Kevin O’Leary bailed on another Conservative leadership debate, and Twitter was mad

On Sunday, Kevin O’Leary skipped another Conservative leadership debate. In itself, the move wasn’t shocking: O’Leary has been playing by his own peculiar rulebook throughout the campaign, piggybacking on his reality TV celebrity to communicate directly with supporters on Facebook and continuing to make appearances on American TV news shows.

The interesting thing about O’Leary’s latest debate-dodge was his excuse for skipping out: his campaign told reporters that O’Leary had to miss the event because he needed to spend time with family in Florida, for his wedding anniversary. And yet, even with all those family commitments on his plate, he somehow found time to do a guest spot on MSNBC. Twitter’s wrath was not long in coming. Here’s some of the best of it.

It was a matter of hours before people began noticing that O’Leary had made an American TV appearance, despite his ostensible need for family time:

It didn’t help that the Conservative party’s attack ads against former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, which portrayed him as a conscienceless American carpetbagger, are still fresh in everyone’s memories:

Yup, people are still pretty bitter about that ad campaign:

O’Leary does seem to spend a lot of time south of the border—at least for someone who aspires to the highest job in Canadian government:

Some have begun to question the intelligence of the Conservative caucus:

Others have begun to question O’Leary’s devotion to his wife:

And one person noted that Kevin and Linda’s anniversary seems to have fallen on a different date a few years ago:

Not long after all of this, the internet learned that Kevin O’Leary had told an interviewer that he would likely bail on the Conservative party if it failed to capture a majority in the next election. Was there more outrage? Do you even have to ask?

It is fun to picture O’Leary walking away from a minority government, though:

Finally, a sobering thought: