TORONTO — He is a wealthy businessman whose favorite political targets are “elites” he describes as drinking champagne “with their pinkies up in the air.” He hates government, but is running to lead one with a $121.7-billion budget, confident he will root out waste with his well-honed business acumen.

And he has a history of publicly attacking the media and public figures he considers disloyal.

It’s not hard to see why Doug Ford, the golden-haired former football player fighting to be the next premier of Ontario, has been compared to President Trump.

“You’ve seen jobs lost — 300,000 manufacturing jobs — in 15 years,” Mr. Ford said at a packed rally in a windowless hall in a Toronto suburb last week. “Oh, we’re bringing them back, don’t you worry.”

Mr. Ford is the older brother of the deceased former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who made headlines around the world for smoking crack cocaine while in office. He is now expanding their family’s populist, right-wing style of campaigning into Ontario, the economic heart and cradle of Canada, threatening to alter the country’s socially and economically liberal politics.