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

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Today's episode takes on one big, hairy question: what's actually happening to the Canadian standard of living? 

To help sort it out, we have one of our all-time favourite economists – or as Maclean's calls her – "the caring person's economist." Armine Yalnizyan is here! She's a brilliant policy thinker, one of the leading voices on Canada's economy who coined the term "she-cession" to describe the pandemic's toll on women, and she's currently an Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers, deep into a report on private equity's growing footprint in Canadian care services.

Armine walks us through why GDP per capita is a lousy way to measure how Canadians are actually doing, why the wealth gap between the top 40% and bottom 40% is now the widest Statistics Canada has ever recorded, and why she thinks the care economy (childcare, eldercare, healthcare) is the biggest lever Canada isn't pulling. 

She has a warning for Canada that private equity moving into care services could mean Canadians paying more and getting less, the same way it's played out in veterinary clinics, and lays out some zero-cost policy fixes the Carney government could adopt tomorrow if it wanted to protect the sector. 

And Armine has some pointed words for Shopify's Tobi Lütke, who mused online recently in support of idea to give the wealthy more votes than the poor. She’s not exactly convinced society's richest are the deep thinkers they're sometimes made out to be. 

A sharp, wide-ranging conversation about who's actually benefiting from the growth in the Canadian economy right now, and who's being left behind. Stay with us for the hour. 

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.

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

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! There's drama afoot within the conservative movement in Canada. Fights about what the party stands for and where it's going. It's all over Twitter and it's openly spilling into the pod-verse, national media airwaves, opinions in print, and into the hallways of Parliament. If you're a friend of Air Quotes Media, you know it has been talked about over at Curse of Politics.

Today we talk with one of the most thoughtful voices on the topic: Ben Woodfinden. Ben is an academic, a thinker about Conservative politics, worked for Pierre Poilievre in the run-up to and during the 2025 election, and has been active in this debate for the last couple of weeks. 

He doesn't think Poilievre has to leave for the Conservatives to be successful, but he does think they need to broaden their message. He shares his view that the Party needs to adopt a more patriotic position about Canada and demonstrate more love for Canada, including fiercer opposition to what Trump represents. At the same time, he thinks the Conservative Party of Canada's appeal to young people and its disruptive, anti-establishment energy is genuinely onto something and shouldn't be thrown away in the process. 

A smart, candid conversation about where conservatism in Canada goes from here. Stay with us. 

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.

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

Greetings you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Last week The Wall Street Journal published a backstory on what Mark Carney's been doing in Europe. Building alliances, stiffening spines against Trump, searching for sovereignty out of rupture, calls from one of his personal cell phones. It didn't contain exclusively new information, but it was fascinating detail in an American publication that prompted another question: How do journalists cover Mark Carney's government and what's actually different about this prime minister?

Prime Minister Carney is an internationalist with a following in Europe and the US. He's a known quantity to economic journalists everywhere. His government gives the impression of frenetic pace. He's managing the most difficult American administration in living memory. That's not a normal beat.

To help figure out what it's actually like to cover Mark Carney day to day, we've got three of the best journalists in the business:

Paul Wells, publisher of his own brilliant and widely read newsletter, https://paulwells.substack.com; Janyce McGregor, senior reporter at CBC News Network and a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery; and Mackenzie Gray, national reporter with global news covering Parliament Hill. 

It was a genuinely revealing conversation. 

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.

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

Greetings you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Today on the show, somebody who bears the proud designation of most appearances on the pod. We call her the economist explainer-in-chief, but more officially, she's the senior vice president and chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada: Frances Donald!

This one's got range. Frances walks us through the contradiction of retirees sitting on record wealth while showing up in the bottom income bracket, why productivity has become Canada's most tired yet most important word, and what actually happens if CUSMA falls apart. Spoiler, it's a story that’s a regional nightmare, and how data talk of Canada as a whole misses the story of those various regional economies and various demographic economies, where Canadians are experiencing things very, very differently from each other. And buckle up for a genuinely wild story about a trucking exec who's already quietly quit Canada and moved his whole operation to Texas. Finally, Frances leaves us with an economic metaphor: Canada is an out of shape guy who needs to lose 100 pounds. 

Settle in for an hour with Frances Donald. 

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.

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

Greetings you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Artificial intelligence (AI) is here, and it is integrating itself in society in rapid ways.

Some boast AI has the power to transform our economy and produce growth rates we once knew in Canada. Others hype soon-to-come breakthroughs in science and medicine as a result of AI. These are exciting advancements … should potential meet reality.

People on the other hand – workers, students, voters – feel AI might put them out of a job. AI’s impact on how we organize ourselves as a society, and how we maintain cohesion in a world of massive power-hungry data centres and even more massive wealth concentration, is nothing short of enormous if not frightening … just consult with James Cameron and remember what Skynet was all about.

