Tycoons not cut out for top job

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2016 (2481 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Neither Canada nor the United States has an illustrious history of entrepreneurs as political leaders. In fact, most of the continent’s prime ministers and presidents (and premiers, governors and mayors, too) have been lawyers, academics or professional politicians, with only a few business types (men and women) making the list, mostly as failures.

In Canada, Peter Pocklington and Belinda Stronach were both flashes in the political pan. Each lost interest in the national squabble after a short period of time. Brian Mulroney is sometimes called a former businessman because he briefly led the Iron Ore Company of Canada, but he was mostly a labour lawyer and longtime Conservative party warhorse before becoming one of Canada’s better prime ministers. His partisan skills and understanding of public policy were learned in the political trenches, not as a branch-plant president.

None of America’s best presidents were businessmen. Some of America’s richest citizens, including Ross Perot and Henry Ford, dabbled in politics, but gave up when voters didn’t behave like widgets on a conveyer belt.

Today, however, Americans are wondering if billionaire Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination and even the presidency itself. Mr. Trump’s odious provocations have garnered significant support, which most analysts say is a reflection of American despair and fear among the middle class. It remains to be seen if the politics of disaffection will carry him to the top job, or into the dustbin of American presidential politics, another failed businessman-turned-politician.

In Canada, meanwhile, tycoon Kevin O’Leary is mulling a run for the Conservative party leadership, but he’s not off to a very good start. In fact, he’s already showing why high rollers just don’t seem cut out for public office.

One of his first stunts — wealthy would-be politicians seem to enjoy outlandish spectacles — was to offer to invest $1 million in Canadian energy companies if newly elected Alberta Premier Rachel Notley steps down.

Of course, $1 million wouldn’t make a dime’s worth of difference in energy markets, but it was enough to buy a headline.

Mr. O’Leary also seems unaware that Premier Notley inherited a mess from her Conservative predecessors, who actually planned to raise taxes and spend billions on infrastructure before they were defeated last spring.

If Mr. O’Leary’s Conservative friends had followed Norway’s lead by avoiding the temptation of building fiscal budgets on annual oil revenues, the province would have had enough money in its rainy-day fund to weather the economic storm. The Norwegians have nearly $1 trillion in oil savings.

Mr. O’Leary says no one should be a political leader unless “you have made payroll for two years in a company with sales of over $5 million.”

So does that mean the owner of an international chain of candle-making companies is more qualified than someone whose job or passions have involved a broad range of public policy issues? And besides, meeting payroll in the public sector is fundamentally different than in the private sector.

The focus of the business class is the bottom line, lowering costs and maximizing output. Those are invaluable skills, but they don’t go very far in addressing political and social questions.

Business moguls can play an important role in government, but first they need to hone their empathy, people skills and knowledge. Then, depending on how well they learn those skills, they can apply to voters for an entry-level job, rather than demanding to start at the top.