O’Leary vows to ‘scrape all that crap out’ of Ottawa
Celebrity businessman launches website to seek public input on running
OTTAWA— Celebrity businessman Kevin O’Leary says he’s amassed a team of advisers on whether he should run for leadership of the federal Conservatives, and now he wants advice from Canadians.
The reality TV star and entrepreneur formally unveiled his circle of Conservative confidants Friday and also launched a website, O’Leary for Canada, seeking input from the public on whether he should officially join the race.
Among those on his leadership committee are former Ontario premier Mike Harris, former Conservative senator Marjory LeBreton and two former Conservative MPs.
The head of his exploratory com- mittee is Mike Coates, who once helped prepare former prime minister Stephen Harper for election debates and also works as vice-chairperson of a public relations firm.
In a video posted to his Facebook page Friday, O’Leary brandished a spatula he says will be needed to “scrape all that crap out” of Ottawa in 2019.
He said he needs to determine whether he’s the right person to do that and identify the path to success.
“It’s time to make a change in this country,” he said.
“We’ve got a big mess going on right now. Everybody knows that.”
The committee will report back to O’Leary with findings early in 2017.
O’Leary is perhaps best known among Canadians from his work on the CBC television show Dragons’ Den and later its American equivalent, Shark Tank. He’s also worked as a commentator on CTV and BNN, but a spokesperson for Bell Media said in an emailed statement that due to his foray into politics, O’Leary “will no longer be a contributor to BNN or CTV News.”
O’Leary first began musing about running for the leadership nearly a year ago, and has been making the rounds — publicly and privately — of Conservative gatherings for months trying to gauge support for his own bid, or find someone to back.. He formally joined the Conservative party ahead of its convention in May.
There are 14 officially registered candidates in the Conservative leadership race and the deadline for new entrants is Feb. 24. The results of the contest will be released in May.
Remarks attributed to him last week saw other Conservative candidates quickly move to disparage him.
Conservative MPs Michael Chong and Erin O’Toole both condemned a report that O’Leary told an Ottawa radio station that Canadians are known as peacekeepers and “there is nothing proud about being a warrior.”