Canadian MP Gives Colleagues a Lesson On Money, Debasement, Inflation
Pierre Poilievre, a Member of Canadian Parliament for Carleton, Ontario, recently spoke in Parliament about money, currency debasement, and inflation. Poilievre is a Conservative known for championing the free market and limiting government overreach.
On January 16th of 2022, Poilievre posted a video on Twitter with accompanying text asking “What is money?”. In the 9 and a half minute video, he can be seen addressing Parliament answering this question, taking his colleagues through the history of money, and describing the functions of a sound monetary system. Pierre describes money as “a technology by which we transport value over time and space” a phrase which bitcoiners may also remember hearing from Michael Saylor during his series of podcast episode appearances on Robert Breedlove’s “What Is Money?” show.
Poilievre lists the many forms of money such as: ledgers carved on limestone, glass beads, seashells, cigarettes in prisons, candy in schools, and precious metals. With regards to the government’s corruption of money, he states “Politicians have found it a nuisance to pay their bills using money with integrity.”
The influence of many of bitcoin’s most prominent thinkers can be heard throughout Poilievre’s speech, including from the book The Bitcoin Standard written by Author and Podcaster Dr. Saifedean Ammous. In a followup tweet, Poilievre confirmed that Dr. Ammous has influenced his thinking around the topic of money.
Control of money, debasement of money
Coin clipping, coating copper coins with silver, and stamping coins with different numbers are just some examples of monetary debasement illustrated by Poilivre. These archaic forms of debasement demonstrate how kings and rulers in the past would devalue currency, inflating the cost of goods and services. “I worry that this Prime Minister might think that he could do the same'' in reference to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Similar to the United States, Canada has also undergone an exponential increase in their money supply over recent years.
Source: tradingeconomics.com
Response From The Community
In response to Poilievre’s post, many bitcoiners were quick to recognize the influence of Ammous’s work in the speech. A favorable sign for the community to speculate that Poilievre himself may be holding bitcoin. There is currently no confirmation from Poilievre that he owns bitcoin and there are currently no direct mentions of it from his Twitter account.
Poilievre’s address has also garnered kudos from those who do not identify with his political affiliations, highlighting that sound money is an issue on which those on opposing ends of the political spectrum can agree. An example of this is Scott A. Wolfe's recent Quote Tweet. Wolfe's Twitter bio states that he is the Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Community Health Centres. He also describes himself as a "progressive bitcoin advocate." In his Tweet, Wolfe states commends Poilievre on the "core substance" of his speech going on to say that, “I think @saifedean’s ‘The #Bitcoin Standard’ and ‘The Fiat Standard’ should be required reading for all MPs”.