Fantino endorses O’Leary for Tory leadership
Former police chief says Dragons’ Den star has been ‘fighting for the little people’
Former police chief and Tory MP Julian Fantino reappeared in Canadian politics Monday by endorsing Conservative leadership hopeful Kevin O’Leary.
The tough-talking police chief turned politician wore a blue O’Leary pin and said the businessman “has spent a lifetime fighting for the little people, for the regular, ordinary folks that are the predominant taxpayers.”
Fantino also said at the campaign event in Vaughan that he likes “the way (O’Leary) speaks to Canadians” and that he was “proud and tall” to stand with O’Leary.
Fantino, who left politics in 2015 after losing his seat in the Vaughan-Woodbridge riding, is a former police chief in London, Ont., York and Toronto as well as Ontario Provincial Police commissioner.
He had served a stormy tenure as the minister of Veterans Affairs for a year and a half in the Harper government, a position he was criticized for, especially after it was revealed the department let more than $1 billion in funding for veterans sit unused amid calls for support.
In the years since his involvement in the Conservative party, Fantino said he has “kind of laid low” by spending time with family, fishing and helping start a consulting company. “I haven’t absented myself from taking a keen interest in politics . . . and so here we are.”
Fantino criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling him a “spend-as-you-will individual” and offered his support to O’Leary, a businessman best known for the reality TV shows Dragons’ Den on CBC and the show’s U.S. counterpart, Shark Tank.
Fantino called O’Leary a “no-nonsense kind of individual.” They said they were united in their concern over the economy. O’Leary said it had been “poisoned” and if he wins the leadership there will be an “exorcism” of Trudeau. “This kid has to go. I’m gonna do it,” he said.