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

Greetings, you curious, you courageous Herle Burly-ites! We’re recording this one on Sunday June 15th mid-afternoon – parallel timing with start of the highly-freighted G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. Here to talk with me about what we might expect from the meeting is Jason Kenney, making his 2nd appearance here on the pod.

I mean, who among you Herle Burly-ites doesn’t know Mr. Kenney? The 18th Premier of Alberta. Former Leader of the United Conservative Party and the last leader of the Alberta PC Party. MP for the Reform Party and Canadian Alliance … and a multi-portfolio Cabinet Minister for Prime Minister Harper’s Conservatives from 2006 to 2015. Today, he’s a Senior Advisor at Bennett Jones.

So, we’re going to talk about Canada on the world stage. What success looks like for Prime Minister Carney at the G7. His continuing relationship with President Trump and the future of Canada-U.S. trade. Global politics and national defence.

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.

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! A pod today that starts with a bit of time travel. We’re going back to the Ontario of 1985, but not for the sake of a melancholy stroll down memory lane. I want to explore how a new (at the time) Liberal government came to power and immediately enacted a series of major reforms and initiatives that still reverberate in the province today. And that’s the lens I want to use to focus this conversation. The lessons in this story of innovation and political will, we can use to meet the challenges of today.

With me, is the principal of the remarkable transformation, and 2 of his principal secretaries: The Honourable David Peterson, 20th Premier of Ontario, Vince Borg and Hershell Ezrin.

40 years ago this month, David Peterson became the first Liberal to lead the province since Harry Nixon, ending a 42-year PC dynasty. He served as Premier from 1985 to 1990. Today, he’s Chairman Emeritus of the law firm of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. and Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Toronto. 

Vince Borg was Principal Secretary to Premier Peterson and is a past President of the Ontario Liberal Party. His long career took him from the backrooms of Queen’s Park to the boardrooms of corporate Canada.

Hershell Ezrin also served as Principal Secretary and deputy minister to Premier Peterson. He had a long and distinguished career in public service and is now a Senior Fellow at Global Public Affairs.

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, TikTok Canada. 

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser, and anticipatory, Herle Burly-ites! Our guest is Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Premier Smith may be Canada’s premier newsmaker right now.

You engaged Herle Burly-ites know, or think you know, quite a bit about her. She’s clearly a proud Albertan. Leader of the United Conservative Party. She was sworn in as the 19th Premier of the province on October 11, 2022.

Today, we’ll dive a little deeper into her biography and early political motivations. I want to talk about the Premier’s ideological perspective and her thoughts on the role of government. The ideas and issues driving her stewardship of the province. Her approach to the new Carney government. Then, of course, we’ll discuss Alberta and the federation.

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, TikTok Canada.

Greetings you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! I’ve been hunkering down this last week here in London, England and that’s spurred me to want to dive a little deeper into the U.K., it’s relationships with Canada and the U.S., and trade. How those relationships have changed – in a Carney and Trump context – and what new dynamics are driving it all.

I’ve got just the chap to do that with.  Now 4-time Herle Burly guest, Andrew MacDougall!

Andrew is the former Director of Communications for Prime Minister Harper. Now, he lives in London, where he’s a Partner at Trafalgar Strategy, and writes about politics and current affairs, and appears frequently on TV, in all the best journalistic places. That includes his most recent piece in The Ottawa Citizen, a poignant tribute to his late father, one-time Ottawa city councillor and dedicated family doctor, Greg MacDougall, who passed just a couple of weeks ago on Easter Sunday. Give that lovely piece a read, if you haven’t yet.

Time permitting here after all the U.K. talk, I also want to get Andrew’s take on Carney and Poilievre and the performance of the Conservatives vs. Liberals, in the election just passed.

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, TikTok Canada and Historica Canada. 

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! I’m genuinely excited to have this man on the show for a conversation that’s both of the moment, and critical. Naheed Nenshi, Leader of the Alberta NDP, is here.

(Note: Since recording this episode, we've since been in contact with Premier Smith's Office and are hopeful to schedule that conversation soon).

You know all about Mr. Nenshi and his powerful political brand. Former 3-term Mayor of Calgary. Named best Mayor in the World in 2014! Winner of the Alberta NDP Leadership on the first ballot about a year ago, with over 86% of the vote.

He upped that to almost 90% in a leadership review just last weekend at the party’s annual convention. Today, we’ll talk more about his bio, background, and his decision to join the NDP. And then, the issues du jour ... Western alienation, Alberta separatism, and legitimate grievances about oil and gas. And also, what exactly is his argument to replace Premier Smith?

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 TikTok Canada.

Greetings, you curious, you courageous Herle Burly-ites! Election 45 is in the books. And after 5 and ½ weeks on the trail, Mark Carney is in office. This time, as an elected Prime Minister.

I have a conversation today with one of the key players that helped him navigate that path. For both the Liberal Leadership race and the ensuing election. My aim, for the next 60 minutes or so, will be to get an insider’s view of the whole story ... with Braeden Caley!

