Kevin O’Leary takes the stage at the Manning Centre conference and says bilingualism is not necessary in Canadian politics and Stephen Harper lost the last election because he broke ‘a moral contract about race, about religion, about inclusiveness.’
After drawing whoops and a few laughs of support at a nearly-packed main room in the downtown Ottawa Shaw Centre, Mr. O’Leary, looking more like a finer-quaffed Canadian version of Donald Trump than any other prospective candidate for the 2017 Conservative leadership ever could, later tossed more eccentric views into the mix for a small mob of reporters at a brief media encounter, describing Montreal aerospace giant Bombardier Inc. as the “worst managed company in the country” and declaring even Quebec voters won’t care whether the next prime minister speaks French due to the dire economic and fiscal circumstances about to unfold.
“I don’t think the old brands are going to work,” Mr. O’Leary said in a vigorous 20-minute exchange with the platoon of journalists his demonstrably popular appearance at the usually earnest and subdued conference drew.
“I’m not a member of a Conservative Party, I’m a member of the taxpaying, breathing party,” he said as he ran through a list of beefs. He lamented Liberal parties, tax rates, the slumping Canadian dollar, low investment and the effect of all three on the oil industry crisis on jobs and the middle class.
“I can guarantee you, the voting constituency 36 months from now won’t give a damn about the political brand, they won’t care at all. What they’ll care about is, ‘What’s the plan to get me a job?’” said Mr. O’Leary, the former CBC Dragon’s Den venture capitalist star whose talents led him to ABC in the United States with what he said was a much wider audience at 10 million a week.
“The way it’s going to manifest itself for every Canadian voter is their kids can’t get work, they haven’t had a pay raise in five years and the value of their home, their number one asset, will probably be down 10 or 20 per cent. They won’t care about the Conservative Party brand, the Liberal Party brand,” he said, after reporters pressed him about his political experience and plans for the leadership. “By the way, I personally think there will be a Liberal race in the Liberal Party, because it’s heading very badly for Trudeau, part two.”
Mr. O’Leary singled out Ms. Notley’s policies in the face of Alberta’s mini-recession, as well as the deficit budget the Ontario Liberal government delivered earlier this week, telling his conservative audience the next election will be about one thing—“jobs, jobs, jobs” as former prime minister Brian Mulroney put it during one of his two successful elections.
“We’re in this incredible situation where for the first time in Canadian history or primary engine of growth, energy, is broken and it’s not going to get fixed anytime soon,” he said.
“I think Canadians are starting to figure out—because their children can’t get job—that there’s something wrong and I’m going to make sure that everyone understands why,” Mr. O’Leary said as he danced around questions about whether he actually is the Conservative version of U.S. Republican Party outsider Donald Trump, who’s running as a presidential candidate.
“That’s my main job right now, I want everybody that wants to waste money in this country to pay for it dearly,” said Mr. O’Relly.
He declined to say whether he will ultimately let his name stand as a candidate. “There is no need for any candidate to make that decision, it’s so very early in the cycle,” Mr. O’Leary said, among other things that he wants to await changes Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) and his government are devising to Canada’s s federal election law. “Let’s wait and see how this all plays out.”
Mr. O’Leary added: “Meanwhile, my role, which I think is useful for Canadians, is to start scrutinizing the wasteful spending politicians in this country. When I say things like Rachel Notley is incompetent, it’s brutal to say that, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the truth; she is destroying the country, very slowly because she owns the largest mandate in terms of growth, energy. And just through happenstance and some very bad outcomes from this party, the Conservatives, we have a disaster on our hands. How you coat that irritant like a pearl, I don’t know.”
At one point noting his ownership of 52 businesses has given him the kind of political experience he would need as a candidate, Mr. O’Leary explained his position that, despite his upbringing in Montreal, he does not believe bilingualism should be a requirement for national leader.
“I’m terrible at languages, and I point something out. Look at Stephen Harper. He was prime minister for many, many years and what he was speaking to me was not French, I don’t know what that is,” Mr. O’Leary said. “I think it’s pandering when you try and speak a language you’re not fluent in. When I try and speak French and they can’t understand me, they ask me in English anyway. I’m telling the truth, I was terrible in languages,” he told journalists after his speech. “At the end of the day it’s the outcome that matters. I don’t care if you speak Greek or Latin or Italian, you still have to deliver, the economic promise is what I’m talking about.”
Mr. O’Leary said that “Canada is the ultimate melting pot,” which we should be proud of. “We actually as Canadians, built into our DNA, have a moral contract about race, about religion, about inclusiveness, and I’ll tell you how I know that with certainty,” he said.
Mr. O’Leary described a scene he and his son experienced in a polling station last Oct. 19, where the only “dialogue” in a queue of 160 electors centred on campaign controversy over Conservative positions opponents were claiming had inflamed race and religious divisions. “The reason Stephen Harper lost the election this time was he breached that contract, that’s what happened,” said Mr. O’Leary.
Conservative MP Michael Chong, a former Cabinet minister who broke with Mr. Harper over a government position on Quebec and later won widespread support for a bill he sponsored to give backbench MPs more independence from political parties and prime ministers, took a back seat to Mr. O’Leary at the conference, as he also made a panel appearance as a prospective leadership candidate.
Despite an attentive audience that obviously appreciated Mr. Chong’s description of his own immigrant roots, as well as those of his wife, his more conventional description of potential leadership planks was overshadowed by Mr. O’Leary’s flair for colourful language and showmanship.
Mr. Chong, who opposed Mr. O’Leary’s suggestion a referendum would settle divisions over a proposed oil pipeline from Alberta to the Irving Co. refineries in New Brunswick, told the audience the Conservative Party must reconsider its longstanding position against a price on oil extraction and production through a carbon tax. The veteran Ontario MP said conservation of the environment has been an ingredient of Canada’s Conservative philosophy since Sir John A. MacDonald became prime minister in 1867.
tnaumetz@hilltimes.cm
The Hill Times