Just over a year ago, CBC comedian Rick Mercer paced around the graffitied alley that's become home to his signature rants and made a declaration. “If [Donald] Trump becomes president and Kevin O'Leary becomes prime minister I want to leave the planet," he said on the March 8, 2016 episode of the "Rick Mercer Report." Fast forward to late March 2017 and Trump is not only the U.S. president, but "Shark Tank" star O'Leary is one of the main contenders in the federal Conservative leadership race. And if that wasn't enough, the former "Dragon's Den" star released a video Tuesday — mimicking Mercer's rants — in which he promises to slash the CBC's budget should he be elected prime minister in 2019.

"Ever since I got into politics, everybody's been calling me about the CBC," he says in the video, which lacks some of the more...dynamic camera angles featured in Mercer's rants. "Why? Because I worked there for over 10 years, and I know where the rot is." O'Leary notes that Canadians, particulary those in remote areas, want curated news programming both on TV and radio available in both official languages.

If @CBC was a real company they would be out of business overnight. I say, let's make them sing for their supper. https://t.co/q2pyEQBlXA — Kevin O'Leary (@kevinolearytv) March 28, 2017

"French and English, right across Canada. You can put that on the Internet, too. The rest: we don't need it." He claims he can save billions of dollars if the CBC "sings for its supper" and finds its own funding for non-news related programming. "Think about NPR in the United States or PBS. 'If you like this show about a pony and a girl, no problem! Give me five bucks, you can see it again.'"