Kevin O’Leary to fix accounting to ensure private planes meet campaign rules

Federal Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary says he is going to alter his accounting procedures to make sure he is meeting the rules on using private planes. (Photo: Ontario Chamber of Commerce
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EDMONTON—Federal Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary says he is going to alter his accounting procedures to make sure he is meeting the rules on using private planes.

O’Leary has been using private planes but only charging the campaign the price of a standard airline ticket.

That raised questions on whether he was exceeding the $25,000 personal cap on how much a candidate can donate to his own campaign.

“That was my mistake. I got that wrong,” O’Leary told reporters Tuesday night after skipping a Conservative leadership debate to speak to supporters.

“I misinterpreted the way it works. So however it’s supposed to work, that’s what we’re going to do. But am I going to use private aircraft? Yes.”

O’Leary said he has been using private aircraft for more than a decade for business and needs to be productive with his time.

“I will continue to use them on the campaign because how else can you get to five cities on one day? But we’ll account for it properly and we’ll be audited.

“I’m sure that the team is going to make sure that we play by the rules on this. We can’t afford to have any mistakes in that area.”