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The Herle Burly

Air Quotes Media
The Herle Burly
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  • The Herle Burly

    Steven MacKinnon: Building Canada Strong—did the slogan just get teeth?

    2026-09-27 | 1h 9 mins.
    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 explains how Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act, changes federal labour disputes, and David presses him on whether it amounts to the end of the right to strike. They also discuss how the government plans to meet its duty to consult First Nations while approving projects within a year.
    MacKinnon offers a candid admission that, with a crowded agenda and the previous NDP deal, the Trudeau government didn't spend enough time on the economy. The conversation wraps with his case for why the Liberal brand still owns the political centre to this day.
    It's an insider's view of what the government is actually doing and why. Join us.

    Order a copy of Anthony's new book here: https://www.indigo.ca/products/untitled-77?variant=46685129572562. 
    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

    Anthony Scaramucci: All the Wrong Moves that led to Trump & Why Carney leads the West

    2026-09-22 | 1h 2 mins.
    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 Wall Street after 2008, and the deficit-financed invasion of Iraq — set the stage for Donald Trump.

    Scaramucci knows Prime Minister Carney personally, going back three decades to their Goldman Sachs days, and he doesn't hold back: calling Carney the best of any Western leader at managing Trump, "not even close." And he even brings us the receipts, literally revealing a photo of the pair at his annual Davos wine party. 

    He also gets candid about his own reasons for joining the Trump administration in the first place, what it cost him personally and professionally, and why, despite still calling himself a Republican, he's actively working to see MAGA politically destroyed.

    The conversation ranges from the unraveling of the post-2008 financial system and the strange marriage of Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party that produced MAGA, to what a post-Trump America might actually look like, and whether the damage done to allies like Canada and the UK can ever really be undone.

    Join us for a sharp, funny, and brutally honest conversation.

    Order a copy of Anthony's new book here: https://www.indigo.ca/products/untitled-77?variant=46685129572562. 
    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

    2026 Ontario Liberal Leadership Debate

    2026-09-17 | 1h 51 mins.
    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, the economy, trade with the U.S., and what it actually takes to beat Doug Ford. The goal wasn't to stage a roast but to let each candidate make their case for a very serious job. If you're a party member with a vote coming up, this one's essential listening.
    Five candidates, one contest, and a party finding its way out of the wilderness.
    The candidates (in order of introduction): Dylan Marando, Stephanie Bowman, Navdeep Bains, Lee Fairclough, and Eric Lombardi. 

    Our goal is simply this: To help eligible voters make an excellent choice. 
    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

    McDonald & Meggs: The Conservative Civil War Nobody in Ottawa Is Watching

    2026-09-12 | 56 mins.
    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-NDP" option has collapsed into open civil war under new leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay, with nine MLAs fleeing her caucus, breakaway parties multiplying, and a culture war base increasingly hostile to the "board of trade" politics that used to define the coalition. Mike, former chief of staff to Christy Clark, and Geoff, former chief of staff to the late John Horgan, walk us through how a party that nearly beat David Eby a year ago has since imploded so spectacularly. And why the province's upcoming by-election could decide whether Findlay survives at all.
    But this isn't just a BC story. As Mike and Geoff argue, the forces tearing apart the province's right (radicalization, purity tests, a rejection of business-class conservatism in favour of culture-war populism) are the same ones reshaping Conservative politics nationally and beyond. David, Mike, and Geoff also get into Eby's precarious hold on power, the fight over Indigenous rights and DRIPA, the collapsing softwood lumber and forestry sectors, and whether a snap fall election is coming.
    If you think what happens in BC stays in BC, this episode will change your mind. 
    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

    Canada's New Foreign Policy Moment: Jennifer Welsh & Colin Robertson

    2026-09-05 | 1h 13 mins.
    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 to explore these themes: what does it means for institutions like NATO and the G7 to become secondary to newer, looser alignments? How does the Western world meet the challenge of China going forward? And what does all of this mean for Canada's economy and its place in the world?
    To dig into it, we bring in two brilliant people today: Jennifer Welsh and Colin Robertson.
    Jennifer Welsh is a four-time guest of the pod, Rhodes Scholar, co-founder of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. Currently, the Director of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University.
    And making his first appearance, Colin Robertson. He served as a Canadian diplomat for over 30 years. He helped negotiate the original Canada/U.S. Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA. Currently, he’s a Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and host of its Global Exchange podcast.
    They dig into why countries from Europe to Australia to South Korea are hedging their bets on America, what "variable geometry" actually looks like in practice, whether the G7 and G20 are still fit for the world we live in, and some genuinely concrete questions too. Like whether Canada should still buy the F-35, and why Mexico deserves to be treated as a real ally rather than a partner of convenience. 
    A fascinating, wide-ranging conversation about what's replacing the old international order, and Canada's surprising role at the centre of it. 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.
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About 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.
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