EXCLUSIVE: Dragons’ Den star Vincenzo Guzzo is running in CPC leadership race, say sources

Speaking to The Post Millennial, David Tjordman, who was a federal Conservative candidate in Montreal in the last election, stated that “[Guzzo] made it clear he was going to be running … to me, and to a few other people as well.”

“He said he was going to declare after he came back from his holiday, and the reason why is that he feels he has the background in terms of, not necessarily political experience, but definitely business, leadership, and life experience, and he believes he’s the right man to lead the party and defeat the Liberals.”

A couple weeks ago there were media reports that Guzzo was seriously considering running.

As well as this, three separate sources who are close to Guzzo, confirmed to The Post Millennial that Guzzo was intending to run.

Guzzo made his fortune as an entertainment mogul: running and operating Cinemas Guzzo, which is the largest cinema operator in Quebec and the third largest movie exhibitor in Canada.

Due to his success in the cinema industry, Guzzo was welcomed onto Dragon’s Den where he was know for his flamboyant investment strategy.

CPC candidates will have to pay $300,000 and will have to gather 3,000 signatures—effectively limiting the competition to affluent Conservative supporters or party officials with an already established support base. Last Friday the party announced would-be candidates have ten more days to register to run in the CPC leadership race.

Guzzo is the second Dragons’ Den star to run for the CPC leadership race, the first being Kevin O’Leary in the last race, where he dropped out midway through and backed Maxime Bernier.