David Dodge dismisses Poilievre again on pledge to turf Macklem

For the second time in less than a week, David Dodge is dismissing a front-running Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate’s view on monetary policy and the central bank.

“The issue is so simple that there is not a lot to discuss,” wrote Dodge, who was the Bank of Canada’s governor from 2001 to 2008, in an email to BNN Bloomberg about Pierre Poilievre’s threat to fire Governor Tiff Macklem if he takes office.

Dodge pointed to the agreement between the government and the bank on the central bank’s mandate (ie, maintaining inflation in a range of one to three per cent), and said its independence is enshrined insofar as being “charged with making the operational decisions on achieving this target.”

It was a more mild-worded retort than his previous commentary about Poilievre.