Ford turfs MPP who voted against emergency powers extension,
PC caucus member said new legislation is an ‘overreach’ on democracy
Premier Doug Ford has ejected Cambridge MPP Belinda Karahalios from the Progressive Conservative caucus for voting against controversial legislation expanding his government’s emergency authority.
“Belinda Karahalios will no longer be sitting as a member of the Progressive Conservative caucus,” Ford said in a terse statement issued Tuesday night, less than an hour after Karahalios broke ranks.
“Our government’s first priority is the health and safety of all Ontarians, and Bill 195 is an important piece of legislation that protects each and every citizen during the pandemic,” the premier said.
With Ontario’s state of emergency, which began March 17, set to expire Friday, the government pushed through the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act.
Karahalios voted against the legislation, warning it was “unnecessary overreach on our parliamentary democracy.
“At its core, Bill 195 takes away the legislature’s ability to vote on the use of extraordinary emergency powers on Ontarians for the next year,” she said.
“By transferring away the ability for Ontario MPPs to consider, debate and vote on how emergency powers are used on Ontarians, Bill 195 essentially silences every single Ontario MPP on the most important issue facing our legislature today.” Independent MPP Randy Hillier (Kingston-LanarkFrontenac), who was expelled from the PC caucus last year, said Tuesday night that Ford “is relentless in his demand for total compliance and subservience. “Caucus members are not people, but chess pieces at his disposal. Representing constituents is unacceptable and anathema to his addiction to absolute authority,” said Hillier.
Green Leader Mike Schreiner praised Karahalios “for voting her conscience and opposing the government’s power grab in Bill 195. “MPPs should not be punished for thinking freely or representing the views of their constituents. This says a lot about how freedom of speech is received in the Ford government,” said Schreiner.
NDP house leader Gilles Bisson hailed Karahalios for “her principled stand — for which Doug Ford has punished her by kicking her out of his caucus.
“It’s clear that Ford is still on a mission to attack anyone who disagrees with him” said Bisson.
Karahalios, who was first elected in 2018, is the wife of Jim Karahalios, a prominent maverick who was disqualified from running for the federal Conservatives in May after suggesting a rival candidate’s campaign chair supported sharia law. He was runner-up in the provincial party’s 2018 presidential race.
Under Bill 195, emergency orders to close public places, restrict large gatherings and prohibit personal-care workers from being employed in multiple nursing homes could be on the books for years.
Ford has said the bill “is totally misunderstood” by critics.
“We’re doing it to help the people,” he said earlier this month. “I don’t want a power grab. I’m just not into big government, I’m just not, but we have to do it.”
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association also opposes the legislation, warning that the government is “trying to extend emergency powers while leaving the label of an emergency behind.”
Later on Tuesday night, the Tories passed omnibus legislation amending 20 existing laws in order to tackle the fallout from COVID-19, which has killed almost 2,800 Ontarians.
MPPs then rose for the summer. The legislature resumes on Sept. 14.
Ford, for his part, spent most of Tuesday in Mississauga, the latest stop on his campaignstyle summer tour, which will take him to 38 of Ontario’s 124 ridings during an eight-week, 5,000-kilometre blitz.