Belinda Karahalios


Belinda Carmen Karahalios, is a Canadian politician currently serving as Member of Provincial Parliament for the riding of Cambridge in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Karahalios was originally elected in the 2018 provincial election as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. She was ejected from the PC caucus in July 2020 for voting against Bill 195, which would allow the provincial government to extend emergency powers for up to two years without consulting the legislature, and now sits as an independent member.

Political career

Karahalios won in the riding of Cambridge in the Ontario general election in 2018. On June 29, 2018, she was appointed as the parliamentary assistant to Lisa MacLeod, the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. Following a cabinet shuffle on June 20, 2019, she was appointed as the parliamentary assistant to Sylvia Jones, the Solicitor General.
On November 26, 2019, Karahalios tabled Bill 150, the Ensuring Transparency and Integrity in Political Party Elections Act, 2019. This legislation would make it an offence for anyone in Ontario to commit voter fraud in an internal party election. The grounds for the bill were party corruption alleged by Jim Karahalios, Tanya Granic Allen, Doug Ford, Vikram Singh, and others in the 2018 Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election and in the same party's November 2018 convention. The bill passed second reading unanimously, despite initial indications that the Ontario PC caucus would vote against it, and it is now awaiting its third reading.
Karahalios was expelled from the Progressive Conservative caucus by party leader and premier Doug Ford after voting against Bill 195, the Reopening Ontario Act, which would expand the government's emergency authority during the COVID-19 pandemic. Karahalios voted against the legislation, calling it an "unnecessary overreach on our parliamentary democracy."

Personal life

Belinda Karahalios is married to Jim Karahalios, a corporate lawyer and founder of activist groups "Axe The Carbon Tax" and "Take Back Our PC Party", who was disqualified from running in the 2020 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election. She is of mixed Afro-Trinidadian and Portuguese descent.

Election results