Kevin O'Leary is muttering about entering the Conservative leadership race. Lisa Raitt is trying to head him off at the pass. She'll do us all a favour if she succeeds. Michael Harris writes:
Bottom line? O’Leary will flounder in the Smart Tank because he knows squat about Canada and is about as homegrown as a banana. He is a de facto American trying to rewrite the history of the War of 1812. Instead of getting even for the burning of Washington, O’Leary merely wants to muck out Ottawa with a spatula, which is a strange implement of choice for a dragon, right? A tongue of flame, a swishing tail, raking claws, sure. But a spatula?
And why should O’Leary delay announcing his entry into the CPC leadership race until after the French-language debate just because he doesn’t speak French? Whenever his turn came to speak, he could just hold up his bank book and show Quebeckers the balance. In O’Leary’s world, money talks and bull roar perambulates. How else could he actually say that he understands what Quebecers want?
O'Leary went to English language private schools when he grew up in Quebec and then headed to the University of Waterloo. He lived his life entirely in the English Solitude. Like Stephen Harper, he believes he doesn't need support in Quebec to become prime minister.
But he needs Alberta. And consider what he says about that province:
Consider his rantings on behalf of the Corporate Kleptocracy against Rachel Notley. The Alberta premier is to blame for Alberta’s skyrocketing unemployment rate, the plummeting dollar, and yes, Calgary’s loss in the Grey Cup.
Not a word about Conservative politicians in Alberta who let foreign multinationals cash in on the tar sands with pathetically low royalty rates (compare Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund to Alberta’s), and who never thought to diversify the provincial economy against the day when the oil wealth would be gone. Forty years of never asking the “what if” question.
O’Leary’s answer to Notley’s alleged screw ups – even more spineless concessions to the oil patch. On new oil and gas production capital expenditures, he wants to let the investor write off the entire investment in the year it occurred, and give a 36-month royalty “holiday” on any new capital investment. Increase the already gaudy returns for investors and all will be well.
Like his hero, Donald Trump, he's appallingly ignorant of the country he proposes to lead. Let's hope that Canadians -- and, more importantly, Conservatives -- have learned something from recent events to our south.
14 comments:
The only thing Conservatives would have learned from events down south is that Trump is about to be potus. They, and I do mean every single one of the small minded turdlets, are concerned about one thing and one thing only and they watched in rapt drooling fascination as bigotry, narcissism and ignorance won bigly.
Expect them to double down and even go further.
That's what I'm afraid of, Dana. Surrendering to our demons appears to pay benefits these days.
It's only surrender if you consider demons to be evil.
If demons are your source of power its victory.
He should just campaign on a Canada without Quebec. I Canada without reason. He is a snowflake that has never seen summer.
Maybe I have too lofty an opinion of the majority of my fellow Canadians, Owen, but somehow I don't think the credulity that led to Trump's ascension in the U.S. is as pronounced here.
That's why some call the ruins of Aleppo victory, Dana. William Golding knew what happens when we surrender to the Lord of the Flies.
Perhaps he'll melt away in the spring, Steve.
I hope you're right, Lorne. I read that Conservatives in Alberta invited Kelly Anne Conway to speak at one of their dinners and then cancelled the affair. Perhaps that's a good sign.
.. suggest you lower any expectations regarding O'Leary .. In my view he's an opportunist only looking to expand or enhance his public persona.. & that's simple vanity or greed.. somewhat different from the toxic ideological ego path of smartest guy in the room Stephen Harper.. or latter day lesser snouts, Saint Kellie & St Kouvalis Inc.. or the preening foppery of Scheer or Blaney who also seek to raise their public stature & profit within the private partisan club - The Conservative Party of Canada.
You know, get a seat at the head table rather than seated nowhere near the warm glow of the Commons cameras, the eager but lazy mainstream media attention. O'Leary will 'play it' & he has the $$ to stay in the poker game.. see who folds. But make no mistake, he does not want to enter the dirty little world of partisan politics.. No, he's a wordly man, interested in wines, travel, and spouting off on how smart he is.
Glibness is useful to an extent.. Just read some of the convoluted defenses Donald Trump threw up (vomited) about how he did not mock a disabled journalist.. These are case studies in deflection, denial & bald faced deceit.. backed of course by a now locked n loaded spin machine & that bizarre entity - the Republican Tea Party, willing & able to hitch a ride on a Mississipi sleigh ride to ignomy & political oblivion. Goodness, do these creeps order a side of lead poisoning at every meal? Or are they mainlining it in liquid form.
The mad hatters, the Alice in Wonderland gang plunging down their own private rabbit hole.. fat, content, greedy.. unwilling to accept that a honey badger, or worse.. a wolverine has moved into their fantasy world.. They talk about 8 years ? When the nasty beast called 'Media' turns on these folk it won't be pretty.. But how frauds, phonies, fakers, snake oil salesmen n women are allowed to be public servants, is astonishing. Good luck Mr O'Leary.. like all the other Harper drones.. you've shown us nothing... nothing but lip flapping & expensive suits ..
I suppose that expensive suits are supposed to deflect criticism, salamander. There will be a reckoning and it will be ugly.
I think O'Leary knows how far he's managed to get by staying just far enough out of the public eye. He can boast of his acumen on TV shows but exposed under a bright light he's a much different "businessman" with a chequered history.
I caught an interview with Charles Bronfman on the CBC awhile ago, Mound. He said he knows people who have done business with Trump who vow they'll never do business with him again. I suspect you could find people who have done business with O'Leary who would say the same thing.
Thing about O'Leary is, he's not a populist. I'm sure he's just as vain and blusters just as hard as Trump, but the man seems incapable of opening his mouth without trumpeting the joys of globalized turbocharged capital and how wonderful the super-rich are. Trump appealed to people's resentment of all that--implausibly as all get out, but he did (and boy are lots of them going to be upset if they figure out how bad he's deceived them). O'Leary appeals only to billionaires' resentment of still paying the tiniest smidge of taxes, and I suspect he'll be really bad at pretending different. I think he's going nowhere.
You may be right, library guy. Quebecers would never see O'Leary as one of nous autres. And ordinary Canadians would have a hard time buying his pitch that he's an ordinary guy.
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