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Kevin O'Leary launches unofficial PM bid against Justin Trudeau

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http://m.huffpost.com/ca/entry/13587472

Celebrity businessman Kevin O’Leary unofficially launched his bid for the Conservative leadership Monday, promising that the next election will be an “ugly fight” against Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

“2019 is not an election, it is an exorcism,” O’Leary told approximately 30 Tory MPs who gathered to hear his thoughts at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier.


“It’s going to be war, it’s going to be ugly, you’re going to hear a lot of bad things,” O’Leary promised. “I have to know you have my back if we’re going to start this. That is what I’m asking for.”

O’Leary painted Trudeau as a “complete incompetent” who is mismanaging the Canadian economy and digging it into a dark hole.

He suggested the prime minister’s lack of business and negotiating experience is costing the country dearly.


By introducing a carbon price nationally while the United States moves in another direction, O’Leary said Canada will miss out on billions of investment dollars.

“Why would I invest here when I can invest in U.S. Texas shale and make a 30 per cent higher free cash flow? You don’t have to be an idiot to understand that,” he said.

But Trudeau alone isn’t responsible, the TV businessman declared. The prime minister’s principal secretary, Gerald Butts, is really the person setting policy, O’Leary said.


The television investor from “Shark Tank,” a business venture reality show on U.S. network ABC, and the “Dragon’s Den” on CBC told the Tories and a handful of media that, under his leadership, the party’s next election would focus on: 1) Trudeau, 2) Butts and 3) Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

“I’m going to make them famous,” O’Leary said, to laughter from the crowd. “I want them to own this. They deserve all the credit for their policies and by chance the downside come 2019…. These are the three riders of the economic apocalypse.”

“The longer Butts is in place, the more damage is going to be done,” O’Leary declared.



“You have to have my back to do that. I need to have yours. This is the beginning of a journey,” he said, likening the group to a board of directors. “I’m going to be a very, very, very unconventional candidate. It’s going to get extremely nasty out there.”

O’Leary acknowledged that he doesn’t speak French and can’t speak to the seven million Canadians who claim it as their mother tongue.

“I don’t speak French. However, I was born in Montreal,” he told the small crowd, describing summers picking apples at his grandmother’s in Quebec and attending McGill University.


This is a province I know very well. Will I learn French? You’re damn right I’m going to try. I have three years to do it.”

But O’Leary also played down his need to know French, suggesting the province’s 18- to 35-year-olds — a group Trudeau successfully courted in 2015 and whom O’Leary plans to engage with a jobs-based message — are almost all bilingual.

“You can speak five languages and still not get anything done. To lead an economy out of a morass, an abyss, you have to be able to execute, regardless of your language skills,” he said.

In language somewhat reminiscent of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, O’Leary trumpeted his “huge” social media platform. He told MPs he reaches more people on Facebook Live than the networks reach in Canada. “I’m going to use it. It’s going to be aggressive. It will be challenging sometimes, and it will not be business as usual.”

On his Twitter and Facebook accounts on Monday, O’Leary posted about his trip to Ottawa’s “Capitol Hill” and was mocked online.


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Is he trying to be Trump? Canada ain't going to vote for him. Not one bit.

Sorry Kev. Unlike America, we don't vote for businessman, no matter how blunt they are.

EDIT: Using first post privilege to say "Hey fellow Canadians! We are in the right fucking track! Don't swerve off just because you hate winter. Climate change is real but weather magic ain't real, so enjoy the fucking weather cause its going to be a bumpy ride. Exercise your damn vote on 2019!"
 

Lothars

Member
That is scary. I hope he's made an example of. I know some people that will vote him for but hopefully it's a really small number.
 
Please don't make the same mistakes we did by dismissing this. That's how Trump won,

You Canadians should come out in force against him.

Oh believe me, I am not voting for him and neither am I going to waste my vote by sitting at home. Trudeau will always get my vote, and there's millions more that love him equally.

P.S. Fuck 2016.
 
“You have to have my back to do that. I need to have yours. This is the beginning of a journey,” he said, likening the group to a board of directors. “I’m going to be a very, very, very unconventional candidate. It’s going to get extremely nasty out there.”

O’Leary acknowledged that he doesn’t speak French and can’t speak to the seven million Canadians who claim it as their mother tongue.

