The Conservative Party's leadership race saw another candidate join yesterday, with Kevin O'Leary becoming the 14th hopeful.

Brandon University Political Science Professor Kelly Saunders thinks he'll raise, and change, the campaign's profile because he has more name recognition than the other candidates.

"So that's going to change, and also the kind of messaging that I think O'Leary's going to bring -- the other candidates, obviously, have to respond to that. But it's just going to widen the field that much more. Now we're looking at 14 candidates, and so people are going to be scrambling that much more to get their memberships sold, and to try to get their names out there. So it's going to be just that more competitive."

Saunders believes O'Leary's populist message will also be a factor in the race, noting people are frustrated with governments.

"Not bothering to turn out to vote at election time. We've suffered through recessions, we're seeing some of the negative impacts of globalization, so now you've got some economic frustration happening. And then you have security fears. We're all living in an era of increased global conflict, terrorism -- that's a pretty volatile mix, which explains why people are desperately searching for someone that can bring them back a sense of security."