Hacker News Reader

Comment by Scoundreller | Hacker News Reader

I mean, they admit that they only have "considerable independence", but not "total independence":

"The Bank of Canada is a special type of Crown corporation, owned by the federal government, but with considerable independence to carry out its responsibilities."

https://www.bankofcanada.ca/about

They also add: "The Governor and Senior Deputy Governor are appointed by the Bank's Board of Directors (with the approval of Cabinet), not by the federal government."

... and the BoD are appointed by cabinet.

Does the political branch make the decisions? No. But they choose the people that do!

View on HN

Does the political branch make the decisions? No. But they choose the people that do!

This by no means implies any control over interest rates. At all.

People are appointed, and that's where political input ends. And those appointed stay appointed, are not chosen lightly, markets do not react well to poor choice.

By your metric, you'd think our Supreme court judges were puppets too. They aren't.

People may have political leanings, but understand, that is not the same as allowing input where it is not allowed.

The government cannot interfere with the judicial branch, nor with fiscal policy. To do so, renders it a banana republic, or dictatorship, any attempts would be disaster, for those appointed take this very seriously.

A core part of the job is to ignore ministers, the PMO, and so on.

It is entirely independent.

Bank of Canada directors are on 3-year (renewable) terms.

You don't need someone that will take in your input when you install people that are going to do what you want in the first place.

The governor and deputy are 7 years, appointed by directors. They control fiscal policy.

Look, I know it's fashionable to claim that everyone just ignores their roles via legislation (such as the bank of canada act), ignores change and what's happening in the world around them, to instead act as puppets, but that's just not how it works.

>By your metric, you'd think our Supreme court judges were puppets too

In the US supreme court judges almost always agree with whatever position is favoured by the party that appointed them, even if nominally independent.

If this were true, SCOTUS would almost always be split 5-4. But, it is not. In fact, it typically has significantly more 9-0 decisions than 5-4.

For example: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jun/23/trey-wingo...

>If this were true, SCOTUS would almost always be split 5-4

That'd only be the case if there were no policies with bi-partisan support. How many of those 9-0 are for politically contentious issues?

You say that as if that's relevant, when discussing Canada.

And you're confusing political leanings, with influence. Political leanings which can, and have changed over careers. Not to mention, some of them outlive everyone who appointed them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com