New Blue Party pushing populist platform in provincial election

Anti-vaccine, anti-establishment party fielding candidates in all Ontario ridings

What connects New Blue Party of Ontario supporters is “greater than a specific policy promise,” says leader Jim Karahalios.

“It's fighting for restoring the processes of democracy and integrity in the political party system,” he said, adding that it's necessary “because the Doug Ford PCS have contempt for the traditional voters and have shut those people up.”

A Leger/postmedia poll showed support for the New Blue was at three per cent across Ontario ahead of the provincial election on June 2.

It's a small percentage of decided voters, said the executive vice-president at Leger, Andrew Enns.

“I will say that they've consistently, in the past number of polls, been showing up a little stronger regionally in the north,” Enns said. “It looks like they've landed on some combination of a few good candidates in the north and are potentially tapping into that.”

While the pandemic created some momentum for the party's anti-establishment and anti-vaccine mandate stance, the enthusiasm and impetus surrounding those issues tends to die down, said Enns.

“It definitely doesn't have the same urgency as it did,” he said. “Certainly, they also tap into that general disappointment of the mainstream political parties. We have a question in our poll: which of the four main party leaders would be the best premier? You know, 33 per cent said either none of them or didn't know.”

The focus on the campaign trail now, said Enns, is shifting to discussions on growing the economy and improving the health care system that “we know took a beating in the pandemic.”

“Our polling — it's not really growing by leaps and bounds in terms of that anti-establishment sentiment at this stage of the game,” he said.

Ending COVID mandates is a major part of the New Blueprint — but it has barely been raised by the four main party leaders on the campaign trail.

Concern over the pandemic seemed to wane in comparison to other issues such as cost of living or affordability, housing, and health care, according to an Earnscliffe poll.

But Karahalios says the party's strong stance against COVID measures remains relevant.

“The mandates and lockdowns are not irrelevant. People remember the last two years. They know that COVID vaccine passports are still being used in some public and private sectors.

“They know now the powers that local bureaucrats have and they're asking questions about who put those laws in place and when,” Karahalios said.

The New Blue is pushing for restitution for people who they say were “harmed by emergency measures” put in place by the Trudeau and Ford governments. They want to squash all emergency COVID measures and ban vaccine passports.

The party is making an impact, according to Karahalios, with 124 candidates running, which means they have a candidate in every riding.

“It's not a coincidence that Doug Ford and the PCS are trying to run away from their lockdown and mandate record and also trying to sound more conservative as they go into the June 2 election, promising things like tax relief, but then the fine print says it's only for six months,” he said.

Karahalios maintains that support for the New Blue continues to grow, despite not even being listed by name in some polls.

They are often categorized as “Other.”

He attributes the support to the establishment parties at Queen's Park compromising the system and hijacking the ability for Ontarians to get involved in the democratic process.

If elected, they say they would decrease the power of local bureaucrats, tax corporate media that received a $600 million “bailout” (which was intended to help struggling outlets), and cancel the Toronto Star's $500 million online gambling licence “gifted by the Ford PCS.”

Karahalios says the New Blue is willing to touch upon subjects that no other parties are dealing with, like trying to remove critical race theory in the school system. Critical race theory — which maintains that race is socially constructed and used to exploit or oppress people of colour — was implemented by “woke activism,” according to the party's platform.

It has been a controversial subject in North America and remains a heavily debated, ever-evolving issue.

“We're clearly the only alternative. The other four parties are all talking the same talk,” said Karahalios.

“They have no room for alternative perspectives.”

The New Blue isn't the only party to the right of the PCS.

The Ontario Party, founded in 2018, is a populist party that lists acknowledging the “Supremacy of God and the Rule of Law” in its mandate.

The party's platform consists of protecting religious freedom and free speech, while also being antiestablishment and ANTI-COVID mandates.

The Ontario Party has a prolife stance and would ban gender transitions for minors if elected to “protect your children from radical gender ideology.”

Derek Sloan, the party's leader, said he is pushing for “accountability for the authoritarian, unconstitutional lockdowns and mandates imposed by the Ford government, a parents-first approach to education and the protection of inalienable civil liberties for every citizen.”