Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary claims that Justin Trudeau is no match for President-elect Donald Trump given the Canadian prime minister's tax-and-spend policies and his lack of experience running a business.
Moving forward, Mr. Wonderful seems to think that Canada's economy will hardly be wonderful when it comes down to competition between Godzilla Trump vs. Bambi Trudeau because his home country will be "screwed" when the real estate mogul takes office in Washington on January 20.
Canada's economic approach, including the carbon tax, will make it difficult for the country to compete with the U.S., Canada's largest trading partner, O'Leary insisted during a recent interview on Canadian television network BNN. See video embedded below.
Against the backdrop of Trump's campaign promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to make it more favorable to the American worker, Trudeau has indicated that he is willing to discuss NAFTA with Trump.
When it comes to trade-deal negotiations, millionaire investor/entrepreneur O'Leary likened the scenario to Godzilla vs. Bambi in that Trump's business experience will give him the upper hand over his Canadian counterpart. "It's going to be ugly…we have a big problem," O'Leary remarked, noting that the new president plans to triple U.S. energy production, which will leave Canada far behind.
Leaving aside NAFTA, O'Leary continued, Trump "is going to disavow the Paris [climate] accord and carbon taxation. They'll be no carbon tax in Detroit, in any of the shale states…we are going in the wrong direction in Canada…we are going into competition with the United States, and they have no carbon tax. He is going to reduce corporate to 15 percent. We're at 34 in some provinces. We're screwed."
To attract business expansion and capital to Canada, the Trudeau administration must immediately repeal the carbon tax, according to the reality show star. "Do I think Justin Trudeau can do that? No. We have the wrong guy. We need a Trump guy…," declared O'Leary.During the interview, Kevin O'Leary also threw shade on Kathleen Wynne, the Ontario premier, and Rachel Notley, the Alberta premier, for what he considers their similar mishandling of the economy. He called for the formation of a coalition of competency at the provincial level to manage economic policy. "I am very, very worried for Canada right now because we have the wrong managers in very important places…"
With the GOP in control of Congress, it is a certainty that Trump will do away with Obamacare, O'Leary added.
Although previously unaffiliated with any political party, O'Leary is contemplating a political career of his own to make government more business- and taxpayer-friendly. He appears to be positioning himself to run for prime minister of Canada by seeking the Conservative (a.k.a. Tory) Party leadership there as an apparent stepping stone.
O'Leary told the CBC that he will decide by late February if he is actually going to seek the the Tory leader job which already has at least 12 candidates in the running.
Journalists have, among other things, slammed O'Leary for his inability to speak French, which apparently is a prerequisite for a political career in Canada. Of Irish and Lebanese heritage, O'Leary was actually born in French-speaking Montreal. In an interview with Ezra Levant of the Rebel Pundit, O'Leary insisted that he speaks the most important language: the language of job creation.
While many have described O'Leary as the Trump of Canada given their desire to bring business acumen to government, the Shark Tank panelist remarked that while both he and Trump are TV stars working for reality show impresario Mark Burnett, that's where the similarity ends because O'Leary does not consider himself a populist especially with regard to immigration.
The Liberals under legacy candidate Trudeau (son of former PM Pierre Trudeau) ousted Conservative Prime Minster Stephen Harper in the October 2015 general election, after Harper and his party were in office for nine years.
O'Leary described the younger Trudeau as "a giant meat grinder of taxpayer money."
Although he spends a lot of time in the U.S. because of his wide-ranging business interests, some of which originated on Shark Tank, O'Leary is still a Canadian citizen and taxpayer who claims he maintains his primary residence in Ontario and argues that he is best positioned to make deals to the benefit of both countries.
While not mandatory, Canada's prime minister traditionally is an elected member of the country's parliament, the House of Commons. Whether O'Leary would break that mold is pure speculation at this point. The Conservative leadership election is scheduled for May 27, 2017. O'Leary also suggested that he might back another candidate if that candidate shares his pro-business, pro-growth philosophy and he can have a say in the government.
Parenthetically, after a backlash over a tweet praising the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, Justin Trudeau has decided against attending the funeral in Havana.
In an interview published by the CBC on Thanksgiving Day, Kevin O'Leary reaffirmed the Trump-as-Godzilla analogy and asserted that Trudeau will be a one-term prime minister."The American election was a surprise to everybody and puts Canada in very perilous position now because the policy we see being formulated south of the border is going to make Canada a very uncompetitive jurisdiction....Do you think that Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary will actually enter Canadian politics?"I think Trump versus Trudeau is Godzilla versus Bambi. It's going to end very badly. You need someone that can negotiate. You need someone that has run businesses — that has pivoted when they know that the environment has changed. Unfortunately, Mr. Trudeau has never run a business...Trudeau is a one-term guy. He's going to be gone."
[Featured Image by Richard Drew/AP Images]
