The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail and the Ontario Real Estate Association.

Greetings you curious, you courageous Herle Burly-ites! I want you to cast your mind back 5 or 6 years.  Doug Ford, 1st term Premier of Ontario, had popularity numbers that, if they weren’t all time lows, were lower than the voice of the great Johnny Cash, after a weeklong bourbon bender. 

Today, Mr. Ford is celebrating his 3rd straight majority government, increasing his seat totals each time out. 3 straight majorities is a political feat that hasn’t been accomplished in Ontario in almost 70 years. The chief strategic architect of that turnaround and subsequent history-making success is our guest today on the pod, Kory Teneycke.

Most of you listeners know Kory from his seat on the Curse of Politics political panel, where he gives as good a soundbite as he gets with me, Scott and Jordan.

Today I want to have a deeper, more detailed conversation into the just finished Ontario election. We’ll get right into the weeds of the strategies ... from Willowdale to Windsor ... Northumberland to Niagara ... Mississauga to Mushkegowuk ... and all points in between.

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

Greetings, you curiouser, and right now anxiouser, Herle Burly-ites. We’re following up last week’s pod with Andrew Coyne, with another nerve-jangling conversation about the 24/7 norm-wrecking of Donald J. Trump.

This one, leaning into how he’s shifting global relationships and alliances, here in Canada and across Europe ... resulting in ... oh, you know ... maybe just a whole new world order, that’s all.

3-time Herle Burly guest, the brilliant Jennifer Welsh is here to talk about that. Jennifer’s episodes are always among our most listened-to. She hails from Regina like me, but our CVs take very separate paths from there. Jennifer is a Rhodes Scholar, earning her Master and Doctorate in International Relations at Oxford. She co-founded the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. Served as Professor and Chair of International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence. She was a Special Adviser to Ban Ki-moon – the UN Secretary General – on the Responsibility to Protect. And she’s currently the Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University.

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

Alright, this is a perfect episode for you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites. And it’s also a perfect episode for you anxiouser and anxiouser Herle Burly-ites. The 2 adjectives aren’t mutually exclusive, not at all.

In fact, when you consider what’s happening in the world, on almost a minute-by-minute basis – the shifting power dynamics, the destruction of alliances and trading relationships, the obliteration of norms – highly curious and massively anxiety-provoking are descriptors that go together pretty well.

We have the perfect guest to talk about it all. If you’ve been reading the great columnist, Andrew Coyne, either in The Globe and Mail or on Twitter, you know he’s been frank in his calling out of Trump and his alliance with Putin , as well as his observations about what’s at stake for Europe, Ukraine and Canada. We’re going to dive into all of that today. He's always unfiltered, but for the next hour, consider this Andrew unleashed.

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 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. We have a great show teed up for you today. It’s not an American topic, because it’s broader than that (which we’ll get to in a minute) but if you watched Trump’s inauguration, you couldn’t help but notice all the “tech-bro billionaires” seated on the dais, in their places of honour, flanking the incoming President. Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Cook.

So, I want to have a conversation about this growing influence of big tech and business... on our government, our politics ... and how they view journalism and media today.

I couldn’t have a better guest to do that with: David Skok! David is the founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the very excellent “The Logic”, Canada’s Business and Tech Newsroom. Prior to that, he was the associate editor and head of editorial strategy at The Toronto Star. And the managing editor and vice-president of digital for The Boston Globe.

And, there’s a Canadian context for all of this is: Tobi Lütke, founder of Shopify, is part of a group of tech entrepreneurs who have just launched a new platform called “Build Canada”, an effort to influence government policy on issues like immigration, healthcare and so on.

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

Greetings, you ever-curious Herle Burly-ites. I’m going to get right to it today, because we’ve got a topic that’s both pervasive and invasive, and I’ve wanted to explore it for a while... It’s Cybersecurity and Cyber Espionage Day on the podcast!

With me is a guest whose CV in the field is as long and tall as a grain silo in my hometown of Prelate, Saskatchewan. Ron Deibert is here.

He is a professor of political science the founder and director of the Citizen Lab – the world’s foremost digital watchdog – at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab focuses on research, development, as well as strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.

