do you really think the bank of canada has ever seriously been entirely independent of the pmo?

i think that the independence of the bank of canada functionally refers to the ability of the bank to reject decisions that are clearly wrong, rather than the ability to evade any political influence.

i mean, i know what's supposed to be true. but it's really never actually been true.

"Although the Bank enjoys substantial independence, the Bank of Canada Act gives the finance minister the right to issue a formal, written policy directive to the Bank of Canada if, after consultation,  disagreement on policy persists. It was the resignation of Coyne in  1961, over differences with the government, that influenced the introduction of the legal provision clarifying that ultimate  responsibility for policy rests with the government."

i think this is important in regards to the dollar. of all harper's failures, that is the one that hurt us the most - he did nothing to slow the dollar's rise. that killed the export economy, made us dependent on imports and is the ultimate cause of the inflation we're dealing with at the moment.

that oil is stranded, and harper seems to actually be the only party leader that realizes it. so, *now* he's pushing the dollar back down. it's too little, too late. and, it's left a mess.

and, you know, i'm going to be pissed if he starts taking credit for this - because he's spent the last ten years blaming the decline of the manufacturing sector on the ontario liberals', when it truth it was a failure of his own monetary policy.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/canadian-keynesian/2015/08/harper-jeopardizes-conduct-monetary-policy