on the new challenge as MPP.
“Initially, there’ll be a learning curve, as with any new job,” she said. “But we all start new jobs. We get through it.”
She has been politically active for years, having volunteered in the campaigns of federal and provincial Conservatives since she was 18.
Karahalios grew up in Mississauga, the child of immigrants. Her dad came to Canada from Trinidad as a young man, got an education and had a successful career in investments; her mom is from Portugal. Her father, in particular, has always had strong political views, and lively political discussions were served at mealtimes along with tasty food from both cultures, she says.
She studied biological anthropology at the University of Toronto, with plans to work in pathology or forensics. But sitting in on her first autopsy convinced her that wasn’t the career for her. “That did it for me,” she said. “I definitely was not of that ilk.”
Instead, she held various jobs in medical fields, working in sales and patient support, education and advocacy for drug companies and for the Ontario branch of the Kidney Foundation of Canada.
She’s married to lawyer Jim Karahalios, a Tory organizer who mounted a couple of grassroots campaigns, Take Back Our PC Party and Axe the Carbon Tax, against policies of former party leader Patrick Brown. But she insists she’s her own woman and that she, not her husband, will be filling the role as MPP.
While she’s sure the couple will still have vigorous political discussions, “he’s not going to have a say in how things are done,” she said. “He’s got a full-time job, and I’ve got mine.”
A resident of Preston for the past 3 ½ years, Karahalios, said she hopes to be accessible and to be a stubborn advocate who will listen to constituents.
“I’m passionate about health care, our small-business community, and just overall affordability,” she said. “Those are the things I heard from people about during the campaign. I want to be that strong voice for the people of Cambridge, whether or not they voted for me.
“I’m here for them and I want to do the best job for them.”