So
is Kevin O'Leary, a former Dragon of yours,
with you.
Are you surprised to hear
that he is entering the leadership race?
No, I wasn't surprised to hear
he was entering the race.
I mean, Kevin as we all know,
as all Canadians know, he's an opportunistic man
and he would have seen the opportunity
to have even more fame and attention
than he has already when he stepped into the race.
So you think that's why he's in this,
for the fame and for the attention?
I think that's pretty typical of Kevin.
His style is to make sure that he is front and centre
and getting attention,
and he uses his persona to do that.
So I definitely think that that's a piece of it.
Did he ever talk to you about getting involved
in politics, or did he ever mention it?
Never mentioned it to me, no.
Hm, so why do you think this is--
why do you think this is happening now,
based on what you know of him?
Listen, I had the unique opportunity
to sit beside Kevin for several years
and watched him day in and day out
and week in and week out
and watched as he dealt with everyday Canadians
who had aspirations to build businesses
and to do great things with their lives,
and you know, the only filter Kevin ever applied
was whether or not he was going to make money.
And unfortunately, that's not a filter
that you want to see, or the Conservative Party
should want to see, or Canadians would want to see
in terms of their leader.
I mean, you have to have compassion and empathy,
and these are two things that I never saw him use.
And a great example of that was
a story that many Canadians know about
where you had underprivileged inner-city kids
trying to do something for themselves
and for their community, and he couldn't get past the fact
that he wouldn't make money at it
and be able to understand that this was just something
that he should do because it was the right thing to do.
That's interesting.
And you've said that he would get disgusted
with how human and compassionate you were, right?
[chuckles] Yeah, I mean, you know,
he chided me for having any level of compassion
with Canadians or with entrepreneurs
and small business, and it just surprises me
because this is the backbone of our country,
this is incredibly important.
I mean, business is personal.
Business is about people, and empathy and compassion
is incredibly desirable in leaders.
So you know, all right,
so we saw a clip from earlier today
from a few years ago,
this was on
where he basically said
that he wanted to get rid of unions
and throw people in jail
if they were still members of a union.
Now, we put an email into his campaign and they say,
well, that was something he said on TV,
that's not a policy statement that he's making.
So what should we do with that?
You know, he's said a lot of outrageous things,
you can argue, on television.
Do you think-- does he always believe
what he says or is this more about bluster?
I would-- listen, one of the first questions
I ever get asked when we talk about the show
is whether Kevin is the same person
off the show as he is on the show.
The answer that question is yes,
and that should put enough fear into Canadians right there
because he is not showing up as somebody different.
That isn't just bluster for television.
That isn't just his persona.
That is who this man is.
That, in fact, is the very issue
that I think we have to grapple with here,
is this somebody that we want as the leader?
And ultimately, you know, there's an old saying--
if somebody shows you who they are,
believe them the first time.
So do you think that it's fair for us,
you know, in the media to go and say,
all right, there's a lot of tape of Kevin O'Leary,
and to go through it and say,
hm, I wonder if he still believes that,
I wonder if he believes that,
and just go through the list.
Is that a fair exercise, and...?
Well, you know, you can't have it both ways.
You can't use the media and the TV shows
that you're on to present who you are,
and especially in a reality television show
where you're supposed to be presenting
exactly who you are as an individual,
and then not be held accountable
to those statements later on.
We all say things that later on we might say,
no, that's not quite what I want,
because I have more information.
But I think if you went back through the tapes,
time and time again and you compare them
to policy-- which by the way,
I don't think he has laid out yet,
but if he had laid out a lot of policy
and you went back and compared it,
I would be very surprised if these things lined up.
So yes, I think it's reasonable.
Especially when these things are said
over and over and over again,
which is something that Kevin does do.
He's very on point all the time
about the views he has.
He says that it's not fair to compare him
to Donald Trump, what do you think?
Why not?
Tell me why you think it is fair.
Listen, I don't think Kevin O'Leary is Donald Trump.
I think there's many characteristics,
however, that you can certainly draw a line to.
The bravado, the lack of awareness
of other people's circumstances,
the desire to have it all be about himself,
these are things-- the narcissism,
for lack of a better word.
I think there is a lot of similarities
between these two individuals.
What's different is the countries
in which they're trying to exert themselves in.
Our circumstance in Canada is completely different
than the circumstance in the US,
and so whether it will play here
is yet to be seen, but I believe Canadians are much smarter
and looking for something far different
than what this type of individual might be as a leader.
What would Canada look like
under a Prime Minister Kevin O'Leary?
Kevin's been known to cut and run
when things get bad.
He did it with his business dealings
with Mattel, he's done it with other business dealings
that he's had.
I mean listen, I think you don't want somebody
leading a country who when things are bad
cuts and runs, so what would it look like?
I don't think it would be fiscally conservative,
I don't think it would support our military,
I don't think it would help the underprivileged,
I don't think it would be a country
that would represent the core values
that we as Canadians adhere to.
Wow, you are not a fan of this bid.
You know, listen.
I will have a drink with Kevin O'Leary,
that doesn't mean I think he should be
the leader of our country.
Okay.
Arlene, it was interesting speaking with you
this afternoon, thank you very much.
Thank you.