The Evolution of Canadian Labour Markets: In Conversation with the Governor of the Bank of Canada

Tiff Macklem was appointed Governor of the Bank of Canada, effective June 3, 2020, for a seven-year term. As Governor, he is also Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bank and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements. He is chair of the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision, the oversight body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and co-chair of the Financial Stability Board’s Regional Consultative Group for the Americas.

Mr. Macklem first joined the Bank in 1984 and returned in 1989. He occupied increasingly senior positions in what is now the Canadian Economic Analysis Department until his appointment as Chief in January 2000. He was appointed Advisor to the Governor in August 2003 and made a Deputy Governor in December 2004.

During the 2008–09 global financial crisis, Mr. Macklem was Associate Deputy Minister at the Department of Finance Canada and represented Canada at the G7, G20 and Financial Stability Board. Mr. Macklem returned to the Bank in July 2010 when he was appointed Senior Deputy Governor.

In July 2014, Mr. Macklem assumed the role of Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. During his time at Rotman, he frequently spoke about the global financial system, risk management and public policy. Before becoming Governor, Mr. Macklem served as a director of the Bank of Nova Scotia and chair of its board risk committee. He was also chair of Ontario’s Panel on Economic Growth and Prosperity, the federal Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance and the Global Risk Institute in Financial Services.

Born in Montréal, Quebec, Mr. Macklem graduated from Queen’s University in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He completed a master’s degree in 1984 and a PhD in economics in 1989, both from the University of Western Ontario.

Edward Greenspon has worked at the intersection of journalism and public policy for more than 30 years. Before becoming President & CEO of the Public Policy Forum, Ed was a journalist with The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg News and newspapers in Western Canada. He is also the author of two books on Canadian politics, policy and public opinion.

At the Globe, Ed specialized in politics, economics, foreign affairs and business while serving as Editor-in-Chief, Ottawa bureau chief, European correspondent and managing editor of the Report on Business. He was an early proponent of digital transformation as founding editor of globeandmail.com.

At Bloomberg News, he was Editor-at-Large for Canada and global managing editor for energy, environment and commodities, a group situated in 22 countries on six continents.

Ed is the author of Double Vision: The Inside Story of the Liberals in Power, which won the 1996 Douglas Purvis Award for best public policy book, and of Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset. He was a winner of PPF’s Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism. In 2010, he chaired a 13-person panel for the Canadian International Council that produced a bold international policy strategy called Open Canada: A Global Positioning Strategy for a Networked Age.

Ed holds a combined honours degree in journalism and political science from Carleton University and was a Commonwealth Scholar at the London School of Economics, earning an M.Sc. (Econ.) with distinction.

Ed joined PPF in 2016.