Kevin O’Leary has the support of 27 percent of respondents to a Forum Research poll asking who they would prefer for Conservative leader from among the 13 declared candidates. Some 38 percent answered “someone else.” It is an example of the magic of name-recognition for O’Leary, the gadfly media personality and dot com millionaire. But it also suggests a lot of people are not impressed with the party’s offering of possible prime ministers. O’Leary says he’s the only Tory leadership candidate who can defeat Trudeau. It is a potent declaration. Whatever individuals think of Mr. Trudeau personally, there seems little doubt he is PM today because of his father’s name. The poll’s respondents were asked to provide their opinions on eight Conservative leadership candidates, including O’Leary, Bernier, Raitt, Michael Chong, Chris Alexander, Steven Blaney, Kellie Leitch, and Andrew Scheer.
