View From the Hill by Keith Beardsley – O’Leary in the Shark Tank FEB 3, 2017

As O’Leary or his team commits another blunder by posting a video of him having fun at a shooting range just as the funerals for the Mosque victims in Quebec starts, sharks of every colour- blue, red, orange and green should be circling around him.

The blue sharks for the obvious reason that he is running for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, and I stress the “Canada” part of the name. All the other sharks should be circling too because as we all know; nothing is ever forgotten in politics and everything comes back to bite you at one time or another- especially through political attack ads. Just ask Ignatieff, the other Canadian who came back home to run the country. Come to think of it he was at Harvard, also from the Boston area.

First we had O’Leary’s comments about our vets, but, with a bit of fancy footwork they managed to dig him out of that one. Then we had his asinine comments about selling seats in the Senate to the highest bidder. He might be able to explain that one as sarcasm, although a great many people wouldn’t believe that answer.

Now we have the inability of O’Leary and his team to answer some pretty easy questions, every one of which should have been anticipated. If you can’t tell people if you will move to Canada and live here full time if elected leader of the Conservative Party of CANADA- you have a problem. If he can’t give a straight answer on whether or not he will run in 2019 if not elected leader- he has another problem.

In the same vein, if O’Leary can’t give a straight forward answer about whether or not he will continue on the American TV show “Shark Tank” if he is elected the leader, then the problems keep adding up. If he ever attends a debate, I am sure he will be asked why he thinks being the leader of a national political party and Leader of the Official Opposition is a part-time job? It is a fair question if you won’t tell people what you will do.

These are very basic questions that his team should have grilled him on before he announced he was running. He is the candidate who brags that he tells the truth no matter how much it hurts- ducking straight forward questions doesn’t wear well. By ducking the questions and not answering, he has allowed the other candidates, other political parties and the media to frame his answers for him- that is just plain dumb.

The latest head shaking moment came today with a post to his campaign facebook page of a video of O’Leary at a shooting range. The fact that this was done on the same day as the Quebec funerals is stunning for its ineptitude. It doesn’t matter when the video was taken. All campaigns have a script book and a roll out plan for communications that is prepared weeks in advance. We get that part, but, doesn’t his team realize that it has to be adjusted daily based on what is happening in the real world, not just inside their campaign bubble? Where was the vetting process? Did the candidate sign off on the posting of that video? That is another question the media will be asking. Hopefully O’Leary has an answer for it.

I was there when we plotted the attacks on Ignatieff and Dion; everything gets used against you-every action, every word, and every mistake. Politics is a brutal game with no quarter given. O’Leary has opened the door to the circling sharks. The only question remaining is whether or not he can jump back into the shark proof cage before it is too late.

11 Comments

  1. One thing about your wacky Jules Jamie is that as long as Mrs. O’Leary’s cow is hanging around a wonna be Yankee and a part time Canuck no thanks. I will stay away from voting all together. O’Leary is very similar to Donald Duck Trump and we don’t need another.

  2. O’Leary would be much worse than Donald Duck Trump. Trump is looking after himself and O’Leary is the same ticket maybe worse from what I know. I am very conservative and I don’t like his views at all si I will withdraw from voting until Canada smartens up and goes back to being Canada and not globalization or one world government or any of that crap no Babylonian garbage either.

  3. Jules have you ever considered that the act of not voting has played a significant factor in why we are where we are as a nation?

  4. Possibly one can read anything they wish into a situation. Personally I fail to relate the lawful use of gun with a violent act of retaliation. Bad timing no doubt but completely unrelated events.

  5. Mr. Oldham when I think how bad off we are in Canada I could just scream. Did you all know that there is a bill 103 of some sort about not being able to voice our opinions on Islamaphobia. Do you all know what that means. Our rights and freedoms will be taken away. I have been corresponding with a man head of a news media along with his staff about this and many subjects of Canada.

  6. Jules Islamophobia is a problematic term. It refers to an unwarranted or unsubstantiated fear of Muslims or their political ideology. Tens of thousands of murders and injuries is reality. Then there is 2996. That is the number of people murdered in the name of a god called Allah (Twin Towers) on 9/11. The fear is real not unwarranted.

  7. Over 60 million people were killed in WW 2… Not very long ago.
    Let’s keep things in perspective.

  8. Had the world paid heed to the message coming out of Germany in the thirties the number would have been dramatically different. However if we actually learned from the past we would not say that history tends to repeat itself. How many deaths are necessary to get the message?

  9. Let’s keep things in perspective. Islam is not a peaceful religion it is an ideology of control through violence. For example what happens to a Muslim who leaves the “faith”? What happens to an individual who acts upon their attraction for the opposite sex? Why can a Muslim man physically discipline his wife? Why are Muslim women not equal? Inform yourself from accurate sources.

  10. David, fanatical religious factions have been slaughtering each other since time began.

  11. Donald Trump said that there will be many 911’s in the US and around the world and he is right. To be on a minor level there are many rapings that take place in Europe and the Islamic people are not used to girls roaming free and scanty clad. Girls in Europe and elsewhere get raped. the life is entirely different to our own.

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