The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail.

We’re debuting what’s going to be semi-regular feature here on The Herle Burly, called “The Chiefs”. The Chiefs is a panel of 3 former Chiefs of Staffs to some of Canada’s most accomplished heads of government. And by semi regular, I mean this, whenever there are important enough issues to dive into, and maybe more to the point, whenever we can get these 3 very smart, very busy people:

Ian Brodie – first Chief of Staff to Stephen Harper, and central to the founding of the CPC. Now … Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary.

Tim Murphy – former Chief of Staff to Paul Martin … now CEO and Managing Partner at McMillan LLP.

Brian Topp – former Chief of Staff to Rachel Notley in Alberta … Deputy Chief to Roy Romanow in Saskatchewan … and one of the architects of Jack Layton’s Orange Wave, federally. Today, he’s a founding partner at GT&co.

Here’s what “The Chiefs” is going to be about: It’s a discussion of the major issues of the day from the unique and shared perspective of people who think about them NOT as campaigners do … i.e., what might be IDEAL in a political sense … BUT in the realm of what’s actually POSSIBLE to DELIVER in a governing sense.

Today, for our first ever Chiefs discussion, 2 topics: The Government’s reliance on the consultant class, and more specifically, McKinsey. And in the wake of Bill Morneau’s book, Prime Ministers and their relationships, or non-relationships, with their Cabinet Ministers.

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