Finance critic rips Poilievre's BoC plan
OTTAWA — Conservative finance critic Ed Fast said Wednesday he believes Pierre Poilievre's pitch to fire the Bank of Canada governor over the country's inflation rate, which is the highest it has been in 30 years, hurts the party's credibility on economic issues.
Fast is co-chairing the leadership campaign of longtime Ottawa-area MP Poilievre rival and former Quebec premier Jean Charest, who also panned the attack against Tiff Macklem as being out of line. Poilievre pledged to replace Macklem as the head of the country's central bank during last week's leadership debate in Edmonton, saying he'd put someone in his place that follows its low-inflation mandate.
“I'm deeply troubled by suggestions by one of our leadership candidates that that candidate would be prepared to interfere already at this stage in the independence of our central bank,” Fast told reporters ahead of the party's caucus meeting Wednesday.
“We lose some credibility when we do this ... ”