Businessman and media personality puts in bid for Conservative Party
Kevin O’Leary, business magnate and former panelist on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, has officially put his name in the race for Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. His candidacy has already sparked controversy, including a piece published by CBC by fellow Dragons’ Den former panelist Arlene Dickinson and an open letter on social media from Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne.
In an interview with CTV News on Jan. 19, Dickinson criticized her former co-star saying, “He comes from a place of self-interest and a place of a lack of empathy and compassion.” She went on to say, “It’s very important that if you’re going to be a leader that you exhibit qualities and characteristics that demonstrate that you are about people and are not about yourself.”
Former Dragons’ Den panelist Brett Wilson took to Twitter to defend O’Leary, tweeting that, “Arlene is a VERY capable business person—but I disagree on her assessment of O’Leary.”
“Kevin is one of two candidates I am supporting in this race. I appreciate his candid albeit sometimes politically incorrect approach,” wrote Wilson.
Premier Wynne also criticized O’Leary’s platform in an open letter posted on Facebook: “Your policies so far suggest that serving society’s most well-off should be the sole role of government.”
In his own letter, O’Leary responded saying, “If you were the CEO of one of my companies, I would have fired you long ago.”
O’Leary’s bid for Conservative Leadership was announced in a video posted on Facebook the day after the French language debate. O’Leary does not speak French and, while there is no law prohibiting a monolingual Prime Minister, the last Canadian Prime Minister to speak only English was John Diefenbaker, who served from 1957 to 1963. Several of the nominations for the Conservative leader do not speak French, even though Quebec holds 75 seats in Parliament, making it a political battleground. English-only speakers are traditionally considered at a disadvantage in Quebec.
The businessman and TV personality has been in the media for expressing several outspoken and controversial sentiments. For example, O’Leary made remarks in a Toronto Life article where he claimed, “[The] Prime Minister is the worst job in the country,” and called the Conservative Party “losers.”
When asked about his comments, O’Leary deflected his previous remarks as only being said for the sake of ratings.
“I’ve said many things and made great television… but this is real now,” O’Leary told CBC News.
“Elect me Prime Minister for 15 minutes and I’ll make unions illegal. Anybody who remains a union member will be thrown in jail,” said O’Leary in a CBC segment on The Lang and O’Leary Exchange in 2011.
Looking back on this statement O’Leary said, “It made great television three or four years ago, […] but of course that’s not pragmatic.”
O’Leary is entering an already crowded race against thirteen other candidates vying for the position, including Kellie Leitch, who is running on her controversial platform of “Canadian values.” At the time of publication, O’Leary’s name has yet to appear on the Conservative website as a contender for leadership.
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Excellent article.
Great article, as to where our leadership is headed.