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Former TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond expects Tiff Macklem, left, to follow Mark Carney, right, as Bank of Canada Governor.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Don Drummond, one of the individuals who has been seen as a potential contender to become Canada's next central banker, suggested Thursday that he thinks Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Tiff Macklem will get the job.

Mr. Macklem, the most prominent internal candidate at the Bank, is widely believed to be a front-runner for the position.

"You don't hire somebody with the thought of kicking their tires and that once they're on site you'll give them some training," Mr. Drummond, former chief economist of Toronto-Dominion Bank and recent consultant to the Ontario government on its budget reform process, told a real estate forum that he was speaking at in Toronto. "They have to be trained before they get there, which is why they typically go to the safety and security of somebody who has been brought up through the internal system."

In the history of the Bank the only governor to have come from the outside was David Dodge, who already had considerable expertise in monetary policy, Mr. Drummond said.

"Given that tradition, given the importance of that risk aversion for that position, the default has to be you have to prove that there's something amiss with a person that's waiting," he said. "And if there's something lacking in Tiff Macklem as a quality for the governor it has escaped my attention."

Mr. Macklem is "a phenomenal guy," Mr. Drummond said.

"He didn't get a lot of credit for it, but through the whole process of the financial meltdown the chief thing was the G20 finance committee looking at the bank rules around the world, and he co-chaired that process with his counterpart from India and I thought he did a fantastic job on that," Mr. Drummond said. "And as an unexpected bonus which is not always there he is highly bilingual. A lot of the names that people are throwing around are not, and that rules them out."

"It is true that I am considering another job, I'd like to be mayor of Toronto," Mr. Drummond joked. "Will you vote for me?"

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