The Herle Burly
The Herle Burly podcast is a commotion of insights, arguments, opinions, and an impossibly loud laugh or two, hosted by David Herle.
James Scongack: Why Is Everyone Suddenly in Love With Nuclear?
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Nuclear energy is back on the table in Canada. Decades of reliable service, plus the massive power demands of an electrifying economy — just look at the federal budget cover —have put new reactors on the agenda across the country and around the world.
That raises a pile of questions. CANDU or Westinghouse? Why nuclear and not just more wind and solar? What does...
Budget 2026 Breakdown: Meredith, Robson and Tombe
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Alright, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! It’s that time of year again. The federal budget has landed, and David has gathered his crack policy panel for a Herle Burly budget lockup. Tyler Meredith, Jennifer Robson and Trevor Tombe are here break it all down.
They start with the centrepiece, the “productivity mega deduction.” It’s the biggest cut to the effective tax rate on new investme...
EXCLUSIVE: Katy Merrifield on the BC Conservative Win
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites. Cast your minds back, only to mid-September. The Conservative Party of British Columbia is in complete disarray. 13 MLAs either quit caucus or had been expelled by then-Leader, Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Findlay herself, then resigns. Lorne Doerkson is named interim leader. NDP Premier David Eby calls a snap early election to cash in on the chaos. Five weeks later, the Conservatives rose from the smoldering ashes...
Dan Arnold & Zain Velji: Is Alberta Finally Up for Grabs?
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Alberta voted to stay in Canada on Monday by a roughly 75/25 margin. But the real story is what the referendum did to Alberta politics. David is joined by Zain Velji, campaign strategist, co-director of Naheed Nenshi’s Alberta NDP leadership run, and partner at Northweather, and Dan Arnold, who lived most of his youth in Alberta and was former lead re...
The Chiefs: A Country Spoiling for a Fight
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! The Chiefs are back. This franchise has spawned more sequels than The Fast and the Furious, but unlike Vin Diesel, these three bring something new every time. David is joined by Brian Topp, Ian Brodie and Tim Murphy for a wide-ranging hour on a country being tested from three directions at once:
Quebec. The Parti Québécois has won a...
Andrew MacDougall: Can Democracy Survive the Attention Economy?
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! When Ukrainian drones hit the Russian internet giant Yandex this week, bot traffic and propaganda posts reportedly fell off a cliff. That tells you something about how manufactured and polluted our information space has become. Andrew MacDougall, five-time Herle Burly guest, former Director of Communications for Prime Minister Harper, now partner at Trafalgar Strategy in London, and senior policy fellow at the Centre for...
Steven MacKinnon: Building Canada Strong—did the slogan just get teeth?
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! David sits down with his old friend who's now at the centre of the federal government’s policy agenda: The Honourable Steven MacKinnon, Canada’s Minister of Transport and Government House Leader.
Minister MacKinnon lays out why Ottawa the agenda is necessary as he pushes back on privatization claims and comparisons to Ontario premier Mike Harris’ sale of the 407. He explai...
Anthony Scaramucci: All the Wrong Moves that led to Trump & Why Carney leads the West
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! This week David sits down with Anthony Scaramucci. The man immortalized in the dictionary as a unit of time.
From Wall Street to the White House to fellow podcaster on The Rest Is Politics: US, Anthony is out with his new book, All the Wrong Moves. He argues that three catastrophic decisions — China's admission to the WTO, the bailout of Wa...
2026 Ontario Liberal Leadership Debate
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, OECTA, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Three years ago, David convened our second Ontario Liberal leadership debate in studio, no podiums, no clock, just candidates talking. Now, with the party searching again for its way back from third place, we’re doing it a third time.
All five contenders for the Ontario Liberal leadership sat down face-to-face with David for a wide-ranging, unscripted conversation covering affordability, healthcare, th...
McDonald & Meggs: The Conservative Civil War Nobody in Ottawa Is Watching
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Canadian Climate Institute.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! This week, we indulge in a little podcast inbreeding here at Air Quotes Media with our colleagues Mike McDonald and Geoff Meggs – hosts of Hotel Pacifico and two of the sharpest political strategists in the country – to dig into the extraordinary unraveling happening on the right in British Columbia.
Once a stable coalition of free-market Liberals and Conservatives, the province's "not...
