Why Kevin O'Leary is not the Donald J. Trump of the Great White North

There will definitely be a few Canadian voters who will be cheered by the news that Kevin O’Leary intends to take a run at the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Starting tomorrow. The reason he’s starting tomorrow is because the all-candidates French language leadership debate is today, and O’Leary doesn’t speak enough French to order a plate of poutine in Rimouski… at least not in French! So a French language debate is obviously out.

There are admittedly some cogent similarities between the two reality TV stars. They’re both given to talking a lot of stupid shit, for example. But even then there’s a difference. Trump’s stupid shit generally finds a bigly amount of traction with a yuge swath of the electorate.

O’Leary’s stupid shit just sounds like stupid shit.

Take O’Leary’s many pronouncements on unions, for example. O’Leary doesn’t have any use for unions. They’re obviously a serious impediment to the meritocracy that he imagines is waiting for him to graciously accept its leadership mantle.

Trump has worked with the most powerful unions in the New York City construction scene all his life, but you never hear him dissing unions. Working class voters take note of these things.

Then there’s that personal net worth thing. Both these guys play wealthy investors on TV. Only one of them keeps his own fleet of private aircraft. The other one flies commercial.

There’s also the matter of how they deal with adversity. When O’Leary’s business empire hit rough waters, he sold a controlling interest to Bain Capital, Mittens’ company. When Trump has been faced with adversity in his business career he rolls up his sleeves, sits down face to face with the biggest banks in America, and walks away having got the better of them.

People respect that.