Trudeau Pooh-poohs Rival’s Crypto Enthusiasm

Canada’s Prime Minister of seven years, Justin Trudeau, took pot shots Monday at newly elected conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre over his crypto views

by Sebastian Sinclair /

September 14, 2022 06:00 am

Source: Shutterstock

Opposition leader Poilievre’s leadership on crypto is irresponsible Trudeau said
Individuals who’ve followed the advice of Poilivere would have seen their life savings destroyed, the Prime Minister said

Newsletter

Subscribe to The Breakdown

Canada’s Prime Minister has fired a shot across the bow of freshly elected opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, labeling his views on cryptocurrencies as irresponsible, and calling his leadership into question.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a gathered crowd at the Liberal caucus retreat on Monday, individuals could not hope to dodge macro headwinds by diverting their savings towards crypto.

“Telling people they can opt out of inflation by investing their savings in volatile cryptocurrencies is not responsible leadership,” the Prime Minister said. “By the way, anyone who followed that advice would have seen their life savings destroyed.”

Pierre Poilievre; Source: Shutterstock

Inflation, including other macroeconomic factors such as low wage growth and tailwind pandemic supply shortages, have all but forced individuals to seek alternative investments in a desperate attempt to stay ahead of multiple crises, including Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Trudeau’s comments come as little surprise, given the recent protests earlier in the year involving Canadian truckers who sought to circumvent capital controls placed on them by their government for refusing to adhere to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Bitcoin and other cryptos proved to be a useful tool to sidestep controversial financial sanctions, imposed by the Trudeau administration, which saw hundreds of thousands of dollars in BTC reach protestors’ pockets.

Canada’s Prime Minister later reiterated his stance toward crypto, while also taking a shot at Poilievre’s COVID-19 politics.

Loading Tweet..

Poilievre, who won a major landslide victory as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada on Saturday, has continued to publicly advocate for crypto and bitcoin.

Viewed as a means to “decentralize” the economy, reduce government involvement and pare back central bankers, Poilievre said in March if elected to lead the country, he would normalize crypto.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.

Tags

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Digital Asset Summit 2026

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

buy tickets learn more

recent research

Research

ERC 8004: Introducing Trust for AI Agents

ERC 8004 introduces a new trust layer for AI agents by standardizing onchain identity, reputation, and validation. As agents begin handling capital and coordinating autonomously, trust becomes the key constraint to broader adoption. The rollout mirrors the early x402 narrative, where adoption lagged the initial launch until major integrations and a viral use case pulled attention into the ecosystem. If ERC 8004 follows a similar path, downstream infrastructure tied to the standard could see outsized benefit as the narrative gains traction. The primary beneficiaries are likely to be agent frameworks and launchpads at the distribution layer, agent to agent coordination platforms that enable delegation and payments, and validation providers that offer stronger security and execution guarantees.

by Kunal Doshi