Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Attacks Opposition for Recommending Bitcoin as Inflation Hedge

Earlier this year, Pierre Poilievre, the new leader of the opposition Conservative Party, said he supports bitcoin as an inflation-beating asset.

By Omkar Godbole

Sep 13, 2022 at 2:06 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 13, 2022 at 3:57 p.m. UTC

US Canada flag (Chris Robert/Unsplash) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking a public stance against bitcoin. (Chris Robert/Unsplash)

Omkar Godbole

Omkar Godbole was a senior reporter on CoinDesk's Markets team.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on Monday criticized the opposition party for asking people to invest in bitcoin to beat inflation.

"Telling people they can opt out of inflation by investing in cryptocurrencies is not responsible leadership," Trudeau tweeted, calling the opposition's economic ideas reckless and questionable.

Trudeau's criticism comes after the Conservative Party, Canada's main opposition to Trudeau's Liberal Party, elected pro-bitcoin veteran lawmaker Pierre Poilievre as its new leader.

Early this year, Poilievre attacked Trudeau for injecting $400 billion into the economy, which he said fueled inflation. Poilievre supported the use of supposed fiat alternatives such as bitcoin.

Bitcoin devotees have long said that the cryptocurrency's scarcity would help investors preserve the value of their money during times of high inflation. Bitcoin's market valuation, however, has halved to $427 billion this year despite rampant inflation.

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