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.

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 curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! His bio in part reads: "First elected in 2000 and re-elected seven times since" ... now, as of this week, he's Canada's new Minister of Finance, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc. And with limited time we're getting right to it, to talk about all things contained in his post-Monday portfolio: Finance, Intergovernmental Affairs, the Canadian Border, Trump's Tariff's. Plus, where the Liberal Party of Canada finds itself in this moment of crisis.

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.

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.

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Frances Donald is with us today, the economist explainer in chief, the person who puts the fun in economic fundamentals! She's joining us from her new perch as senior vice-president and chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.

All anyone can talk about is the economy these days: prices are too high... how low will interests rates go... what are the prospects for our economy... how badly will Trump tariffs hurt us? These are the questions on our minds and Frances is the person to answer them.

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.

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.

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Amanda Lang and Kevin Carmichael are back! Today we're going to run through Canada-US trade relations and the state of the Canadian economy for an economic-palooza pod!

Amanda, an official “Friend of The Herle Burly” and now 3-time guest, is one of the highest profile business journalists in the country. Host of "Taking Stock" on CTV and BNN … a network she helped launch as ROBTV over two decades ago. She’s also worked at CNN, the Globe and Mail and National Post. And she was senior business correspondent for CBC news, where she anchored “The Exchange with Amanda Lang”, daily on CBC News Network.

Kevin Carmichael is also an official friend of the pod, and now, a 4-time guest. He's currently an Economics Columnist & Editor-at-Large at The Logic, previously Editor-In-Chief of The Financial Post. One of Canada’s leading, and award-winning business journalists, he also served as a Senior Fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

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.

Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! You know, there’s only ONE Provincial Premier in this country that has bucked the electoral trend since Covid – which is to say, NOT lost the election, or eked out a tiny margin of victory, or just managed to retain a majority with a vastly diminished number of seats.

That Premier (and former Herle Burly guest) is Tim Houston of Nova Scotia, who, this week, increased his majority from 34 to 43 seats (out of 55). Crushing the Liberals and making the NDP the new official opposition in the process.  Premier Houston is one of one.

Today, we’re talking to the leaders and architects of the campaign that helped him do it. A dream team victory lap, as it were: Cameron Mackeen, Tara Miller, and James Mitchener join us today.

A few, very brief biographical notes:

Cameron MacKeen served as Premier Houston’s campaign co-chair for both the 2021 and 2024 elections. He’s a managing lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid, and a former Leg. Reporter at the Chronicle Herald.

Tara Miller served as co-chair for the 2024 election. She’s been recognized by Best Lawyers in Canada for 3 years running … and is a partner, and the “M”, in MDW Law. 

James Mitchener was campaign manager in both 2021 and 2024. He’s currently Premier Houston’s Director of Operations and Strategic Relations.

I’m going to talk to them about the whole, goddamn successful story today:

• The only incumbent government in Canada to increase their margin of seats and votes in a high inflation period. How did they do it?
• The risk/reward calculus for going early. 
• The core strategies. 
• The federal Liberal wedge and why it was so effective.

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.