Canada's New Foreign Policy Moment: Jennifer Welsh & Colin Robertson
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! Back in July, the Wall Street Journal ran a striking series on how Europe is quietly rethinking its arrangements with the world to counter a changing, increasingly predatory United States. And surprisingly, named Mark Carney as one of the leaders pushing Europe in that direction, pointing back to his Davos speech and his idea of "variable geometry" alliances replacing the old hub-and-spoke reliance on Washington.
We want t...
Canada's Policy Path Forward with Meredith, Robson, and Roth
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! This one's for anyone tired of the heat-with-no-light that passes for policy debate on Twitter. David brings together three super smart policy minds who understand government — spanning different ideologies and varying degrees of partisanship. It’s a rare, respectful, rational, 90-minute conversation about the predicament Canada finds itself in and what policy steps the country should take next in this trade war with the US.
Tyler Mere...
Trade War with The Chiefs: Brodie, Murphy & Topp
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! David spent the weekend, like a lot of Canadians, trying to process the breakdown in Canada-US trade talks and the unusually sharp statement Mark Carney delivered to the country the day before. So he called in The Chiefs: three former chiefs of staff to some of Canada's most prominent political leaders.
It gets pointed fast.
Did the Americans overplay a genuinely...
Trevor Tombe: The Permanent Cost of Trump's Tariffs
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! Back on the show for a third time... Trevor Tombe: a truth-telling economist who's never afraid to take a view that's five or six canoe lengths out of the mainstream. Trevor's a professor of economics at the University of Calgary and director of Fiscal and Economic Policy at its School of Public Policy, and he's spent the summer on a major study into the fiscal and economic...
Frank Graves: Inside Canada's New Political Fault Lines
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! David's old friend Frank Graves, founder and president of EKOS Research and known online as the unmistakable "Voice of Franky" on Twitter, is never shy about speaking his mind. But unlike most loud voices online, Frank brings the data to back it up.
He was the first pollster to flag a Liberal resurgence back in early 2025, when everyone else had written the party off. We a...
Armine Yalnizyan: What's actually happening to the Canadian standard of living?
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...
Ben Woodfinden: Reflections on his Party & The Fight for the Soul of Conservatism
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...
Paul Wells, Janyce McGregor, Mackenzie Gray: How Journalists Cover Carney
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...
Frances Donald: Why the economy has to lose 100 pounds
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...
AI FOR ALL: Evan Solomon, Canada's Minister of Artificial Intelligence
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...
What Carney Needs To Do Differently with The Chiefs: Brodie, Murphy & Topp
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 a...
Kenney, Teneycke, DeLorey: Can Canada's Conservatives build a big tent winning coalition?
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 t...
Conservative Take on the Carney Approach: MP Adam Chambers, Critic for Intl. Trade
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 curi...
The Exit Interview: Steven Guilbeault
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...
Outlook Ontario with David Coletto: Just how vulnerable is Doug Ford?
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 unil...
Environment vs Energy: The Shift in Public Policy with Wherry, Smith and Leach
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! We’re over a year into a new government and nobody could possibly argue there hasn’t been a significant recalibration in the way Canada thinks about climate policy and environmental regulation.
The public policy balance between the environment, pipelines, and project-building has shifted from what it was, say, back in 2018. So has the public’s percep...
Can a court declare Indigenous title over privately held land? — with McDonald & Meggs
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Saab Canada, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Greetings you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! If you’re any kind of regular listener to the Air Quotes Media Pod universe, you know a powerful political eruption is happening in B.C., as a result of a ruling of the B.C. Supreme Court.
The Cowichan Decision, in combination with the existing DRIPA legislation, has been covered in depth by our sister pod, Hotel Pa...
Spring Economic Update: François-Philippe Champagne, Canada's Minister of Finance
Recorded live at the Empire Club on May 6, 2026.
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Saab Canada, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Greetings you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! It’s been about a week and a half since the federal government tabled their Spring Economic Statement, “Canada Strong for All: United in a Time of Uncertainty.”
Today we sit in discussion with Canada's Minister of Finance, François-Philippe Champagne to reflect on our serious economic...
Arteriosclerosis of Government with The Chiefs: Brodie, Murphy & Topp
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Saab Canada, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Greetings you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! So, there is little doubt we are living in a time of massive change.
A dislocation – perhaps temporary, perhaps not – between long time trading partners.New stressors on our economy forcing new economic alliances.A voting public with very real pocketbook issues looking at government line-item spending – a private jet, for instance – like never before.A minority parliament suddenly transform...Canada's "Shocking" Defence Outlook with David Perry
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Saab Canada, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites!
