Key Takeaways
- Canada's new prime minister, Mark Carney, is a long-time Bitcoin critic.
- Carney previously led the Bank of Canada and Bank of England.
- He supports CBDCs but served on Stripe's board during its crypto adoption.
Mark Carney, a former central banker and vocal Bitcoin critic, has been elected as Canada’s new prime minister in a landslide victory on March 9.
Carney previously served as governor of the Bank of Canada (2008-2013) and the Bank of England (2013-2020) before entering politics.
Carney has been critical of Bitcoin for years.
In March 2018, he argued that Bitcoin’s fixed supply cap leads to “serious deficiencies”, likening it to a failed gold standard:
Recreating a virtual global gold standard would be a criminal act of monetary amnesia.
He also dismissed Bitcoin’s reliability as a store of value, pointing to its price fluctuations as making it an unreliable asset for financial planning.
Support for CBDCs & crypto industry ties
Despite his criticism of Bitcoin, Carney has advocated for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), suggesting they could help combat economic crime and expand banking access.
However, his time on the board of Stripe (2021-2025) coincided with the payment firm adopting crypto payment solutions from 2022 to 2024.
Carney’s stance on US tariffs
Beyond Bitcoin, Carney used his March 9 victory speech to criticize Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, calling them an attack on the Canadian economy.
He pledged to maintain retaliatory tariffs until the U.S. treats Canada with “respect.”
