Kevin O’Leary says he will attend final Conservative leadership debate

OTTAWA – Kevin O’Leary will attend the Conservative party’s final formal leadership debate in Toronto on April 26.

But the celebrity businessman-turned-leadership-front-runner told The Canadian Press on Thursday that he’s still not convinced there’s any point to being there.

O’Leary skipped the party’s most recent debate in Edmonton, saying that it would be impossible to have a substantive discussion with all 14 candidates on stage at once. He held his own “fireside chat” with supporters at a nearby hotel.

He said Thursday hopes the party considers rebooting the Toronto event, which he noted was scheduled without consulting those candidates who aren’t sitting MPs.

“I will be at the last debate,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I will be at the last debate," he said.

“If there’s still 14 people there it will be another useless debate, because all you’ll get is 10-second sound bites.”

While Friday is the deadline for candidates to get their names off the ballot ahead of the May 27 voting, it doesn’t appear anyone is planning to drop out.

Meanwhile, the party hasn’t made up its mind on the format for the final debate. A spokesman said there are likely to be tweaks, but there’s no official word yet.

O’Leary noted he was fined $10,000 for failing to attend the last debate and yet no one has been sanctioned for a breach of membership sales rules his campaign exposed earlier this month.

The Conservative party has so far been unable to identify who used prepaid credit cards to sign up new members, a violation of the party’s rule that everyone must pay their own $15 fee.

“I wonder what the fine is for being fraudulent for getting memberships,” O’Leary said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I wonder what the fine is for being fraudulent for getting memberships," O'Leary said.

“I’m waiting to see what that is.”

More than 1,300 people were removed from the party’s membership rolls after the investigation and O’Leary said he hopes that the party scrutinizes every name on the list, now that the deadline for membership sales has passed.

His campaign claims to have enlisted 35,336 member, the highest among the candidates who’ve released their numbers.

Most have not done so and the raw figures are impossible to verify, given memberships are bought directly through the party, which will not release a formal tally for some time.