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It is possible to think that Canada is safe from this sort of thing, protected by its size and its culture and the inbredness of its media establishment and maybe even the benign motherly influence of the CBC. From that standpoint, Global giving Kevin O’Leary free political advertising induces despair. (Indeed, we must begin to consider whether bilingualism is our only steady defence against dubious international adventurers.)

I wish there were a way to characterize O’Leary’s appearance on the program as something other than advertising, but he was largely allowed to O’Leary-ize at will for seven minutes, complete with a softball question from Vassy Kapelos that basically boiled down to “Do you have any really cool tax ideas to tell us about?” Since he is Kevin O’Leary, I am not sure it would have been worse for him if he had been contradicted and resisted. That would just be even better television.

O’Leary used the airtime to roll out his solution to his Ignatieff Problem: namely, that he has been mostly truant from the country he hopes to lead, and for a very long time. As Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff did not think he had an Ignatieff Problem. I know, because I pointed out the problem before it helped to obliterate his political hopes, and I was inevitably shrieked at for questioning his patriotism, or for being senselessly parochial.