Another hike in the key rate: the Conservatives blame the Liberals

Failing to call for the departure of the Governor of the Bank of Canada, the federal Conservatives denounce the Liberal government’s “spendthrift” measures as the main factor behind the new key rate hike announced on Wednesday.

• Read also: What should we understand from the increase in the key rate?

During the leadership race, Chief Pierre Poilievre said he intended to fire Governor Tiff Macklem. The latter would have allowed the government to “print” as much money as it wanted, he accused him.

Away from these criticisms today, Mr. Poilievre has kept his opprobrium for the Liberals.

“Thanks to Justinflation, people are going to pay thousands more for Trudeau’s mortgages, loans and debt. Limit government spending. Let’s bring « common sense » back to Ottawa, » he said on Twitter on Wednesday.

Curiously, the most recent attacks on the Bank of Canada have come from the opposite end of the spectrum.

On Monday, Jagmeet Singh’s NDP took over lamenting the projected 50 basis point hikes.

“This one-size-fits-all solution to inflation is already laying the groundwork for a recession and making life difficult for most people, especially working families and people on fixed incomes, such as seniors and those in dire straits. disability,” Singh wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last Friday.

Even if he assured to respect the institutional independence of the Bank of Canada, Mr. Singh reproached Mr. Macklem for having advised companies against including higher wages in the contracts binding them to their employees.

Pierre Paul-Hus, Quebec lieutenant for the Conservative Party of Canada, deplored the “inconsistency” of the NDP.

“Rising the interest rate, for sure, hurts everyone. On the other hand, what is surprising for me is to see what the leader of the NDP is doing,” he said in a press scrum on Wednesday morning. « The leader of the NDP is asking the Bank of Canada to stop raising interest rates while he himself on the other side is pushing the Liberal government to spend more, to create inflation. »

As for Tiff Macklem, Pierre Paul-Hus refrained from any open criticism. “At the moment we are in management. The Bank of Canada really needs to do its job [qui est] find measures to control inflation. That’s what’s most important.”

His Conservative colleagues Luc Berthold and Gérard Deltell also told the press that the inflation was the result of the Trudeau government’s « inflationary measures ».

The CCP has made inflation its battle horse since the return to parliament in September. Almost all of the interventions in the House by Leader Pierre Poilievre and members of his caucus relate to the subject.