Ron’s been a principal investigator and contributing author to more than 160 reports covering cyber espionage, commercial spyware, Internet censorship and human rights. Those reports have over 25 front page exclusives in the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times and other media outlets, and have been cited by policymakers and academics. And his brand-new book – “Chasing Shadows” – tells the story of Citizen Lab and the dozens of cyber espionage cases it’s exposed.

So, we’re going to find out more about Ron today, his backstory and what led him to the field. We’ll dive into some of the cases he’s been involved with. How governments and bad actors use these surveillance techniques, via our own computers and smartphones. And ask the question: how the hell can we be protected from all of this?

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

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! We’re diving right into the Liberal Leadership Race today with former Government House Leader, and current candidate for Leader of the Party, Karina Gould.

What is her vision for the Liberal Party as leader? Why is she running? What does she bring to the race? What’s different about her candidacy from the other contenders? Why is she best placed to beat Poilievre?

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

Alright you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! So, we’re recording this one on Saturday, January 25th, which means it’s “TD minus 7” ... TARIFF DAY minus 7.

Canadian leaders have been consumed with how to respond. Taxing or restricting our oil and gas to the U.S., has been suggested, and debated fiercely. Writing last week in The Hub, our guest today says that “makes little economic sense”. He has, what he says, is a “better idea”.

Truth-telling economist Trevor Tombe joins us. Trevor is based out west, he’s a Professor of Economics at the University of Calgary, and the Director of Fiscal and Economic Policy at The School of Public Policy. His research explores a broad set of topics, including international trade, public finances and fiscal federalism. He’s a regular contributor to the very excellent “The Hub.ca” and comments widely on the economy across various media.

So, it’s “Trade and Tariffs Day” today on the pod. What the hell is about to happen to the Canadian economy? What’s going to hurt? And how can we help ourselves?

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

Alright you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! One of my all-time favourite guests on the pod today, likely because she’s one of my all- time favourite people.

Kathleen Wynne, 25th Premier of Ontario is here. If you’re a fan of the Air Quotes Media online universe at AirQuotesMedia.com, you also know that Kathleen is a regular contributor to “Quotes”, our written forum of opinion pieces. In fact, just last month, she wrote a metaphoric thought piece titled “In the Bleak Midwinter”. It came in the immediate wake of Chrystia Freeland’s resignation. It pondered what comes next for the Federal Liberal Party. And it called for unity of purpose – not partisanship – as we head into a new and likely contentious relationship with our southern neighbours.

All topics we’re going to expand on here today. Plus a few others, I’m sure.

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

Greetings, you intrepid Herle Burly-ites of the 51st State! We have a unique and timely pod teed up for you today. It’s going to run longer that our usual entry, but I promise it’ll be worth it, because in the wake of Prime Minister Trudeau’s Resignation, this podcast episode is devoted to a single topic: The Liberal Leadership Contest.

With our guests today (and there’s a series of them) we’ll look at it from all the important angles to gain a better understanding of what this race is going to look like, how it’s going to mechanically work, and what we can expect to see from each of the contenders, strategy and comms, over the next couple of months.

So, here’s an outline of the next Joe Rogan-length pod:

• Jack Siegel is here to talk about the Liberal Party Constitution. What do the current rules say about running to be leader?
• Brett Thalmann is going to take us through the minutiae of Liberal Party Membership. Who votes are they and where did they come from? 
• Kyla Ronellenfitsch has some hot and fresh polling data, post Trudeau-resignation, that we’ll dive into.
• And then we’ll talk electoral strategy for the candidates as well as Liberal Party positioning with Don Guy and Mike McDonald.

Alright, let’s get into it …

OUTLINE:
00:00 - Jack Siegel
38:18 - Brett Thalmann
1:16:32 - Kyla Ronellenfitsch
1:57:52 - Mike McDonald and Don Guy

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

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

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

Alright, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! We assembled The Chiefs for a special "government in crisis" podcast! The resignation of the minister of finance. Cabinet shuffles. Trump tariffs. NDP non-confidence. And the fate of a PM. 

You know them, three former Chiefs of Staff to some of Canada’s most accomplished heads of government:

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 ...  the newly installed EVP and Chief Strategic Affairs Officer at AECON.

Brian Topp – former Chief of Staff to Rachel Notley in Alberta, Deputy Chief to Roy Romanow in Saskatchewan, one of the architects of Jack Layton’s Orange Wave. Now ... he’s a 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, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or your favourite podcast app.

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