O’LEARY ISN’T FIT TO LEAD

What is Kevin O’Leary waiting for? It seems obvious that the businessman and television personality’s jump into the Conservative leadership race is but a matter of time.

Could it be, as rival leadership contender Andrew Scheer alleged earlier this week, that he is delaying his entry until after the candidates’ Jan. 17 French-language debate in Quebec City? (O’Leary himself previously suggested he is simply waiting for the field, now crowded with 13 contenders, to thin out first.)

Given that O’Leary does not speak French, such a tactic would make some sense.

But waiting it out won’t solve the fundamental problem. The need for a federal party leader to be able to understand and speak both official languages, at least at a functional level, will continue long after the debate is a distant memory. The day when a unilingual anglophone could find himself (and it was, always, himself ) in the prime minister’s office is long gone.

O’Leary has been slow to get that memo. Last year, he was justly lambasted for his dismissal of the idea that bilingualism was a requirement for anyone who aspired to lead not only a federal party, but the country. Montreal-born, O’Leary claimed to be able to “know what Quebec wants” because “my DNA is in Quebec.” Among other things, what francophone Quebecers want is the courtesy of being addressed in their own language. His attitude that he didn’t need to be bilingual because others are smacked of the arrogance of a bygone era, as well as being based on wrong assumptions about bilingualism rates. O’Leary left Quebec quite a while ago — he has spent his adult life elsewhere — and his cringeworthy remarks on this subject indicate that not only is he is out of touch with Quebecers but with the fact that Canada itself is a bilingual country.

O’Leary now concedes that he is “going to try” to learn French. That formulation hardly suggests determination. It’s like saying one is “going to try” to lose weight or “going to try” to be on time.

Of course, when the time comes, in May, to select their next leader, Conservatives will have to weigh how the remaining candidates stack up on an array of issues and qualities, and how they can best position their party to beat the Liberals in 2019. Should they opt for Trump-like populism or traditional conservative values? Pick a high-profile outsider or an experienced politician? Lean to the left or to the right?

There are many factors to calculate. But choosing a leader who is not at least functional in French would simply not add up.