The way we’re thinking about defence in Canada is not the same as it was 5 years ago. 1 year ago. Or even 6 months ago. The wars in Ukraine and Iran have dramatically demonstrated the impact of new technologies. And in February, the Carney government committed more than 80 billion NEW dollars over 5 years to rebuild and rearm our forces. 340 bil...
Carla Beck, Leader of the Saskatchewan NDP
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 curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! With me today is Carla Beck, leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party, the official opposition in the Saskatchewan Legislature ... and a heartland NDPer.
As you know I’m from Saskatchewan. My political roots are in Saskatchewan. I just love Saskatchewan politics. This is my opportunity and yours to get all caught up on what's going on in Saskatchewan politics and wh...
What's actually going on in the Canadian economy? — MEGA POD!
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.
Alright, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! We’ve got a special show lined up for you today. A little different in format. Much longer in running time. But a subject matter that merits both of those adjustments.
This is our “What’s actually going on in the Canadian Economy?” mega pod.
As you know, there is so much change afoot and so many stresses: revenue generati...
Bob Rae: Reflections on Canada & the World
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 curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites!
It’s not often on the pod we have a diplomat …
a Statesman …
an Ambassador …
a Premier …
a leader of 2 Parties …
an 11-time electoral winner …
an academic …
and a pretty fine piano player all in the form of a single guest.
Bob Rae, a true political polymath, joins us for the next hour or so. We’re...
Brody Mullins: Politics, Money, Power & the Wolves of K Street
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.
Alright, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites, we’re sinking deep into the Washington swamp today. Our guest is Brody Mullins, co-author of: “The Wolves of K Street”.
If you’ve ever wondered about the cigar chomping, big-time lobbying industry in Washington, located on K street just a few blocks from the White House, its rise, its non-existent moral code, its supplanting of American democracy for corporat...
Leichnitz & Topp: Is the party over for Canada's NDP?
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Bruce Power, and Fidelity Investments Canada.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites. A hard turn to the Left on this episode of the pod, because I want to examine the past, present and future of the New Democratic Party, and ask if the party is over for Canada’s NDP.
To do that, a wide-ranging discussion. We’ll cover the federal leadership race. An assessment of the candidates and each of thei...
Statesman by Day, Caucus Manager by Night with The Chiefs: Brodie, Murphy & Topp
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Bruce Power, and Fidelity Investments Canada.
Alright, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites, The Chiefs join us today.
They’re a regular feature on the pod now, showing up every couple of months to bestow a little governance wisdom upon us … 3 former Chiefs of Staff to some of Canada’s most accomplished heads of government: Brian Topp, Tim Murphy, and Ian Brodie.
Alright, so today we’re talking about PM...
Minister Mélanie Joly: Canada's Economic Agenda
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Bruce Power, and Fidelity Investments Canada.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites. We are on the clock today, with someone whose agenda is more crammed than most, so we’ll keep this brief.
Our guest is Canada's Minister of Industry, the Honourable Mélanie Joly.
We’re going to cover a number of issues: Canada’s auto industry, industrial strategy in an emerging new world order, possible referendums in Quebec...
Taking Climate Change Seriously with Michael Liebreich
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Bruce Power, and Fidelity Investments Canada.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites. A fellow podcaster on the show today. But leaving his credentials there would be selling our guest very short indeed.
Michael Liebreich is here!
He’s an acclaimed thought leader on clean energy, mobility, technology, climate, sustainability and finance. The CEO of Liebreich Associates and co-managing partner of EcoPragma Capital, which focuses on companies committed to the net...
Peter Mansbridge, Keith Boag and Peter Nicholson: Remembering a titan, Elly Alboim
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Bruce Power, and Fidelity Investments Canada.
Alright, greetings you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites. A special show today. If you’re any kind of regular listener to either this podcast or Curse of Politics, you know my brilliant friend and mentor Elly Alboim passed away almost 2 weeks ago.
To précis a remarkably accomplished professional life, Elly was a journalist for the CBC for almost a quarter century, before becoming Parliamentary Bureau Chi...
Fred DeLorey: The Mood and Moves of Canada’s Conservatives, Campaigns, and Carney
The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, Bruce Power, AltaGas, and Fidelity Investments Canada.
Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! Fred DeLorey is here!
For those who may not know, Fred was the National Campaign Manager for Erin O’Toole in 2021. Before that the Director of Field Operations for Ontario Premier Doug Ford. And he’s a former Director of Political Operations for Stephen Harper. As well as Director of Comms and National Spokesperson. Today, he’s Chair and Ch...
