Kevin O'Leary to announce Conservative leadership bid tomorrow

[applegrove]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/kevin-o-leary-to-announce-conservative-leadership-bid-tomorrow-1.3245173

(That is Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank)

SNIP............

Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary will run for the leadership of the Conservative Party and plans to announce his candidacy Wednesday, CTV News has confirmed.

The campaign launch will come one day after the French-language leadership debate that 13 other leadership candidates are expected to participate in Tuesday evening in Moncton, N.B.

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O’Leary joked that there are “three official languages” in Canada: English, French and “the language of jobs.” He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will never speak the language of jobs.

O’Leary is currently facing scorn from fellow candidates and constitutional scholars after he told Solomon that he would consider reforming the Senate by selling seats to “accredited” people willing to pay “a hundred thousand or a couple hundred thousand each year.”


.............SNIP

[Saviolo]

1. I've disliked O'Leary for years.

I've watched a few episodes of Shark Tank (which is an even more tawdry version of Dragon's Den, if such a thing were possible), and I remember one extremely telling moment.

There was a fellow from a smaller town somewhere in the USA, and he wanted to make truck racks. He had a good design, and he already had a small business making them, but he wanted to expand. Part of his business model was building them locally so that he could employ people in his town and help the economy of that town, which was depressed. He already employed a couple folks from around him, but he wanted to employ more, and grow his business while helping the town where he lives.

O'Leary asked him why he didn't have the manufacturing done in China. The guy explained about why he wanted to keep it local, and O'Leary went on about unit costs, and margin, and even with shipping, yadda yadda yadda, it's all about the money signs. That interaction taught me everything I need to know about O'Leary. Profits over people every time. When he says he's going to speak the language of jobs, what he really means is he's going to speak the language of corporations. He's going to try to cut taxes on corporations, cut minimum wage, all of those ridiculous supply-side economic tricks that just don't work. And he's going to do it to further enrich the rich.

I wouldn't cross the street to piss on him if he were on fire.

[applegrove]

2. He's like Trump. He's a showman. I have been happy on the whole that

the conservative leadership race has not got much coverage. Unfortunately with O'leary it will get more. And he'll say outrageous things to get attention just like Trump.