Stock price when the opinion was issued
XEI will be a broader basket, while XDV would be more concentrated in the top 60 or so names. The question is do you want a bit more diversification away from the banks, energy names, and lifecos that make up the larger companies in Canada? He's always an advocate for broad diversification in portfolios. Each individual investor has to decide what they want.
Prioritizes dividend yield. MER is 22 bps. Yield is decent in the 4%-range. Nothing wrong with this one, though you may want to tilt away from energy right now. Energy exposure is higher than XDV. If Trump gets his way, there will be more oil and gas and the price will struggle. You'll want to be in an area that makes its money on volume, not on price.
You have to be aware of the sector exposure. In overweight, high dividend ETFs, energy exposure doubles to almost 30%. If it's a standalone ETF for your retirement account, you probably want to be more diversified than that. But if it's one component of your portfolio, it's a good holding. An alternative is SDIV, which opens up the world of high dividends to you. SDIV is his preference as a one-stop shop for retirement, as it's more globally diversified without the cyclicality of the energy sector.