Trudeau rival Poilievre vows to ban Bank of Canada digital currency

The front-runner in the race to lead Canada’s main opposition Conservative Party took aim at the Bank of Canada by pledging to increase parliamentary oversight of the central bank and halt its work on a digital currency.

The front-runner in the race to lead Canada’s main opposition Conservative Party took aim at the Bank of Canada by pledging to increase parliamentary oversight of the central bank and halt its work on a digital currency.

Pierre Poilievre, a 42-year-old lawmaker and cryptocurrency enthusiast, blamed soaring consumer prices on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s deficits and “money printing” at a campaign event Thursday. He vowed to end inflation through spending curbs, mandating an independent audit of the central bank’s asset purchases during the pandemic and banning the monetary authority from issuing electronic money.

The Bank of Canada has long been a target of attack for Poilievre, who reiterated claims that its large-scale purchases of government debt made it into an “ATM” for the Liberal prime minister’s COVID-19 stimulus spending. 

Trudeau’s “inflationary deficits, which have doubled the size of the debt, have caused the central bank to massively increase the money supply and give us 30-year highs in inflation. And everyday people are suffering as a result,” Poilievre said at a press conference in front of the Bank of Canada’s headquarters.

Conservatives will pick a new leader in September, though Trudeau’s recent power-sharing deal with a left-wing opposition party means the victor likely won’t get a chance to unseat the Liberals until 2025. The stridency of Poilievre’s rhetoric suggests there would be substantial friction between the government and Bank of Canada were he to ever become prime minister.

The central bank’s balance sheet peaked in March last year, when it hit $575 billion (US$449 billion), but it’s come down since as short-term securities matured. The Bank of Canada still holds about $420 billion in federal government bonds, which is up by about $340 billion since the start of the pandemic, and this week began the process of slowly shedding those assets.