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Guzzo is self-aware enough to recognize the inevitable comparisons people will make but insists there are two things he is not: “I am not Kevin O’Leary. And I’m no Donald Trump. I don’t have to tweet stupidities…The closest connection Kevin O’Leary and I have is that we appeared in the same show.”

The last election, it’s sad to say, was between a drama teacher with 12 years of political experience and an insurance salesman with 20 years of political experience

Yet like O’Leary, he takes a dim view of most career politicians. “The big tipping point for me is that we can’t continue like this – being governed by people with zero managerial skills. Whether the left like the analogy or not, running a government is like running a huge corporation,” he said.

“The last election, it’s sad to say, was between a drama teacher with 12 years of political experience and an insurance salesman with 20 years of political experience.”

He scoffed at claims made by the Trudeau government that racking up deficits of $26 billion is required to “invest” in the future of Canadians, pointing out that the accumulation of federal, provincial and municipal debt makes Canada “very over-leveraged”.

Photo by Christinne Muschi/ The National Post

Guzzo’s involvement in Conservative politics go back to his school days as president of a Young Conservatives chapter. He subsequently earned an economics degree at Western University in London, Ont., and a law degree at the Université de Montréal, before joining his father’s movie theatre business. Cinéma Guzzo is now the largest movie operator in Quebec, also operating a construction and restaurant business.

Guzzo’s most recent brush with frontline politics came when Mélanie Joly, the then heritage minister, criticized him on Twitter for screening the anti-abortion movie, Unplanned, in his theatres. “This is not a question of freedom of expression but a political decision that is dangerous for women’s rights,” she said.