In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, Conservative Party of Canada leadership front-runner Kevin O’Leary says he will keep the country’s “most prized” university graduates in Canada and offer the same economic opportunities that exist south of the border.
The “Shark Tank” star turned Conservative politician says economic opportunity is his primary motivation for wanting to be the next prime minister of Canada and replace Justin Trudeau.
Calling Canada’s economic future “very screwed-up” under Trudeau, O’Leary says, “That’s the environment we’ve created; we’ve created a very poisonous, toxic environment that’s anti-entrepreneurship and that’s Justin Trudeau right there. He’s never been an entrepreneur; he’s never understood what it takes to read a balance sheet or income statement or what it takes to run a business. He’s destroyed the essence of what Canada is about.”
O’Leary told The Daily Caller that “the beginning of his motivation” to run for the Conservative leadership came after repeatedly being asked by young Canadian university graduates to help them find jobs in the U.S. “They’d say, ‘Mr. O’Leary can you give me your contacts at Apple or at Uber…I want to go to Boston and talk to the guys at TA [Associates].'” When O’Leary asked these “prized graduates, ‘why are you leaving the country,’ they’d say to me, ‘I don’t want to get paid in dollarettes. I want dollars. Why would I want to want to get taxed at 53.8 percent?'”
Another reason O’Leary says he wants to lead Canada is to end the Liberal Party’s fiscal plans for continued deficit-spending. “When I saw that Trudeau…is planning to run deficits for 38 years and end-up in a one-and-a-half trillion dollar deficit, there’s not a chance in hell I would let anyone do that: are you kidding? I’m going to fire him; he’s the worst manager of an economy I’ve ever seen.”
In a statement that sounds like President Donald Trump’s approach to Twitter, O’Leary says he can beat Trudeau because “I talk directly to Canadians” through a social media following of over four million people.
O’Leary also says he will forge a “partnership at the federal, provincial and regional level and we are going to agree to get three percent GDP growth: an premier or municipal politician who doesn’t agree with that is not my friend.”
The Conservative Party leadership will be decided this coming May 27 in a nationwide vote of party members.
Follow David on Twitter
