And so Kevin O'Leary, having not yet arrived, departs. "It's for the sake of the party that I do this, and the country," he said on Wednesday. "Because I can't deliver Quebec. I can't win."
The Conservatives once mocked Michael Ignatieff with the slogan, "He Didn't Come Back For You." Mr. O'Leary is telling Canadians that, after sort-of campaigning for months, at least when his U.S. reality TV career wasn't taking priority, the Boston-based star's sudden reversal of course is actually a case of him doing this country a favour. Why isn't he coming back? For you. For all of us.
Cometh the hour, goeth the man.
Mr. O'Leary claims to have just discovered that, because he can't speak French, a party led by him would be a bust in Quebec. The self-proclaimed numbers guy now recognizes that, without Quebec, home to roughly one-quarter of the seats in the House of Commons, it would be almost impossible for a Tory party led by him to win an election.
If Mr. O'Leary only learned that this week, it's one more reminder of why he wouldn't have made an ideal prime minister. A leader is not supposed to be the last to know.
The Shark Tank star is now throwing his support behind presumed front-runner Maxime Bernier. Why do this before the leadership vote? Because the Conservative Party is not having an old-style convention, where the also-rans could, by crossing the floor on live national TV, crown a winner.
That's ancient politics. The Conservatives are instead using a ranked ballot system. Members each get one ballot, on which they will rank the different candidates. Rounds of voting will take place instantly, inside a computer.
A candidate wanting to play kingmaker has to move before the votes are cast – not after. Mr. O'Leary may be the last to know on some issues, but on the new voting system, he's the first to act.
The question is whether Mr. O'Leary's erstwhile voters will follow him into the Bernier camp, rejig their complex ballots to favour other contenders, or stay home. The race was upended by Mr. O'Leary's Trump-like arrival; his exit upends things once more. Depending on how candidates and members react, either Mr. Bernier is now a shoo-in, or the race has been thrown wide open.