Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre is vowing to subject the Bank of Canada to the scrutiny of the federal auditor general and bar the use of its own digital currency.
The Ottawa-area MP made the announcement today standing in front of the central bank’s museum in the national capital.
He was joined by former Conservative leader and Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer, who Poilievre says was the one to propose the idea of auditing the Bank of Canada in a bill Poilievre now pledges to adopt.
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The leadership candidate directed a few other promises at the central bank, including vowing to ban its proposed use of a digital currency.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Poilievre has repeatedly criticized the Bank of Canada for statements made about the risk of inflation, recently taking to Twitter to call it “financially illiterate.”
Bruce MacLellan, the CEO of Proof Strategies, which surveys Canadians’ trust levels, says 2022 will be an important year for the central bank as people watch to see how it handles inflation by managing interest rates, which it recently hiked.
However, MacLellan says Poilievre’s campaign against the Bank of Canada reflects how he’s trying to win the Conservative leadership race through delivering a populist message and attacking Ottawa-based institutions.
