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Saturday May 2, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 2, 2020

Tiff Macklem to lead the Bank of Canada

Finance Minister Bill Morneau has appointed Tiff Macklem, the former senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, to take over the top job at the central bank as it navigates the uncertainty of a pandemic-driven recession.

February 11, 2009

Macklem is currently the dean of the Rotman School of Management in Toronto, but had spent decades with the Bank of Canada before starting that appointment. 

Macklem began his career at the bank in 1984. He was widely expected to win the contest for bank governor in 2013, but was beaten out by Stephen Poloz, who was then CEO of Export Development Canada.

Poloz’s term ends June 2. 

The transition to new leadership comes as millions of Canadians have signed up for government aid and companies big and small are relying on federally backed wage subsidies to weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

During Friday’s announcement, Morneau said he’s confident Macklem’s expertise in financial markets will help the central bank navigate an economic crisis never before seen in Canada.

Coronavirus cartoons

“The bank has to be humble about what it doesn’t know. There’s a lot we don’t know about this disease. There’s a lot that medical experts don’t know about this disease,” Macklem said during his unveiling in Ottawa.

“But the Bank of Canada has tremendous analytic economic financial capacity to analyze what’s going on in the economy, and the important role for the Bank of Canada is to provide Canadians with as much information as it can honestly provide as to what is happening and what the recovery could look like, recognizing that we’re probably going to have to look at more than one scenario.”

In the past months, Poloz and Morneau have appeared at several joint news conferences to show a co-ordinated approach on monetary and fiscal policy to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic and global oil shocks.

Morneau has announced more than $250 billion in direct financial aid, credit support and tax deferrals to help offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. (CBC) 

 

Thursday October 18, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 18, 2012

Draft McGuinty Movement Underway

Dalton McGuinty pushes draft campaign to distract from prorogation

Less than a day after Dalton McGuinty made the shock announcement he was quitting as Ontario Premier, a campaign is building to send the Ottawa South MPP to Parliament Hill.

With Monday’s resignation McGuinty is suddenly free to run for the federal Liberal leadership, and if he does, he’ll have a ready-made campaign team all set to go.

For the past month, a draft campaign has been in the works to persuade McGuinty to jump into the federal fray.

Some of his closest campaign advisers have been involved, including brother Brendan McGuinty — who was on hand for McGuinty’s news conference Monday — and Don Guy, campaign director for each of McGuinty’s three winning provincial campaigns.

Deputy chief of staff Dave Gene, former chief of staff Chris Morley and former operations director Charlie Angelakos are also part of the group.

Sources say a leadership campaign road map has already been sketched out.

“The core nucleus of the team that he’s been able to build around him, that took him through three election campaigns, is a proven team … It would be a ready-made team that would be able to focus on this (leadership) as well,” said one insider close to McGuinty.

McGuinty has not yet decided whether to take the plunge, those close to him insist, but he is feeling the pressure.

“I don’t think he’s changed his mind yet,” said one close associate. “But I can tell you that some of this is getting to him.” (Source: National Post)