OTTAWAâIn the end, Kevin OâLeary couldnât close the deal. The television personality and businessman made the shocking decision to quit the Conservative leadership race on Wednesday, throwing his support behind Quebec MP Maxime Bernier. OâLeary ended his brief foray into Canadian politics as the perceived favourite to replace Stephen Harper, polling ahead of established MPs even before he entered the race. But despite raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and signing up tens of thousands of new Conservative members, OâLeary admitted he had little hope of leading the party to victory in 2019. âIâm a numbers guy, I look at probabilities of success, and I had to see the path if Iâm going to take the party into a contest with (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau,â OâLeary said at a press conference at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. âIt would seem foolish, even selfish, winning the leadership while knowing I didnât have a clear path or a high probability (of winning).â The surprise move came only hours after OâLeary was campaigning in the GTA and actively encouraging donations to his campaign. And it has thrown wide open an already chaotic and hard-to-predict leadership race. In his statement, OâLeary seemed to indicate both weak support in Quebec and his status as a political âoutsiderâ meant he would lose against Trudeauâs Liberals in 2019. OâLeary had publicly and repeatedly downplayed his lack of French as a non-issue during his campaign, pointing to his Montreal heritage and saying he was taking daily lessons. But on Wednesday, he admitted it was enough to sink his candidacy.âMy biggest challenge was to grow my base in Quebec. And in looking at the probability of winning, that was my problem,â OâLeary told reporters.âItâs selfish to just take the leadership and say âgreat, Iâm the le ...
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