Kevin O’Leary is disputing an account from his former campaign chair that the television personality and businessman didn’t want to become Conservative leader. On Friday, former campaign chair Mike Coates said O’Leary asked senior staff in April if there was some way for him to come in “a close second” in the Conservative leadership race, rather than lead the party. “He mused aloud as to whether there was a way he could stay in the race but find a way to avoid winning, and to come only a close second,” Coates wrote in the National Post about a conversation with the candidate over beers. “Those of us leading his campaign were stunned.”Coates, writing a behind-the-scenes tell-all published on the first day of the Conservative convention, painted a picture of his candidate unprepared for the gruelling schedule of a campaigning politician. Coates suggested O’Leary was “keeping his options open” with his television career rather than going all in with the leadership race.

Source: thestar May 27, 2017 21:56 UTC