When Prime Minister Carney was first sworn in back in March, Braeden was named Deputy Chief of staff in the PMO. On the campaign, he served as National Campaign co-director and senior advisor. He’s a long-time Liberal operative, the Senior Director of Comms for the Liberal Party, playing key roles in the 2015, 2019 and 2021 elections. And if all of that weren’t enough, Braeden was also President and CEO of Canada 2020, a leading progressive think tank in Canada.

So today: Who is Mark Carney? What motivates him? What does he care about? And then the shape of the campaign itself ... we’ll talk about what Team Carney expected to happen. And what surprised them. The 51 st State factor. Was it a welcome intrusion, from a purely political point of view? And then, the upcoming minority parliament. How is the Prime Minister going to approach achieving his agenda?

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 Netflix Canada.

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! We’re recording this show 3 days before E-day. And it’s a bookend of sorts: We started off the election cycle here on The Herle Burly with a pollster pod to set the scene data-wise ... discuss the core issues as they were emerging, i.e. Trump and Tariffs ... look at the opening state of play ... and anticipate how each the Parties might respond.

Today, we end with another pollster panel to discuss how all of that played out over the course of the last 5 weeks. What’s been the biggest surprise of the campaign in the data? What, if anything, has been predictable? Are Carney, Poilievre and Singh campaigning differently today than they were at the opening bell, and if so, why?

With me for this are 2 of the best: Greg Lyle and Dan Arnold.

Greg is the Founder and President of the Innovative Research Group. He’s built a long and lauded career at the intersection of public policy, communications and public opinion, and he regularly appears on the country’s biggest media platforms to discuss his findings.

Dan is currently Chief Strategy Officer at Pollara, who, if you’re a regular listener, you know has been supplying daily numbers to our sister pod, the Curse of Politics. He also led research strategy for the Liberal Party for their victories in 2015, 2019 and 2021. Fans of our Air Quotes Media universe will also know Dan from his hosting gig on Race to Replace.

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 Netflix Canada.

Alright, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! We’re recording this one early on Good Friday and I don’t want to keep our gracious guest here for too long. David MacNaughton, former Ambassador to the United States joins us, for a timely conversation on Canada-U.S. relations. 

A brief bio to start: Mr. MacNaughton is currently the President of Palantir Technologies Canada and was formerly the Chair of StrategyCorp and Principal Secretary to the Premier of Ontario. He served as Canada’s Ambassador to the United States from March 2016 to August 2019 ... getting a close-up view of President Trump in his first term.

It’s a rare and expert perspective, and that’s precisely where I want to go with this over the next hour. Mr. MacNaughton has been in the room with President Trump during trade negotiations. I want to get into some detail about what these negotiations are actually all about.  What industries are affected? Canada talks about being strong but how does that manifest itself? In Mr. MacNaughton’s experience, what tactics are likely to work with President Trump and what do not? And lots more.

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 Netflix Canada.

Alright, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Today’s show has typically been a helluva lot of fun in the past. It’s our election ad panel. And we’re going to watch, and pull apart, a suite of the ads from #Election45. Joining us are David Rosenberg, Dennis Matthews and Éric Blais.

Éric is a strategy guru and President of Headspace Marketing, which helps clients build great brands in Quebec. He describes himself as an “ad guy with opinions about branding, Quebec and politics” which is precisely why we wanted him for our show. He regularly shares his opinions in national publications and on CBC’s Power & Politics.

Dennis Matthews, our regular viewers will know, is a Partner at Enterprise Canada and the President of its ad agency, Creative Currency. Creative strategist and architect of Conservative Party Advertising for Stephen Harper, Tim Houston and Doug Ford, among many others.

Until he retired from his almost 40-year advertising career last summer, David was a Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Bensimon Byrne Advertising. Writer of Liberal ads provincially and federally since 2004, for Paul Martin, Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau’s 2015 majority winning effort.  David is also a member of our AirQuotes Media Team.

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 Netflix Canada.

Alright you courageous, you resilient Herle Burly-ites! Today we've got a fantastic journo and media panel today, in the context of Election 45 in Canada ... so far, framed as the “Trump, Tariffs and Trade” election.

Campbell Clark, Justin Ling and Richard Zussman join us for the next 60 minutes.

Broadly, I want to talk with these folks about the campaign, and get their assessments of how it’s going out there for each of the leaders.  What are the key messages and strategies? What’s working and what’s not?

And then, a deeper dive into "the news" and how the parties are using media and campaign communication tools to get their messages across. What’s different this time around, if anything?

Campbell Clark is Chief Political Writer for the Globe and Mail with their Ottawa bureau since 2000. Before that, he wrote for the Montreal Gazette and the National Post.

Justin Ling is “Bug-Eyed and Shameless” on Substack. He’s a freelance investigative journalist covering politics, national security, technology and information warfare, and where these things all crash together.

And Richard Zussman is making his FIRST APPEARANCE here on The Herle Burly! He’s been with Global B.C. as a reporter since 2018, based at the B.C. Legislature. He’s also a host of their show, Focus B.C.. You can also find Richard on Air Quotes Media's Hotel Pacifico podcast every Sunday throughout the federal election.

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.