Has Trumpism a Chance in Canada?

Most of us would say that danger is remote. However, we should not be too complacent. We should remember the recent Mosque killing in Quebec City and the Bouchard Taylor Commission in Quebec in 2007 on “Reasonable Accommodation,” which brought to the surface substantial intolerance in small towns.

And we should remember Rob Ford in Toronto.

Now there is the candidacy of Kevin O’Leary for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

On February 7, Margaret Wente wrote in The Globe and Mail under the headline, “Kevin O’Leary, a Trump-lite bully, could be Trudeau’s worst nightmare.”

…In an age when Canadians will have to compete in a harsh new world remade by Donald Trump, Mr. O’Leary is running as a bread-and-butter centrist with no time for foolish carbon taxes. He isn’t wasting his breath tearing down the other candidates. His target is Mr. Trudeau, and his message to the party is that he’s the only guy who can take him down. He may well be right….

The leadership race has months to run, of course, and the party structure matters. To win, Mr. O’Leary will have to woo delegates from regions across the country and gain second- and third-choice as well as first-choice support….

Politicians can be highly flexible. That’s what we’ve learned from Donald Trump. We’ve learned that in disruptive times some people can break all the rules and get away with it, no matter what the media say. In fact, the more they howl, the better.

Canada isn’t the United States, and Kevin O’Leary isn’t Donald Trump. But could we have our own Canadian-style populist insurrection? Given the right circumstances, you betcha.