Shark Tank panelist and celebrity businessman Kevin O'Leary has given up on his dream of becoming Canada's next prime minister.

In a statement today, the free-market evangelist said that he's throwing his support behind Quebec MP Maxime Bernier.

"Like the other candidates, I have worked like hell on this campaign and I want the DNA of my policies and objectives to survive into the general election," O'Leary said. "The candidate that best mirrors my policies is Maxime Bernier, and he has strong support in Quebec. He is perhaps the first Conservative in a long time that has a chance of winning over 40 seats there, which would materially improve our chances for a majority mandate."

Bernier, an ardent libertarian, held several cabinet posts in Conservative governments headed by Stephen Harper.

In 2010, then Globe and Mail columnist Jane Taber wrote a column suggesting that Bernier had a history of denying the scientific consensus on climate change.

In a letter to La Presse in 2010, Bernier wrote that "the debate on the scientific foundations of warming, stifled for years by political correctness, finally bursts into the media". This came after emails hacked from climate-change researchers' computers were leaked to journalists.

The source of the hacking has never been identified.

Read O'Leary's full statement below

“Canada desperately needs a change in government. While Justin Trudeau basks in the glow of celebrity status and focuses on his next opportunity for a selfie, he is destroying the strong fiscal position that Prime Minister Harper left Canada in. If Trudeau isn’t beaten in the next election, he will leave the next generation of Canadians, those thousands of Millennials I’ve been talking about, with a mountain of debt and high taxes. This cannot be allowed to happen.

"The Conservative Party needs someone who has the best chance of beating Trudeau. Someone who will command the support of Canadians from every region of the country and who can build a consensus among all members of the Party.

"I am proud that my team and I have been frontrunners in this 14-candidate race since the very launch of my campaign in mid-January. In particular, I am touched by the 35,335 people who purchased memberships to support our cause. This list includes a whole new generation of young Canadians, many of whom are new to the Conservative Party, and I’m hoping will be lifetime Members.

"I am not a politician, so I never pushed a shopping list of promises. I’ve had only one, to achieve 3% economic growth in Canada. In order to do this, I said I would have to deliver the Conservative Party a majority mandate in 2019 so that we could reverse Trudeau’s irresponsible and destructive policies.

"I have now spent four months on the campaign trail. My team has done extensive polling during this time, but more importantly I have spoken directly with thousands of Conservatives from across the country, and the concerns they are expressing are the same.

"Here is what I know:

1. Maxime Bernier and I are statistically tied as front runners.
2. Because I am an outsider I have very weak 2nd ballot support.
3. I am extremely strong in the West but have not generated material support in Quebec.

"Second ballot support is always a concern for any candidate and all you can do is live with that risk and see where the votes settle.

"The Quebec data is a different kind of issue and a big problem for me. There are 78 seats in Quebec, and the Conservative Party currently holds only 12 of them. In other words, the Liberals politically own Quebec. Without growing the Conservative base in Quebec, beating Trudeau in 2019 would be a huge challenge. The Conservatives did it in 2011, but only with a perfect vote split and in a political environment much different than the one that exists today. This is obviously very disappointing for me. As someone who was born in Montreal, I had hoped I would do much better there.

"Like the other candidates, I have worked like hell on this campaign and I want the DNA of my policies and objectives to survive into the general election. The candidate that best mirrors my policies is Maxime Bernier, and he has strong support in Quebec. He is perhaps the first Conservative in a long time that has a chance of winning over 40 seats there, which would materially improve our chances for a majority mandate.

"So here is what I’m going to do; I’m withdrawing my candidacy from the Leadership Race and throwing my full support behind Max. I’m going to do everything I can to ensure he gets elected, and I’m going to ask my supporters to do the same. Together we will drive Justin Trudeau out of power in 2019, and we will work to get Canada’s economy growing at 3 percent.

"This was not an easy decision for me to make but after much thought and deliberation, it is the right one for the Conservative party and the country. The campaign and travelling and meeting with Conservatives has been an experience of a lifetime, and I owe so much to my Team, and the thousands of volunteers and Members that have supported me. Together we will move forward to change Canada’s direction for the better in the election of 2019."