Poilievre takes shot at Carney’s record, saying he failed at Bank of England​on March 14, 2025 at 10:07 pm

(Bloomberg) — Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Mark Carney should have been fired when he was governor of the Bank of England, arguing that the new Canadian prime minister’s economic record isn’t as strong as he presents it.

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Poilievre, speaking to reporters hours after Carney was sworn in as Canada’s new leader, said Carney had acted as an “unreliable boyfriend” while leading the central bank from 2013 to 2020. That’s a reference to a quote from British lawmaker Pat McFadden, who criticized Carney over a decade ago for not following through after signaling plans to hike interest rates.

Poilievre accused Carney of “changing his mind constantly” as Bank of England governor and “printing too much money, which led to inflation.” Annual inflation averaged about 1.6% in the UK while Carney led the bank and he left in March 2020, meaning he did not oversee much of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic — after which it surged, peaking above 11% in late 2022.

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“Mark Carney should have been fired when he was the head of the Bank of England,” Poilievre said.

The comments illustrate the battle lines for an election campaign that’s likely to start soon and that is almost certain to be focused on which leader is best to manage the economy and handle a trade war with the US. Poilievre, who has been Conservative leader since 2022, built a significant lead in opinion polls by focusing on inflation, housing shortages and other economic issues. That lead has narrowed — and in some surveys it has disappeared altogether — after Justin Trudeau resigned and Carney won a vote to replace him.

A spokesperson for Carney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Poilievre made the comments after being asked whether he plans to fire Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem if the Conservatives win the next election. Poilievre made that pledge in 2022 but has not repeated it in recent years.

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While he didn’t mention Macklem by name in his response, he offered no support for the country’s top monetary policymaker. He spoke generally about civil servants’ responsibilities, in addition to slamming Carney.

“I believe that government officials should be accountable for their decisions and when they fail government officials should be fired. That is how life works in the real world and that is how life will work when I am prime minister of Canada,” he said.

Poilievre has previously criticized the Canadian central bank for its first-ever foray into quantitative easing starting in 2020, saying it contributed to inflation. When he was the Conservative finance critic, he accused the Bank of Canada of acting as “an ATM” for Trudeau’s spending by purchasing government bonds, which suppressed interest rates and made it cheaper for the government to borrow.

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Before joining the Bank of England, Carney served as governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013. Macklem sat on the governing council while Carney was in charge, before becoming governor in 2020.

This week, Macklem said the central bank “needs to stay clear of any comments that could be seen as political in nature,” when he was asked about Carney’s recent victory as Liberal leader.

George Osborne, the former UK Conservative chancellor of the exchequer who hired Carney to lead the Bank of England, told the Canadian Broacasting Corp. on Friday that he was “so thrilled he said yes, and Britain was better off for it.”

—With assistance from Randy Thanthong-Knight and Thomas Seal.

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