The Pollcast: Kevin O'Leary, French debate shake up Conservative leadership race

The CBCPollcast, hosted by CBC poll analyst ric Grenier, explores the world of electoralpolitics,political polls and the trends they reveal.

The Conservative leadership campaignwas shaken up on Wednesday when businessman and reality television personality Kevin O'Leary finally joined the race just in time to miss Tuesday's French-language debate.

What impact will his candidacy have on a campaign in which none of the 13 othercontestants have taken the mantle of the front runner?

• O'Leary makes late entrance into Tory leadership race
• Podcasts: Subscribe to the CBCPollcast

O'Leary faces many challenges. Name recognition, however, is not one of them unlike some of his rivals. But O'Leary speaks little French and has just two months to sign up new members, while some of the other contestants, such as Maxime Bernier and Kellie Leitch, have already been at it for the better part of a year.

His lack of French was the reason he opted out of joining the campaign before the French-language debate. But apart from demonstrating the questionable linguistic skills of some of the contestants who participated, did the debate change the dynamics of the campaign in Quebec and outside of it?

To explain the significance of O'Leary's entry into the race,Conservative insidersTim Powers of Summa Strategies and Chad Rogers of Crestview Strategy are back with host ric Grenier on this week's episode of the Pollcast.

Listen to the full discussion above or subscribe to the CBCPollcast and listen to past episodes.

Past episodes with Chad Rogers and Tim Powers on the Conservative leadership race:

• Jan.2016: Your primer on the Conservative leadership race
• May 2016:The state of the Conservative leadership race
• July2016:Tony Clement in, JasonKenney out
• Sept.2016: The impact of MacKay's decision not to run
• Nov.2016: Conservative leadership begins to heat up

Follow ric Grenierand Tim Powerson Twitter.