“I don’t speak French. However, I was born in Montreal,” he told the small crowd, describing summers picking apples at his grandmother’s in Quebec and attending McGill University.

Good luck getting the Quebec vote. That's like 20% of the population right there.
 

Mimosa97

Member
Fucking egghead. I can assure you he's gonna flop big time in Quebec.

I bet this idiot thinks Canada is just one giant Alberta.
 

Ac30

Member
“It’s going to be war, it’s going to be ugly, you’re going to hear a lot of bad things,” O’Leary promised. “I have to know you have my back if we’re going to start this. That is what I’m asking for.”

Get ready for American Election V2 in 2019! Disgusting. Voters want platforms, not an ugly war.
 
Is he trying to be Trump? Canada ain't going to vote for him. Not one bit.

Sorry Kev. Unlike America, we don't vote for businessman, no matter how blunt they are.

EDIT: Using first post privilege to say "Hey fellow Canadians! We are in the right fucking track! Don't swerve off just becsuse you hate winter. Climate change is real, so enjoy the fucking weather cause its going to be a bumpy ride. Exercise your damn vote on 2019!"

'Canada ain't going to vote for him. Not one bit.'

I know you edited the post after, but this is EXACTLY what the Brits said about Brexit, and it's EXACTLY what some said in America this year.

FUCK
 
so the only thing standing in the way of Mr.Wonderful is one Ms. Alt-Right Leitche and one Gold Standard Mad Max.

I hope Max wins for the LOLs
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
well let's see

1) you don't run for pm, you run for a party's leadership and have that party form government
2) “2019 is not an election, it is an exorcism,” "O’Leary painted Trudeau as a “complete incompetent” who is mismanaging the Canadian economy and digging it into a dark hole." Trudeau honestly hasn't done anything material at this point in his term from an economic standpoint; why not characterize him as inactive, unable to rise to the challenge, etc. This is a cartoonish caricature of even the worst case scenario under Trudeau.
3) "Will I learn French? You’re damn right I’m going to try. I have three years to do it.” you can't learn professional french through "three" years of part-time lessons (and he doesn't have three years--he has until he is leader of the official opposition, the idea that he doesn't need to speak until the election is so ridiculous)
4) “You can speak five languages and still not get anything done." right but you can't not speak the country's official languages and get things done
5) "“I don’t speak French. However, I was born in Montreal,” he told the small crowd, describing summers picking apples at his grandmother’s in Quebec and attending McGill University." okay so he'll have no problem learning french in three years but he couldn't learn it spending time every year growing up or going to university there -- granted that McGill is English and an anglophone can survive in Montreal, but it hardly speaks to someone's commitment to picking up the language if they don't bother to.
6) "They deserve all the credit for their policies and by chance the downside come 2019…." okay so now we're back to admitting that they haven't done anything wrong yet, they just are doing something that later has a chance of going wrong. very pointed criticism

Canadian conservatives who believe in basic human dignity and want strong leadership to make inroads in the country should choose:
1) Literally any candidate
2) A random conservative voter plucked out of a crowd
3) None of the above, leave the leader's role vacant going into the election
...
999) Kevin O'Leary
1000) Kellie Leitch

Mmmhh somewhere i heard this before multiple times this year but i just dont know where.

This argument only works if you're willing to take lumps when the right loses an election and weigh that evidence.
 

SRG01

Member
O'Leary is a terrible businessperson. The fund he used to manage had to be bought out by one of his co-stars because it was bleeding so much cash.

Also, investing in Shale? What? What year are we living in?

What's so bad about Trudeau that the conservatives want to make this an all-out war?

Trudeau single-handedly decimated the CPC to the point of no recovery for the next couple of elections. There's absolutely zero way the CPC can present themselves as anything near competent or able to govern with their current list of candidates.
 

Pakkidis

Member
If the American economy crashes in the next 4 years its going to be very hard for conservatives to win here. If everything is more or less stable then I can easily see this guy winning :(

Good bye environment, it was nice knowing you.
 

kevin1025

Banned
'Canada ain't going to vote for him. Not one bit.'

I know you edited the post after, but this is EXACTLY what the Brits said about Brexit, and it's EXACTLY what some said in America this year.

FUCK

True, but one thing to give Canada, we're predictable. Trudeau's in for the long haul. This Trump wannabe doesn't play here.
 
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