New Blue candidate faces challenges while running for MPP amid legacy media exclusion

'They called it an ‘All Candidates Debate’ and I have an issue with that, because it’s not really an all candidates debate when you leave out a number of registered candidates.'

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Joshua Chalhoub is campaigning to become an MPP with the New Blue Party of Ontario in the riding of Northumberland-Peterborough-South, despite difficulties in getting his name out there. After seeing the state of politics in the province play out during the COVID pandemic, Chalhoub felt a need to become more “officially” engaged in politics.

“I’ve decided that if you want change, you have to affect that change personally and put yourself out there. Try to unite and find ways that better serve citizens, the population, your riding, as opposed to the expectation of the government doing it for us because I think they’re failing at that.”

The party's platform, the New Blueprint, resonated most with Chalhoub in terms of free press and issues such as healthcare, medical autonomy, and government accountability.

“It’s not just a matter of health and safety, it’s a matter of rights and freedoms. Your civil liberties are ingrained and fundamentally important and when we start to overstep and dismantle those rights and call them privileges — I have a problem with that,” Chalhoub says, obviously criticizing the way Premier Doug Ford handled the pandemic.

Chalhoub emphasizes that he has not been invited to debates and forums such as that which took place with YourTV and the Port Hope Chamber of Commerce. “They called it an ‘All Candidates Debate’ and I have an issue with that because it’s not really an all candidates debate when you leave out a number of registered candidates.”

More recently, Post Media abruptly denied Chalhoub’s paid political advertising after previously approving it, without any concrete reason as to why.

Despite this, Chalhoub is not deterred and vows to continue trying to gain access to debate forums as canvassing comes down to the final days, and that he’ll be door-knocking to focus on increasing his visibility to voters.

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