Who is David Herle and why is he on my TV all the time?
His background is described in this Ottawa Citizen article:
Most people are aware of Herle's tactics - shown well before this campaign started...
Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief of CanWest News Service reported this on December 24th last year:
How much power does Herle have in this campaign? In May, Gillian Cosgrove of the Post wrote about future attack ads and how Jack Fleischmann would be heading Red Leaf and reporting directly to Herle:
When you read some of Herle's statements or listen to him you can hear the same 'all things to all people' technique that Paul Martin used to raise expectations so high. Read this section of a Vancouver Sun article that printed last fall when Martin won the leadership:
And what exactly are Herle's reasons for supporting Martin for a couple of decades?
Here's what the highly respected Frank magazine had to say about it - in talking about the reason why Martin hired Francis Fox as principal secretary for the Martin PMO:
Not just fun. Herle's motives include revenge of course for Chretienites treatment of John Turner.
In Susan Delacourt's book Juggernaut, there is an account of the key event of the real start of the Chretien revolt - found in this review in Policy Options magazine:
Decades of anger. Anger over Chretien's treatment of Turner. Anger over Martin's loss to Chretien. Anger over Chretien's reign. Anger over Copps and others trying to remain in the Liberal fold. Anger over a united opposition. That's what I see when I watch David Herle - an angry person who cannot believe his plan - after so much preparation - is going down the drain.
Paul Martin deserve the blame - he allowed this man to gain so much influence and allowed this team of Earnscliffe workers to alienate so many of the Liberal team.
Compare this to Stephen Harper and the wide variety of backgrounds his campaign team comes from - and ask yourself if Paul Martin has what it takes to lead this country. I don't want David Herle to the most powerful man in Canada.
Saskatchewan-born and a devout and committed Liberal ever since a teenage chat with Pierre Trudeau, Mr. Herle worked for Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, now Mr. Martin's finance minister, before moving to Montreal to join CSL and eventually on to Ottawa to pursue the political passion he shared with his boss. He joined the Earnscliffe communications and lobbying company in Ottawa that was regarded as almost an extension of the federal finance department during Mr. Martin's decade-long tenure as minister.
Most people are aware of Herle's tactics - shown well before this campaign started...
Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief of CanWest News Service reported this on December 24th last year:
Ms. Copps said Ottawa consultant David Herle, Mr. Martin's senior political aide, threatened her after she rejected a patronage offer to pull out of a nomination fight with Mr. Valeri for the new riding of Hamilton-East-Stoney-Creek.
"I have no intention of stepping down because an advisor to the Prime Minister told me if I do run, he is going to make it very difficult for me. I don't operate that way," she said.
How much power does Herle have in this campaign? In May, Gillian Cosgrove of the Post wrote about future attack ads and how Jack Fleischmann would be heading Red Leaf and reporting directly to Herle:
A sign that a federal election is imminent is the departure on a leave
-of-absence of Jack Fleischmann, a top member of Bell Globemedia's editorial team.
Mr. Fleischmann, who runs Bell Globemedia's ratings-challenged ROBTv business channel, has been hand-picked to mastermind the Liberal party's multi-million-dollar advertising campaign. Bell Globemedia, whose CEO is Liberal fundraiser Ivan Fecan, is controlled by phone giant Bell Canada's parent, BCE Inc.
Mr. Fleischmann, whose TV channel is a sister media outlet of our competitor The Globe and Mail, told colleagues in an internal email he will be absent until after the election supervising Red Leaf, the Liberal party's ad agency.
Previously, he had made it clear that he would only step down temporarily from his senior Globe post when an election was a certainty. As head of Red Leaf, he reports directly to David Herle, uber-boss of the Martin campaign.
When you read some of Herle's statements or listen to him you can hear the same 'all things to all people' technique that Paul Martin used to raise expectations so high. Read this section of a Vancouver Sun article that printed last fall when Martin won the leadership:
His backers also insist that Martin's commitment to the West is sincere, pointing to the many members of his inner circle in Ottawa who have western Canadian roots, including David Herle of Saskatchewan and Michael Robinson and Ruth Thorkelson of Alberta.
Martin, who briefly worked in Alberta in the 1960s for an energy company owned by his mentor, Maurice Strong, (he was fired after crashing a company truck when he went to party at the Calgary Stampede), also has a broad range of politically diverse contacts throughout the four western provinces that he consults regularly.
Among them are B.C. commentator Gordon Gibson, former Saskatchewan New Democratic Party cabinet minister Chris Axworthy, and Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray.
"I think there is something special about his relationship with the West," according to Herle, who has been a close Martin aide since the 1980s.
"I don't mean by that to imply that he'll be playing favourites in any respect, and I don't think Atlantic Canadians should worry that they'll be lost in the shuffle or anything like that.
"But I think he's made it clear and he's made it a central theme of this campaign that western alienation is a real problem and that there's real structural and policy reasons why westerners feel that they can't count on Ottawa to act in their interest."
And what exactly are Herle's reasons for supporting Martin for a couple of decades?
Here's what the highly respected Frank magazine had to say about it - in talking about the reason why Martin hired Francis Fox as principal secretary for the Martin PMO:
The main rationale for bringing Fox out of his comfortable retirement in the lobby biz seems to be to make up for the shortcomings of Martin's admittedly keen but rather inexperienced chief of staff, little Timmy Murphy.
The obvious choice for the gig was long-term aide Terrie O'Leary, whom Martin assumed would take the job. Imagine Junior's surprise when O'Leary, comfortably ensconced at the World Bank, turned him down flat. Seems those 20-hour work days under the baton of the mercurial Martin no longer appeal.
Martin then turned to Earnscliffe supremo Michael Robinson, transition team quarterback and veteran greaser-of-wheels, who also refused the gig in favour of continuing to trade on his connections for big bucks in the lobby biz.
And so we are left with also-ran Murphy in a job for which it is widely known Martin had others in mind.
Martin's main mistake, say those in the camp of O'Leary and long-term partner David Herle, was assuming the grisly duo worked all those years to get him into office solely out of personal loyalty, underestimating their interest in the simple challenge of pushing a relative unknown into 24 Sussex. Fun's over now.
Not just fun. Herle's motives include revenge of course for Chretienites treatment of John Turner.
In Susan Delacourt's book Juggernaut, there is an account of the key event of the real start of the Chretien revolt - found in this review in Policy Options magazine:
After the media has disclosed the notorious 'secret' meeting of Martin strategists and MPs to plot Chretien's ouster at the Regal Consetallation Hotel near Pearson Airport in 2001, dimunitive (he could have played a Munchkin) Eddie Goldenberg, the PM's alter ego, confronts Herle, Martin's bulk and bearded retainer, at a Liberal conclave.
Goldenberg is livid. The Regal meeting was absolutely wrong, profe of Herle's deceit.
"That's a bit rich coming from you after what you did to John Turner," Herle replies.
Decades of anger. Anger over Chretien's treatment of Turner. Anger over Martin's loss to Chretien. Anger over Chretien's reign. Anger over Copps and others trying to remain in the Liberal fold. Anger over a united opposition. That's what I see when I watch David Herle - an angry person who cannot believe his plan - after so much preparation - is going down the drain.
Paul Martin deserve the blame - he allowed this man to gain so much influence and allowed this team of Earnscliffe workers to alienate so many of the Liberal team.
Compare this to Stephen Harper and the wide variety of backgrounds his campaign team comes from - and ask yourself if Paul Martin has what it takes to lead this country. I don't want David Herle to the most powerful man in Canada.
