Former Cambridge PC party member floated as potential leadership candidate

Supporters of a Cambridge conservative activist — who’s been sued by the Tories and booted from the party — say they want him to lead the PCs into the next provincial election.

But Jim Karahalios tells 570 NEWS he doesn’t even know if he’ll be allowed to enter the race.

Karahalios faces major hurdles before adding his name to the ballot: He is without party membership for his campaigns against former leader Patrick Brown, and the legal fight against him continues.

Karahalios adds the party’s inner circle is stacking the cards against him.

“There are rumors that they are openly discussing creating rules that would either disqualify me as a candidate,” he says, “or make it very disadvantageous for me to even consider entering the race.”

Karahalios is behind two grassroots campaigns — one that slams the PC’s “corrupt” nomination process, the other advocating against the carbon tax. For now, all bets are off until the rules of the leadership race are finalized and released.

“Things are changing rapidly by the hour,” says Karahalios. “One way or the other, I’m interested in fixing this mess in the PC party, and whether that means continuing with the campaigns that I’m doing, or supporting someone for leader … or running for leader myself has yet to be determined.”

Karahalios says he’s being called a potential leadership hopeful, because grassroots conservatives like him don’t just want a new face — they want a new party.

“What we’re seeing play out here is a PC party civil war … so obviously there would be an appetite for people like Doug Ford, for people like me, to get in there and drain the swamp,” he says. “People want an alternative and that alternative cannot be a second variation of a corrupt Liberal party.”