So to talk about it all we’re joined by the minister tasked with managing “AI for All” – Canada’s new national artificial intelligence strategy. Join us for a discussion with Evan Solomon, Canada’s first Minister of AI. 

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.

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

Greetings you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! It’s been a little over a year since the last federal election in Canada and this past week the House of Commons rose for the summer. It’s hard to argue it’s been anything but a good year for Carney Liberals. But that was last year. 

So, what does the Carney government need to do differently in year two? On Alberta separatism, what’s the message and who should be the messenger? On CUSMA, what are the implications to a non-renewal? And how should the government think about the Fall Budget over the summer? 

To answer those questions we're joined by The Chiefs! Three former Chiefs of Staff to some of Canada’s most accomplished heads of government:

Ian Brodie – first Chief of Staff to Stephen Harper. Now, Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, and Senior Advisor at New West Public Affairs.

Tim Murphy – former Chief of Staff to Paul Martin. Now, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategic Affairs Officer at AECON.

Brian Topp – former Chief of Staff to Rachel Notley in Alberta and Deputy Chief to Roy Romanow in Saskatchewan. Now, founding partner at GT&co. 

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.

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

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! 20-some years ago, the PC Party of Canada disappeared federally, and over time was replaced by the modern Conservative Party of Canada. 

This episode is about exploring Canadian conservative political thought, the state of conservatism and the state of the Conservative parties in Canada today, and whether the Conservative Party of Canada can build a big tent winning coalition.

Our guests today share their views about the current leadership of the Conservative Party, the current direction of the Conservative Party, the role of populism in the Conservative Party, the lack of a role for Quebec in the Conservative Party, and more.

With us:

Jason Kenney. He spent over 25 years in elected office. Federal MP and cabinet minister under Stephen Harper. Then 18th Premier of Alberta. He's now a senior advisor at Bennett Jones and a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute. 

Kory Teneycke. Curse of Politics panelist. Founder of Rubicon Strategies. And a longtime conservative strategist who served as Stephen Harper's director of communications and has run Doug Ford's campaigns in Ontario. 

And, and Fred DeLorey. Recent guest on Curse of Politics. Chair and chief strategy officer at North Star Public Affairs. He was the national campaign manager for the Conservative Party in the 2021 election, and earlier served as director of field operations for Doug Ford and director of political operations for Stephen Harper.

It's as good a banter about politics as you'll find. So join us for our conversation about the state of conservatism in Canada.

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.

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

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! It’s been a year of economic anxiety and trade upheaval in Canada with our largest trading partner applying tariffs, making threats, and taking a far more adversarial stance, in advance of the upcoming CUSMA negotiation.

We’re experiencing an economy with a very low growth rate, an affordability crisis, and industry disruption in steel, autos, and aluminum.

I was particularly curious to get a fulsome and thoughtful Conservative take on the Carney approach, so we’re joined by Adam Chambers, Conservative MP and Trade Critic, and Vice-Chair of the House Standing Committee on International Trade. 

Adam acknowledged the realities of dealing with a difficult American government, but that a deal that could advantage the Canadian economy might still be possible. We discuss his view that Canada’s fiscal position is a reckless one that puts the country in long-term jeopardy, and much more.

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.

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

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! There was a resignation in Ottawa last week that struck a louder chord than most. High profile Liberal caucus member, and former Cabinet Minister, Steven Guilbeault announced will be leaving politics over the summer.

Best known for his time as Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Mr. Guilbeault has been nothing if not candid about his beliefs about climate change and the policy actions he undertook as a member of the Trudeau Liberals to address it.

The Carney government’s approach has differed greatly, of course, with most of those policies having now been eliminated, reversed, or weakened considerably.

Today we approach the podcast as an exit interview, and we hope you’ll join us for this frank discussion. 

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.

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

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Here’s a question for you: Can anything pierce the political armour of Ontario Premier Doug Ford?

Recently, pollsters have showed tightening numbers in the wake of Ford controversies like buying and then selling a private jet over the course of 72 hours. Selling off Ontario Place so it could be clear cut and turned it into a spa. And just this week, Ford’s government unilaterally took over the Toronto Island lands and designated Billy Bishop Airport as a “special economic zone”.

All of this as the Ontario NDP try to find their footing and the Ontario Liberal Party is gearing up for a leadership race.

So ... just how vulnerable is Doug Ford? Or isn’t he?

That’s the question I put to my guest today, pollster David Coletto. He’s the Founder, Chair and CEO of Abacus Data. And the prolific writer of the excellent “InFocus” newsletter on Substack.

His latest wave of tracking suggests the PCs have regained their lost ground. And Ford’s personal image has rebounded. How is this man a political rubber ball, rolling on largely unimpeded as things just seem to bounce off him?

We’ll dig into it. And the state of play in Ontario politics. 

Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

The sponsored ads contained in the podcast are the expressed views of the sponsor and not those of the publisher.