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.
Big names in banks, energy, utilities. Very nice dividend yield, about 4% and change (going forward, it's ~6% after recent drop in the market). Nice, balanced way to get good dividend yield. Not high growth, but more reliable growth in the 7-8% EPS growth range.