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‘Shark Tank’ Star To Canadians: I’m The Guy You ‘Want At The Table With Trump’

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David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Fresh from a campaign event in Vancouver, British Columbia, Conservative Party of Canada leadership front-runner Kevin O’Leary spoke to The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview about Trudeau, Trump and taxes.

O’Leary, business magnet and “Shark Tank” star, says he’s confident he can beat his 13 rivals for the Conservative Party title and then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a federal electoral contest — which he describes as “not an election but an exorcism.”

“I ask people all the time, ‘Who would you rather have at the table with Trump: Kevin O’Leary or Justin Trudeau? Choose one. Who do you think would do a better job?'” O’Leary told TheDC.

The business tycoon and television star predicts a successful relationship with President Donald Trump. “I think we’re going to understand each other very well; in fact, we enjoy a mutual friendship through [LA television producer] Mark Burnett.  I think about the future with Donald Trump; I think two business leaders discussing opportunities between two of the largest trading partners on earth is a good place to come from,” he said.

O’Leary described the “body politic” around the world as changing and being responsible for electing Trump and potentially O’Leary’s own success.

“The body politic,” he said, “is tired of being BS’d by politicians and they would like to replace them with some leadership that has operational skills, executional excellence, a track record of setting targets and achieving them.”

In order for that change to occur in Canada, O’Leary says Justin Trudeau must go.

“He doesn’t really know what he’s doing…I’m sorry but I have to get rid of this guy. I have to help him find his true calling, because it’s not running the country,” O’Leary said. “He’s destroyed the essence of what Canada is. I don’t tolerate mediocrity in government; that’s not my style.”

O’Leary said the first thing he’ll do if elected prime minister would be to repeal any federal carbon tax “in the first 45 seconds that I get to Ottawa in 2019…that is such a mistake,” he says, noting that “We have 1.2 billion acres of wetlands and forests and depending upon the indigenous vegetation on each acre, it absorbs between 2.1 and 2.6 tonnes of carbon a year:  that means we’re absorbing four times more carbon as we’re emitting.  So we’re not the problem.”

He also points out that cap and trade discriminates against smaller companies who can’t afford the environmental bill.  “So anything to do with the [federal] government involving itself with pricing carbon or extracting money from businesses will become illegal seconds after I arrive in Ottawa.  That will be gone.”

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