After kicking around the idea for months, celebrity businessman Kevin O’Leary has made it official – he’s hoping to succeed Stephen Harper as leader of the Federal Conservative Party.

”You know why?  I listened to you,” he said in a Facebook video, thanking the ”40,000” Canadians he said went to his website and encouraged him to run.

The 62-year-old O’Leary says ”I don’t have a money problem.  I don’t have a name recognition problem.  I want to do what’s right for the party:  sell tens of thousands of memberships and then let them decide … who should carry the torch to Ottawa to perform the exorcism we need in this country in 2019 to rid the country of Justin Trudeau.”

Anyone wanting to vote for the next Tory leader May 27 must first get a party membership before March 28. 

The deadline for anyone to become a candidate is February 24.