Amid Poilievre criticism, BoC governor says he'll 'leave the politics to the politicians'

While Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has called for his removal, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says he will “leave the politics to the politicians.”

“We welcome diverse views, we welcome analysis, we welcome criticism of our work and our decisions," said Macklem. “Canadians should be asking us tough questions.”

Poilievre has said he would fire Macklem if he became prime minister, criticizing him for record high inflation, record high housing prices and the bank's quantitative easing program, which Poilievre says is “money printing.”

“When the Bank Governor surrendered his independence to print money for Trudeau, it inflated a housing bubble,” Poilievre tweeted on Wednesday. “If that bubble bursts, countless people will be underwater on their mortgages—facing bankruptcy. Another reason to fire Trudeau & his Governor.”

Macklem defended the bank’s actions at the start of the pandemic to drop interest rates and provide liquidity to markets through quantitative easing, saying they were key to making sure a “very deep recession didn't become a depression.” 

Macklem admitted that inflation “is too high” but said he is confident the bank will be able to bring inflation back to its mandated two per cent target.

“We've now got some new challenges. Inflation is too high, there are global supply constraints, there's a war in Ukraine, our economy is overheating,” said Macklem. “There's a second part to this and we need to complete the job. We need to get inflation back to target and we're very focused on doing that.”

When asked by reporters if it was appropriate for Poilievre to call for his removal, Macklem repeated he would “leave the politics to the politicians” and declined to comment further.