OTTAWA, Ont. — The presumed frontrunner to win Canada’s Conservative Party leadership race is vowing, if he becomes prime minister, to fire the Bank of Canada’s governor.
Pierre Poilievre made the threat to central bank Governor Tiff Macklem when asked Wednesday during a leadership debate in Edmonton about Canada’s red-hot inflation.
“There’s no question that we have to hold those accountable who caused it,” said Poilievre, who has been blaming the country’s decades-high price growth on Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s budgetary shortfalls and the Bank of Canada’s quantitative easing program in response to Covid-19’s economic crisis.
“Money-printing government deficits have caused more dollars chasing fewer goods, driving higher prices. And the Bank of Canada governor has allowed himself to become the ATM machine of this government.”
He then added he would “replace” Macklem with a new governor, whom he said would reassert the bank’s low-inflation mandate and protect the purchasing power of the Canadian dollar.
Poilievre, a veteran parliamentary agitator known for quick-on-his-feet jabs, has made a career out of getting under the skin of senior officials — from Marc Mayrand, then-Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer, to former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, to Trudeau’s finance ministers Bill Morneau and Chrystia Freeland.
Macklem has been a frequent target for Poilievre ever since he was appointed by Trudeau in June 2020.
The pledge to fire Canada's central banker is part of Poilievre’s populist campaign that vows to make Canada the “freest country on earth.” At the heart of his campaign is a promise to take on the “gatekeepers.”
Macklem, the public servant who runs the independent central bank, is seemingly gatekeeper enemy No. 1.
Poilievre made headlines late last month by calling the Bank of Canada “financially illiterate.”
On Wednesday, the longtime Ottawa-area lawmaker strengthened his language by making a stunning promise to kick Macklem out of the job.
Former Quebec premier Jean Charest, widely viewed as Poilievre’s main opponent in the leadership contest, called the threat to Macklem and the sharp criticisms of the central bank “irresponsible.”
“If you're an investor looking at coming to Canada and you hear that kind of a statement, coming from a member of the House of Commons, you'd think you're in a Third World country,” Charest said during Wednesday’s debate. “We cannot afford to have any leader who goes out there and deliberately undermines the confidence in institutions.”
Standing outside the entrance to the Bank of Canada’s museum last month, Poilievre vowed to increase government oversight of the bank. He also promised, if elected prime minister, to ban the Bank of Canada from introducing a digital currency.
During Wednesday’s debate, Poilievre, who has frequently talked up cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, reiterated his warning about any Bank of Canada digital currency.
“This gives massive new powers for surveillance, control and censorship, and gives the state far too much control over our money,” he said. “And that's why I would ban a central bank digital currency and give people back control of their money from bankers and politicians.”
But Poilievre, in particular, has focused his criticisms on the central bank’s large-scale bond purchasing program, deployed to protect Canada from Covid’s crisis.
He’s accused Macklem of bankrolling Trudeau’s record-breaking shortfalls during the pandemic, a program he charges has stoked inflation and Canada’s housing affordability crisis.
Economists have widely disagreed with Poilievre’s take.
For one, most countries are dealing with sizzling price growth. Many economists — as well as Macklem — blame Canada’s surging inflation on global supply chain bottlenecks and, more recently, the consequences of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The counterarguments have done little to deter Poilievre’s crusade against Macklem.
Toward the end of Wednesday’s debate, Poilievre reiterated his pledge: “I will fire the governor of the central bank to get inflation under control.”
