Conservative Party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has a personal financial interest in the cryptocurrencies he promoted during his campaign as an inflation hedge.
The Ottawa-area MP’s assets include shares of Purpose Bitcoin, a Canada-based exchange-traded fund that holds cryptocurrencies, according to his May 4 disclosure to the federal ethics commissioner.
Poilievre’s campaign refusal to encourage crypto investments puts him in a conflict of interest.
“Mr. Poilievre spoke with the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner before publicly commenting on bitcoin and bitcoin policies,” his spokesman Anthony Koch said in an email.
“The Bureau allowed him to do so with no problem.”
The campaign provided an email from the Office of the Ethics Commissioner from November stating that interest in Bitcoin “does not preclude you from commenting on cryptocurrencies in general, participating in debates, and voting on public policy. related to the regulation of cryptocurrencies”.
The commissioner’s office also said Poilievre was free to arrange conversations with other MPs “on this subject, as any policies or regulations would apply to you as a member of a broad class”.
Poilievre proposed banning the Bank of Canada from developing its own digital currency and said Canadians should be free to use alternative currencies for payments.
“We need sound money again – and also the freedom for buyers and sellers to choose #bitcoin and other technologies,” he tweeted on April 1.
In March, he hosted an event at a restaurant in London, Ontario, and paid for a shawarma using Bitcoin. And at an April event in British Columbia, he donated Bitcoin to the BC SPCA, accompanied by a dog with a Bitcoin logo.
“A Poilievre government would welcome this new decentralized, bottom-up economy and allow people to take control of their money from bankers and politicians,” his campaign said in a press release.
Since then, the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has plunged, exposing Poilievre to criticism from naysayers who say it’s unwise to encourage Canadians to invest in something so volatile.
The value of the Purpose Bitcoin ETF has fallen nearly 40% in the past six months.
The Conflict of Interest Code for Members of Parliament requires Members to declare assets and liabilities over $10,000. But this does not require them to reveal the value of their assets or the date of their acquisition.
Poilievre’s campaign said his bitcoin holdings were just around the disclosure threshold.
In his disclosure, Poilievre also said he owns exchange-traded funds based on Singapore and Swiss stock indices. His campaign said he was required under the Conflict of Interest Code to publicly disclose those ETFs, but not his holdings in a Canadian stock index fund.
“Mr. Poilievre’s biggest investment by far is in the Canadian Index Fund which tracks the TSX,” the campaign said.
The co-founder of ethics advocacy group Democracy Watch said MPs should be barred from holding assets like bitcoin.
“It is clearly unethical for MPs or leadership candidates to advocate for changes that will help the companies they invest in, and the best way to stop this is to ban MPs to have investments,” Duff Conacher said in an email.
During last week’s leadership debate in Edmonton, Poilievre was challenged for his past comments on Bitcoin. It shouldn’t encourage investment in “magic internet money,” said Brampton, Ont., mayor and leadership candidate Patrick Brown.
“People can make their own investment decisions,” Poilievre said in response to a question from Leslyn Lewis, Ontario Conservative MP and leadership candidate.
“I just said they should be free to decide if they want to use bitcoin. I don’t want to be like communist China and ban bitcoin or other technologies.
Canadian investors are already free to invest in cryptocurrencies. Indeed, Poilievre is not the only MP investing in crypto. At least seven others have declared Bitcoin or other digital currency assets in their disclosures, including:
Ben Lobb (Conservative, Ontario): Bitcoin.
Chandra Arya (Liberal, Ontario): Coinbase Global Inc. Stock Options
Taleeb Noormohamed (Liberal, BC): Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stacks and Coinbase Global Inc.
Joël Lightbound (Liberal, Quebec): Purpose Bitcoin ETF, Purpose Ether ETF, Bitcoin and Solana.
Scot Davidson (Conservative, ON): Evolve Cryptocurrencies ETF, owned by spouse.
Tony Van Bynen (Liberal, Ontario): Ethereum.
Terry Beech (Liberal, BC): Ethereum.
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