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Statement by Kevin O’Leary on his latest interview on CNN

Today Conservative Leadership Candidate, Kevin O’Leary, issued the following statement on his latest interview by CNN.

“Canadians need to reflect carefully on President Trump’s inauguration speech. The vision he laid out will have profound implications on the Canada-US relationship. Canada’s largest trading partner is now headed by a businessman with an aggressive protectionist strategy that could hurt the Canadian economy.

“Canada needs a Prime Minister that speaks the language of business, a Prime Minister who can stand up, and defend our national interests in negotiations with President Trump. Justin Trudeau is not that Prime Minister.

Dear Premier Wynne: I Would Have Fired You Long Ago

Dear Premier Wynne,

Thank you for your letter. I have been writing you for a while now and was getting worried you were never going to write back.

I’m getting involved in the Conservative leadership race because I can’t stand watching incompetent politicians destroy my country. You and Justin Trudeau are two of them. Rachel Notley would be the third.

Your policies have all but bankrupted a province that was once an economic powerhouse.
Look at Ontario, if this province were a company it would have been forced to declare bankruptcy ages ago. Because of your neglectful actions, Ontario is the world’s most in-debt jurisdiction. Do you understand how bad that is? You and your policies have all but bankrupted a province that was once an economic powerhouse in Canada. If you were the CEO of one of my companies, I would have fired you long ago.

Why Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Is Not The Next Donald Trump

When you think of an ego-driven business mogul turned reality TV star with designs on the highest office in the land, it used to be only a single name came to mind. Not anymore. Following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary has decided to leverage his small screen fame for political gain, throwing his hat in the ring in the leadership contest of Canada’s Conservative Party earlier this week. In Canada’s parliamentary system, this means he’s competing to be the guy who acts as a thorn in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s side for the next several years. While this sounds like a thankless job, the self-proclaimed Mr. Wonderful has plenty of competition for the role.

It’s easy to draw parallels between O’Leary and Donald Trump. Both are tonsorially-challenged businessmen with a taste for self-aggrandizing who gained pop cultural prominence through star-making turns on reality TV hits (The Apprentice for Trump and Shark Tank for O’Leary) where they gleefully crush(ed) the dreams of ambitious contestants. While Trump is fond of calling perceived foes “haters” and “losers,” O’Leary has no qualms about dismissing entrepreneurs with untenable business ideas as “cockroaches” among other colorful terms. Both men claim to be killer deal-makers, but O’Leary, like Trump, has lowlights on his resume that are bound to come under renewed scrutiny now that he’s entering the political fray.

Conservative Leadership Contenders Need To Step Up Their Game

O’Leary was right on one point, why have a debate when the so called policy discussion is limited to 20 second sound bites. Debates of the size that we have seen to date virtually eliminate the need for anyone to defend their policies in detail. Once the debate thankfully comes to an end, neither the public nor party members have any further understanding of what a candidate is proposing or the implications of those policies.

Instead it is left up to the media to offer their explanation of a candidate’s position and after watching the mess in the United States, do party members really want to leave it to the media to explain Conservative policy positions?

Canada’s Donald Trump? ‘Shark Tank’ star Kevin O’Leary runs for Tory leadership

(CNN)Canada’s got its own reality TV star vying for the nation’s top job.

Kevin O’Leary, the business man-turned-reality TV star, announced Wednesday that he will stand in the now 14-person race to lead Canada’s Conservative party.
The winner will likely challenge current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the country’s 2019 federal elections.

“Canadians need a Prime Minister with a smart plan to kick start the economy; a Prime Minister who supports small businesses, who will fight for hard working Canadians and will stop wasting our money,” O’Leary said in a statement on why he’s running.

O’Leary: If I don’t win a majority then ‘fire me’

Kevin O’Leary is telling Conservatives to give him the boot if he doesn’t win a majority mandate for the party in 2019.

He also wants to use drones instead of jets to patrol our borders to save money.

These are two of the interesting facts about his bid to become Conservative leader that came up in a no-holds-barred conversation I had with O’Leary on my radio show Thursday morning.

“What I’ve promised the Conservative caucus privately is that if I don’t deliver a majority mandate in 2019 you can fire me,” O’Leary explained.

O’Leary takes Trump North pitch to Good Morning America

by Amanda Connolly, iPolitics

Businessman Kevin O’Leary took his pitch to be leader of the Conservative Party south of the border this week in an interview with ABC News’ Good Morning America where he touted his lack of political experience and Canadian bilingualism.

During his chat with host Robin Roberts, O’Leary — whose reality TV show Shark Tank is broadcast by ABC News — was asked about similarities between himself and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to be sworn in tomorrow. In his response, O’Leary branded himself as someone who is going to take on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for going in the opposite direction of Trump when it comes to deregulation and energy policies.

“There’s some similarities but really it’s quite a difference. Canada’s a completely different society because we actually have two cultures, we have a French and we have an English. There’s two official languages, français et l’anglais, they’re different,” said the unilingual candidate, who refused to declare his candidacy until after Tuesday’s French-language debates were over.

“At the same time we’ve enjoyed a relationship with the U.S. for 150 years, but that’s about to change in some ways because when Trump becomes president tomorrow he is talking about putting some policies in place that have many Canadians concerned because he’s going to lower taxes, he’s going to deregulate oil and gas, he may put border taxes in place, and Trudeau’s going the other direction.”

Conservative party needs Kevin O’Leary in leadership race

Now that the mainstream media seems to finally be taking Kevin O’Leary’s potential run for the Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership seriously, I think it’s time for Canadian voters to do the same.

With less than six months to go before the leadership convention, things seem to finally be getting interesting in the race to replace Stephen Harper.

Even though there have already been three debates and multiple candidates running since last April, nothing remotely exciting has occurred in the race.

This will all change, however, if O’Leary decides to jump in after the all-French debate on Jan. 17. It will be that moment the race will draw substantially more attention from Canadians and the media, just like it did in the U.S. when Donald Trump decided to join the race for the presidency.

Kevin O’Leary’s Conservative leadership bid should target ‘eager’ millennials, advisers say

While that may not be a surprise, the supporters that the businessman and TV personality is being advised to target represents a departure from the party’s perceived base: millennials.

“There is a clear path to victory for you to win,” said Mike Coates, chair of O’Leary’s exploratory committee, in a letter released Thursday that describes O’Leary’s ability to recruit new members, finance a campaign and attract existing party members to his candidacy.

“We were particularly surprised by the high levels of support from those in the 18 to 24 age groups,” the veteran Conservative organizer wrote. “This is an important voter group for the Conservative Party of Canada, and their passion for your candidacy is promising.

Kevin O’Leary tells well-heeled Conservatives in Florida he’ll enter leadership race

Kevin O’Leary told a group of wealthy Canadians wintering in Florida last week that he will run for the Conservative leadership and enter the race as early as Jan. 19, CBC News has learned.

The businessman and television personality denied suggesting such a date during an interview on CBC’s Power & Politics Monday, but acknowledged a meeting took place while he was in Florida on business.

“I’m meeting with anybody that wants to talk about Canada. As you know, down in Florida, this time of the year, there’s a lot of Canadians there, so it’s easy to get a quorum. And we talked a lot about what’s going to happen to the country on its current path,” he said.

“I never asked them for money. I just asked them to listen to some ideas.”