Canada’s Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre said a digital currency should not be introduced by the central bank as it should only be left to the private sector. The candidate was also one of the few MPs calling the central bank mainly responsible for diluting people’s purchasing power during a time of inflation.
Canada’s central bank has moved into the “developmental stage” for a possible CBDC – whose fate will later be decided by the country’s parliament. Many may welcome the digital currency, but Pierre Poilievre is definitely not one of them.
Since kicking off his campaign months ago, the outspoken crypto proponent has been a fiery critic of the Bank of Canada (BoC). His criticism chiefly focused on the $500B deficit created by Justin Trudeau’s government, forcing the BoC to introduce series of quantitative easings and money printing, which turned out to be the major causes of high inflation. The candidate called the institution “financially illiterate” on Twitter.
Claiming to restore people’s purchasing power safeguarding their financial freedom, Poilievre promised that if elected as the Official Opposition leader, he would expand the auditor general’s authority to include the BoC. In this way, he believed elective officials could make the institution in charge of money printing accountable for its monetary policies.
Additionally, he vowed to “stop the risky central bank digital currency” as he saw it as a means of eroding people’s financial wellbeing.
As a crypto bull, Poilievre suggested that Canadians can “opt out” of inflation by investing in digital assets like bitcoin. He didn’t want the Bank of Canada to offer a similar product as he insisted on the importance of decentralizing the central bank’s power.
Previously, he said, if elected, he would build Canada into the world’s blockchain capital. By introducing a new model of a decentralized economy, he believed it would allow people to regain control over their money from bankers and politicians.
Canada has already made quite a few strides in the cryptocurrency industry. Aside from having a clearer approach to regulations than some other nations, its watchdogs were among the first to greenlight a Bitcoin ETF last year.