O'Leary: not all wonderful

Kevin O'Leary isn't a politician, doesn't pretend to be one, and won't apologize for it.

But, the self-proclaimed Mr. Wonderful who rose to national and international celebrity through the Dragon's Den and Shark Tank reality shows, does hope to soon become leader of the federal Conservative Party, and prime minister in 2019.

O'Leary brought his blunt vision, and message, to nearly 400 party faithful at the Coast Capri Hotel in Kelowna Saturday morning.

He told those in attendance the country, under the Liberal leadership of Justin Trudeau is broke, and he has a way to fix it.

"(Canada) is not growing anymore, it's broken," he said.

"The only promise we can make to ourselves with Trudeau is, we are going to plunge this country $1.5 trillion into debt. Your grandchildren, when they have their first breath of Canadian air, will be $62,500 in debt.

"This is why we have to get rid of this guy. He doesn't get the joke. We can't do that to our country, that's insane, that's beyond insane."

O'Leary said with all the riches Canada has, that's a broken system.

The plan he laid out was specific. Grow the economy by three per cent and provide what he called adult supervision to the provinces to ensure they complied with a more centralist vision.

"They (provinces) very much need a strong leader to help mentor them to get to three per cent, because many of them are weak leaders and don't know how to manage their provinces," said O'Leary.

"Look, these are harsh words, but it doesn't distract from the fact it's the truth."

To get there, O'Leary said he would need co-operation from the province, including immediate elimination of the carbon tax.

"I will not tolerate carbon taxes. I will not tolerate punitive taxes against businesses. I will not tolerate anything that distracts from the three per cent mandate."

He said provinces that do not eliminate the carbon tax, or provinces that are not able to get to three per cent economic growth, would feel the wrath of the federal government through a reduction in federal equalization or transfer payments.

And, in the case of B.C.?

"I think (Clark) has done a good job managing it, with the exception of the lie about carbon tax. She said it was carbon tax and it was going to be tax neutral.

"It was neutral in 2013, not in '14, not in '15, not this year. She's extracting money out of businesses under a promise that she broke. So, what I would do in this case is simply deduct that from any equalization or transfer payments from B.C. until it's corrected."

O'Leary said he proposed to take the country back to the way it was 50 years ago before, as he describes it, more and more economic, taxation, job growth and business policy was handed down to the provinces.

He said that model hasn't worked.

"We are going to have to reverse that trend. We are going to put it back up in the federal government to provide strong leadership in those areas.

"Clearly, when you talk about a mandate of three per cent, this is not easy. I'm going to need every province on board."

As for Trudeau's infrastructure pending plan, O'Learly stated infrastructure is only worth building if the private sector becomes involved.

He pointed to Ontario, which he says has wasted $308 billion on failed infrastructure projects over the past two governments.

"I like public-private sector partnerships where you build a road, or a bridge, and maybe you make it a toll bridge because it has the merits of having a return. That way the government doesn't have to spend all its money on it."

On other topics, O'Leary said the party has no business getting involved in the abortion issue. He says people in the party have a right to their opinion, and he respects that, but it can't be an election issue.

Similar, he says, the new marijuana legislation being introduced by the Liberals will be here to stay.

He believes running on a platform to criminalize it again would mean losing the next election.

Instead, he said it's up to them to tighten regulations and demand zero tolerance for people under 21 driving while stoned.

"They should lose their licence for five years if they are caught," he said.

Conservative Party members will elect a successor to Stephen Harper May 27.