HALIFAX -- The crowd of more experienced contenders for the federal Conservative leadership set its sights on Kevin O'Leary right out of the gate Saturday as the reality-TV star and aspiring politician made his debate debut in Halifax.
O'Leary's unconventional, no-nonsense style and celebrity status as star of the U.S.-based program "Shark Tank" has made him the presumptive front-runner -- and the primary target for most of the other candidates on the stage, who derided him as inexperienced, opportunistic and politically tone-deaf.
"We have a celebrity-in-chief" in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario MP Erin O'Toole said during his closing statement.
"We don't beat the celebrity-in-chief with another celebrity-in-chief."
Ontario MP Michael Chong called him "Rambo" as he slammed O'Leary for releasing a video clip of himself blasting away with automatic weapons at a Miami gun range Friday -- the same day of the funeral for three of the six victims of the Quebec City mosque shooting.
"(He) had the audacity to post that video on the very same day we were burying the victims of one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history," Chong said.
"That video will cost us the next election."
But O'Leary didn't steal the entire show.
Between the sustained attacks and wisecracks at O'Leary's expense that bookended the two-hour debate, the 14 candidates took part in what was largely a measured and civil exchange of ideas about issues like health care, justice reform, economic growth and Atlantic Canada's diminished profile in Ottawa.
O'Toole, a former Sea King navigator who was stationed in Nova Scotia with the Royal Canadian Air force, promised to fight hard for the region as prime minister.
He characterized the 32 Liberal MPs who currently represent the region as "lambs" who do little and say less to represent their constituents: "The silence of the lambs."
Former House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer described his frustration when the Liberals voted against Energy East, a 4,600-kilometre pipeline project designed to ship crude oil from Alberta to refineries and port terminals in New Brunswick.
"It happens every time there's a Trudeau in office," he said. "It's the same Ottawa-knows-best, centralizing, big-government approach that the Liberals are famous for."
Vancouver MP Andrew Saxton was cheered when he declared "This Trudeau government is as economically inept as the last Trudeau government."
On that point, all the candidates agreed -- including O'Leary.
"Nowhere does it say you have to tolerate mediocrity" in government, he said. "People are sick of politicians spinning them BS. That time is over, my friends. That's why I'm in this race. "
O'Toole and Scheer both took shots at O'Leary, accusing the Boston-based businessman of flip-flopping on the Liberal government's carbon pricing plan for reasons of political expediency.
Scheer also made light of O'Leary's musings about jailing businesses that refuse to reduce emissions by 30 per cent over 20 years.
"I just want to put on the record right now that not only am I opposed to a carbon tax, I'm opposed to a carbon jail," he said, eliciting chuckles from the audience.
In her opening salvo, Ontario MP Kellie Leitch, sitting at O'Leary's left elbow, made a point of "welcoming" him to the Conservative party, then took a dig at his lack of party bona fides.
"There have been some news stories recently about non-Conservatives joining the party to stop me from becoming leader," Leitch joked. "I just never expected to be sitting beside one of them."
O'Leary, however, played it cool, refusing to rise to the bait of his rivals and instead focusing on issues that played to his background: fostering job creation and economic growth.
Businesses need "rich soil to plant the seed" in order to grow and flourish, something he said doesn't happen much in Atlantic Canada these days.
"You can't even grow a weed here any more," said O'Leary, whose candidacy has been compared to the unlikely political success of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Capital is fluid, he added -- "It goes to the place of least resistance and most opportunity."
O'Leary only formally joined the competition after the last leadership debate, his timing an effort to avoid making his debut during a French-only event -- despite having been born in Quebec, he speaks little of that language.
His campaign claims to have signed up 9,000 members and raised $300,000 in the first 10 days he was in the race. It took Leitch, whose focus on immigration reform has also drawn comparisons to the Trump campaign, three months to raise that much.
Rebuilding Conservative Party support in Atlantic Canada is considered crucial. And O'Toole and Lisa Raitt have both played up their East Coast roots in launching their leadership bids.
Raitt, born in Sydney, N.S., has been outspoken in her criticism of O'Leary's decision to join the race. She noted during Saturday's debate that her native province traditionally sends Boston a Christmas tree every year, then added "I just never expected that Boston in return would send us a candidate for the leadership."
Raitt promised to put the region back on the national political map.
"We have to earn back the trust of the voters," she said. "We deserve a voice; we have earned that voice, and I will listen to that voice."
Quebec MP and former public safety minister Steven Blaney came out swinging on the justice file, vowing to reinstate Harper-era tough-on-crime sentencing laws that put sexual assault "victims first."
Former immigration minister Chris Alexander, for his part, stressed there could be "no room for complacency" when it comes to dealing with sexual assault cases.
And Raitt advocated for a victim-centred approach to dealing with sex assault crimes -- one that begins at the "front line" with proper training for law enforcement officials.
O'Leary, drawing upon his extensive global travels, suggested Canada's justice system could serve as a model for the rest of the world.
"I have a very hard time criticizing our justice system or the men and women who enforce it in this country, when every time I come home, I want to get off the plane and kiss the ground," he said.
