The Herle Burly Air Quotes Media

The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail, the Nuclear Innovation Institute, and Uber Canada.

We have what I think is a great pod for you today because our guest is someone I’ve wanted to get in here for a long time. He’s someone I have a lot in common with, as we’ve both been strategists and campaign directors for Prime Ministerial candidates.

Fred DeLorey is our guest today!

Most know him as the man who helped Erin O’Toole win the Conservative leadership in 2020. And then, managed Mr. O’Toole’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to become Prime Minister in 2021.

Fred has also served as Director of Field Operations for Ontario Premier Doug Ford. He a former Director of Political Operations for Stephen Harper. As well as Director of Comms. Prior to that, he was Atlantic Canada Advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister. He’s even run for political office himself, in Central Nova in 2015. Right now, he’s a Managing Partner at Deslauriers Public Affairs.

So, here’s our conversation today:
We’re going to break down the 2021 Campaign. What actually happened? What Fred hoped would happen? What surprised him? And what got in the way of a victory?We’ll also talk China election interference. If you read Fred’s op-ed in The Star on March 5th, he advocates for a different approach than a public inquiry.And finally, we’ll do a little Pierre Poilievre speculating. What’s going to happen in the next election? And would 2019 or 2021 been any different with Poilievre as leader, instead of Scheer or O’Toole?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.

We just managed to get this pod in, before the end of the week. But it’s packed with the kind of high business intellect guests you need to “get-your-weekend-off-to-a-what-the-goddamn-hell-is-happening-to-the-economy” anxiety ridden start.

Amanda Lang and Kevin Carmichael are here!

Amanda is one of the highest profile business journalists in the country. Currently, back at BNN Bloomberg … 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. And now, as a 2-time guest of The Herle Burly, she’s earned the distinction of official “Friend of the pod”.

Kevin Carmichael is also an official “Friend of The Herle Burly”. And now, a 3-time guest. But he’s probably better known as 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.

So, here’s what we’re talking about today:
Regulation … and this pesky spate of recent bank failures.Inflation… we’ll dive into the always deep end of inflation and interest rates.Governments … industrial policy and providing subsidies and tax incentives to industry.Then … the upcoming budget. What’s likely to be in there? What should be in there?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, the Nuclear Innovation Institute, and Uber Canada.

This is a notable pod. A distinguished pod. A record setting pod! Because today on the show, we have a guest who’s making his 4th appearance.

Today, Peter Weltman takes his place atop the upper echelon of Herle Burly contributors. Regular listeners will remember that Mr. Weltman is the Independent Financial Accountability Officer of Ontario.

That means he heads an office that provides independent fiscal, financial and economic analysis on the state of the province’s finances ... plus trends in the provincial economy. He’s just released a report that stated, rather remarkably, that Ontario is going to be short … oh … just a tad over $21 billion dollars (21 billion!) by 2027, and so will be “unlikely” to achieve the Ford government’s stated commitments of adding enough beds and staff to keep up with demand.

Mr. Weltman told reporters this week: “Even with current expansion plans by 2027, Ontario will have less capacity in hospitals and long-term care than it did in 2019.”

We’re going to dive head long into that, plus a wider look at financial accountability and the economy.

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.

We have a very timely, and as it played itself out these last few weeks, controversial topic to discuss on the pod today. Our guests are journalists Jessica Smith Cross and Charlie Pinkerton, who until recently were employed at Queen’s Park Briefing, which is now owned by one of the 2 former proprietors of TorStar, Paul Rivett.

Ms. Smith Cross as an editor. Mr. Pinkerton as a reporter and editor.

They had the story of Premier Ford’s Daughter’s fundraising Stag and Doe party – attended by developers eyeing the Greenbelt – all ready to go for QP Briefing. A story of the Premier’s potential conflict of interest. Until the new ownership at the publication intervened and killed it.

That story was eventually published, and followed up on, in The Star and other media outlets.

Ms. Smith Cross and Mr. Pinkerton both resigned from QP Briefing, and have now launched TheTrillium.ca, covering Queen’s Park.

We have a great piece by Jim Coyle about all of this over at AirQuotesMedia.com, called “Conflict: Powerful Men Not Getting Basic Principles.” In it, Jim writes: “some journalism organization should strike a reporting award in the names of Jessica Smith Cross and Charlie Pinkerton. Their integrity and courage marked a shining moment in the news biz in Ontario.”

We’re going to dive deeply into all this today. Why is the Stag and Doe story important? What was the level of interference from ownership at QP Briefing? How did it manifest itself? Why did it differ over at The Star? And we’ll also talk about the current state of journalism in general.
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.

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

Welcome back to our semi-regular feature here on The Herle Burly, called “The Chiefs”. The Chiefs is a panel of 3 former Chiefs of Staffs 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 CEO and Managing Partner at McMillan LLP.

Brian Topp – former Chief of Staff to Rachel Notley in Alberta … Deputy Chief to Roy Romanow in Saskatchewan … and one of the architects of Jack Layton’s Orange Wave, federally. Today, he’s a founding partner at GT&co.

Today’s discussion is prompted by the upcoming federal budget. We’re going to talk about how exactly a budget gets put together. Where do the ideas come from? What are the roles of the PMO? The PCO? Finance? Cabinet? Caucus? … in the budget process? What should the purpose of a budget be? And what does it represent, writ large? Then we’ll switch gears and get The Chiefs’ impressions of what the government should be thinking about as it prepares this budget.
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.

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

Alright you loyal and courageous Herle Burly-ites. A timely and important pod with a very special guest, the Honourable Rachel Notley is here!

Ms. Notley served as the 17th Premier of Alberta and is currently a member of the legislative assembly for Edmonton-Strathcona, and leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party. A lawyer before entering politics, focussing on labour law and workers’ rights, she was first elected in 2008 and won the leadership of her party in 2014 on the first ballot, with 70% of the vote. Ms. Notley then went on to win a majority government in the 2015 provincial election, ending 44 years of continuous rule by the Progressive Conservatives.

Here’s where I’d like to take this today:
We’re going to get Ms. Notley’s assessment of the current UCP government under Danielle Smith.What’s right and fair with respect to energy policy?Her take on the health accord and what should happen with health care, writ large.The state of the federation and how to address the Alberta anger and alienation.What’s the path to victory for the Ms. Notley and the NDP in the upcoming 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.