Friday January 15, 2016

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Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 15, 2016

Ex-dragon Kevin O’Leary mulls Conservative leadership bid

Donald Trump is not the only celebrity businessman with his eye on high political office.

Kevin O’Leary, the chairman of O’Leary Funds, probably best known to Canadians as a former investor panelist on the CBC show Dragon’s Den, said he is considering running for the federal Conservative leadership.

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday, December 2, 2015 Ontario to lose equalization payments as Alberta's economic fortunes fall Ontario will shed its status as a poor cousin of Confederation in the coming years, not because its economic fortunes are rebounding, but because resource-rich Alberta is falling on hard times. The federal government is expected to announce how much each province will receive in the fiscal year 2016-17 from transfer payment programs, which include equalization, before Finance Minister Bill Morneau meets with his provincial and territorial colleagues in Ottawa on Sunday evening. The equalization program redistributes national income to help poorer provinces provide services comparable to those of their richer counterparts. But equalization experts say the formula for calculating the payments is slow to respond to changes, including volatile commodity prices, which will leave Alberta carrying a disproportionate burden when the numbers are announced this weekend. Ontario began receiving equalization for the first time in 2009, a dramatic reversal of fortune for the countryÕs one-time economic powerhouse. It is now set to reclaim its status as a ÒhaveÓ province because the disparity between its economy and that of Alberta is shrinking. ÒWhat weÕre talking about here is the bad way of coming out of equalization,Ó economist Don Drummond said. The Ògood wayÓ to come out of the program, he said, is for a provinceÕs economy to rebound so that growth in its revenues offsets a loss of equalization payments. Because the equalization funding is based on a three-year national average of gross domestic product, next yearÕs calculation will still include times when oil prices were high and Alberta was booming. This means Ontario will not get Òkicked outÓ of the program for another two or three years, Mr. Drummond said. Alberta pulled up the overall standard of living in Canada when the countryÕs wealth was sh

“I thought at some point, someone is going to say to me, if you can be such a critic, why don’t you do better? Why don’t you try it? I thought to myself, hmmm, maybe I should,” O’Leary told CBC News.

That criticism made headlines earlier this week when O’Leary said he would invest $1 million in Canadian oil industries on the condition NDP Alberta Premier Rachel Notley resign.

The Conservative Party of Canada is expected to hold its leadership convention to find a successor to former prime minister Stephen Harper sometime in 2017.

Rona Ambrose is currently interim party leader.

Wednesday December 9, 2015O’Leary, who did not immediately respond to an interview request with the Star Thursday morning, also told CBC News that he was inspired by the campaign of Trump, who is currently leading the pack of those running for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination.

“I know Trump. I know his family. I’ve watched him work. I think he’s smart as a fox,” said O’Leary, who is currently an investor on the ABC reality television show Shark Tank, where he is known for his brash personality and often harsh advice.

O’Leary has named the economy as the main focus of his potential leadership bid so far, saying the primary test for the success of any politician — at the municipal, provincial or federal level — should be whether or not they have created any jobs.

“Did what that person, man or woman, say create one incremental job in Canada? Yes or no?” O’Leary said during a Thursday morning interview with John Moore on Newstalk 1010.
On that front, O’Leary said, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has failed.

“Our prime minister, in his first 60 days on the job, left the country, committed $4.2 billion around the world and didn’t create one incremental job for a Canadian. I call that a fail. I think I can do better,” O’Leary said. (Source: Toronto Star)

Published in the Winnipeg Free Press, January 18, 2016

Published in the Winnipeg Free Press, January 18, 2016