Possible Conservative Party leadership contender Kevin O’Leary says he and his fellow Tories “are losers” but he has a plan to make them “winners” again.
“We now know we can’t out-Kumbaya Trudeau, we can’t do more push-ups, we can’t do more selfies,” the high profile business figure and Bell Media on-air contributor told CTV’s Power Play from the convention floor in Vancouver.
But, according to O’Leary, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can be beaten by hammering away at his poor performance on the economy -- a reality O’Leary says will “crash in” after the “honeymoon period” ends.
Trudeau is vulnerable, he said, because of a “disaster” budget will create no wage growth, a possible housing price collapse, and “the real killer” -- jobless and underemployed youth.
“He made a promise to millennials that he’d find them jobs,” he said. “They will get no jobs.”
“They will remain in limbo, living in the basements of their parents’ homes, getting $8 an hour or some internship,” he went on. (Minimum wage now exceeds $10 an hour in all provinces and territories.)
Trudeau is planning to “waste hundreds of billions of dollars on initiatives that don’t create any jobs because they’re not tied to the private sector,” O’Leary said.
“They’re just extracting money in the form of debt and layering it on the future,” he added.
So will he run?
O’Leary said he is still considering using his recently-built alliances and “mass of social media followers” to mount a leadership campaign for the party, which he said he officially joined earlier this week.
“My decision is … do it myself, which is an option for me, or be a kingmaker?” he said. “As long as I have a major say in our economic policy in this country.”
Earlier on Power Play, former cabinet minister and possible leadership rival Jason Kenney said he believes the next Conservative leader must speak French.
Quebec-born O’Leary does not speak French, but told Power Play he thinks Francophone Quebeckers “are going to give me a pass on the language issue, because they trust me to do one thing well for them: make them economically competitive and get jobs for their children.”
