

Chris Fox, CP24.com





Outspoken TV personality Kevin O’Leary is among the early favourites to become the next leader of the federal Conservative party, a new poll has found.

The Forum Research poll of 1,455 randomly selected Canadian voters found that 18 per cent of respondents believe former cabinet minister Peter MacKay is best suited to lead the Tory’s while 14 per cent think O’Leary would make the best leader and 10 per cent favour current interim leader Rona Ambrose for the job.

The numbers, however, change when only card-carrying Conservative members are polled.

Under that scenario, 28 per cent chose O’Leary while 20 per cent chose MacKay. No other candidate broke 10 per cent.

“The hardcore conservatives, the ones who are members, are way more leading towards Kevin O’Leary than everybody else.” Forum Research President Dr. Lorne Bozinoff told CP24 on Friday. “I think it is a couple of things. He is not a politician, which these days people kind of like, he doesn’t have experience in government, which people kind of like and he is a successful businessman who is saying he is going to shake things up.”

While the Forum Research poll indicates that there is a strong base of support for O’Leary among Conservative party members, it also highlights that many voters may be waiting for another candidate to enter the fold.

Overall, about 35 per cent of respondents said they would choose a candidate not listed in the survey. About 24 per cent of card-carrying party members also said the same.

“It may just be name recognition but that is what people said about (Donald) Trump,” Bozinoff told CP24. “He was actually able to build that into a campaign. It is possible Kevin O’Leary could do that too.”

O'Leary, a former Dragons' Den host, announced his potential interest in the leadership race in January, but has not officially entered the race.

So far only MP’s Maxime Bernier and Kellie Leitch have officially entered the race.

The Forum Research poll is considered accurate to within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.