Karahalios’ rough road to the PC presidency
Cambridge activist and gadfly says he’s being ‘blackmailed’ in dispute over leaking emails and he denies any role in Michael Harris saga
— A local conservative activist who was one of the Ontario PC Party leadership’s most vocal critics just a few months ago is making his final push to become the provincial party’s president.
But it’s been a less than smooth road to the Nov. 16 convention for Jim Karahalios, whose wife Belinda Karahalios is the rookie Tory MPP for Cambridge.
On Friday night, Karahalios complained he was being blackmailed by another prominent party activist, London’s John Casselman, in a dispute over leaking private emails.
Casselman also accused Karahalios of trying to sneak a “secret USB key” into his mailbox — which Karahalios says never happened.
The Cambridge-based lawyer is opposing Brian Patterson to be the next PC Party president.
He’s positioned himself as someone who can bring integrity and accountability back to the Tories after what he calls “one of the darkest periods” of the party’s history during the Patrick Brown era.
“I will do this by showing them a better way forward, one that does not disregard our party constitution and subvert our democracy with blackmail, threats, backroom deals and intimidation,” he said in an email.
But his critics say he’s a polarizing political operative, fond of hardball tactics and dogged by questions about his role in the Michael Harris saga.
In Patterson, he’s up against a veteran political staffer who has worked with leaders since Bill Davis in the 1980s — and appears to have the support of Premier Doug Ford.
Karahalios, a pesky gadfly and skilled political organizer behind the Axe the Carbon Tax and Take Back Our PC Party campaigns, is also president of the federal Conservative riding association in Cambridge.
His campaign for reform is ruffling some feathers while revealing deep divisions within the party. Two weeks ago, Finance Minister Vic Fedeli blasted Karahalios for “personal attacks” online and misusing his words as a testimonial.
If Karahalios wins, it would be a remarkable turnaround for an activist who was a party outsider until Doug Ford became leader. The local lawyer had been a vocal critic of what he saw as corruption during the Brown regime, and was unsuccessfully sued and stripped of his membership by the PC executive.
“Our party needs a change of
culture and a commitment to ensuring that the illegitimate practices of the past do not return,” Karahalios said, in announcing his campaign.
He’s not without his detractors. Casselman accuses Karahalios of “consistently leaving a trail of bodies” behind in his political career. Karahalios has tried to tone down his combative style as he’s sought support for the president’s job.
He’s asked prominent Tories for their endorsement, including former Kitchener-Conestoga MPP and current regional councillor Michael Harris.
Just last winter, Karahalios was attempting to dig up an internal party “red file” on the then-MPP — only weeks before Harris lost his job over a transcript of flirty texts from 2012 with a former party intern.
When asked about his attempt to get dirt on Harris, Karahalios dug in and denied any knowledge. “I am surprised you are asking me this question which is based on a lie,” he responded.
Instead Karahalios cast suspicion on his rival, who was executive director of the PC Party during the period when the Harris texts were put into a file.
“Brian Patterson has full knowledge of their content, and he has full knowledge of the steps that were taken in 2012, if any, to address this matter,” he said.
Patterson could not immediately be reached to respond.
Harris and Karahalios had a falling out in January after Harris publicly suggested Karahalios’ grassroots campaign Take Back Our PC Party might be getting support from the Liberals. The activists was furious about the remark, and threatened to sue the MPP.
Harris, who feels the text transcript was “torqued up” for purely political reasons, says the pair have since patched things up. They’ve found common ground when it comes to things like transparency in nomination races.
He declined to formally endorse Karahalios, however. Harris said he just wants to move on and focus on his new job as a regional councillor.
“I’ve appreciated Jim’s advocacy to hold our party accountable and to stick with the policies of our grassroots,” Harris said. “We’ve agreed to move on.”
But while Karahalios was once seeking to hurt Harris politically, other party insiders blamed Ford campaign chair Dean French and Andrew Kimber, the former Ford senior staffer who recently fell victim to a sexting scandal of his own, for ultimately digging up the 2012 BlackBerry Messenger texts involving Harris.
Ironically, Kimber was ousted by Ford last month after telling superiors in the premier’s office about an allegation that former economic development minister
Jim Wilson made a sexually inappropriate remark to a male staffer.
At least five female PC staffers say they received sexually inappropriate texts with photos from Kimber, according to the Toronto Star. He’s issued a public apology.