Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary reportedly drops Conservative leadership bid
In an interview with The Globe and Mail, O’Leary officially halted his bed to become the leader of the Conservative Party, which would have in turn meant that he could have become the Prime Minister of Canada down the road. Instead, O’Leary will endorse MP Maxime Bernier out of Quebec.
Here is specifically what Kevin had to say about his reasons for dropping out of the race:
“It’s for the sake of the party that I do this, and the country. Because I can’t deliver Quebec. I can’t win. That’s my opinion. I wish it was different … The worst thing for me to do is to win the leadership and lose the election. That is a disaster for everybody involved here.”
O’Leary’s lack of French knowledge going into the election may be one of his reasons for struggling in the province. We don’t want to get too much further into Canadian politics / politics in general here, so we’ll leave most of that for you in the comments.
What this decision could mean is that he remains on Shark Tank potentially in some capacity moving forward. Kevin entertaining this bid likely would have meant the end of his run on the ABC show, with one of the biggest criticisms for his run already being that he spends so much time in Boston and Los Angeles rather than in the country he was trying to lead. Politics aside, we’ve always felt that he was a good figure for entertainment on Shark Tank and a solid foil to some of the other Sharks there. Hopefully, he’ll continue to be a part of that show in some capacity.
For the most part, the show itself has steered clear of any political conversation, which makes sense given that the focus there is almost entirely on the entrepreneurs and their businesses as opposed to divisions such as personal beliefs and platforms.
There is a new episode of Shark Tank airing later this week, so of course we’ll be previewing that and offering much more in the way of news over at the link here. Be sure to check some of that out!
Meanwhile, let us know in the comments precisely what you think about O’Leary dropping his bid. (Photo: ABC.)