International finance expert Louis J. Rasminsky steps into the delicate job of governor of the Bank of Canada early next week. Mr. Rasminsky, now a deputy-governor of the bank, succeeds James Elliott Coyne, whose bitter feud with the Government propelled the cloistered Central Bank into the forefront of a national sensation.
The bank’s board of directors will be submitting the 53-year-old deputy’s name to the Government for formal approval following a meeting to be held late this week. The directors meeting is only a formality. The board has already agreed informally on Mr. Rasminsky, and no other name will be put forward. Quick acceptance by the Cabinet will follow.
Mr. Rasminsky becomes the first Jewish person ever to hold such a high office in the realm of Canadian finance, or in the entire field of the public service. No chartered bank has ever been headed by a Jew in Canada, nor has any Jew ever advanced so far in the public service.
The new governor’s international background makes him particularly valuable at the moment. Canada’s manipulation with the external value of its dollar is raising some eyebrows abroad, and a man well versed in the subject can do much to maintain the reputation of Canadian financial policy. Mr. Rasminsky is Canada’s representative of the International Monetary Fund, and this week he is in Washington explaining Canada’s devaluation policy.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
