Bank of Canada Ex-Governor David Dodge Gets Into Spat with Poilievre

Former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge is challenging Conservative Party MP and leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre’s claim the central bank is “financially illiterate.”

On April 22, he tweeted that the “Bank of Canada says #Bitcoin-ers lack financial literacy. This from the same people who promised we’d have “deflation” right before inflation hit a 30 year high. It is our central bank that is financially illiterate. Restore sound money.”

In an interview on CTV’s Question Period airing Sunday, Dodge, who was governor from 2001 to 2008, called the assertion “bull****."

“I’m very insulted by that…They understand what's going on,” he said, adding that the Bank of Canada’s navigation of the last two years has effectively kept Canada out of a “real depression” coming out of the pandemic.

On another Poilievre stance -- that cryptocurrency allows people to “opt out” of inflation -- Dodge said “he has no idea what he’s talking about.”

“He’s just wrong because the issue of rising prices…that you have to cope with out of your income is fundamentally at the moment a structural one,” he said. “We have limitations on supply, in part because of a war, in part because of COVID, in part because of ongoing features of the economy – we’re all getting older – the labour force is not growing as fast.”

But Poilievre has said he isn’t trying to win over the opinions of past or current central bankers in his pledge to help every day Canadians suffering from the high costs of living.

"If you think I'm going to be silent about that to protect the ego of bankers and politicians, then you're in for a surprise," Poilievre told reporters in response.