Canada’s election result is significant for many reasons — and not just the impact it’ll have on crypto regulation in the country.
In the dying embers of Justin Trudeau’s government, just before Donald Trump swept to power across the border, the Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre looked almost certain to win.
Data from CBC showed his party had a 22-point lead in the polls at one point — putting the country on course to elect a pro-Bitcoin prime minister.
Poilievre had been a vocal supporter of cryptocurrency for years, and famously bought a chicken shawarma from a Middle Eastern restaurant that accepted BTC… long before Donald Trump was courting the votes of Bitcoiners.
He also stood by truckers involved in the Freedom Convoy movement, and was highly critical when bank accounts belonging to protesters were frozen.
But in a stunning turn of events, Poilievre’s party didn’t just lose the election… he lost his seat as a Member of Parliament.
Anecdotal evidence from voters suggest they were turned off by his backing for the Freedom Convoy, which primarily began as a protest against vaccine mandates for truckers working across the U.S. and Canada. Others bristled at his combative rhetoric, which at times was not too dissimilar to Trump’s.
Image: CBCBitcoin wasn’t front and center on the campaign trail. Instead, the biggest issue concerning Canadians was how best to stand up to Trump’s trade war — not to mention his calls for the country to become America’s 51st state.
Earlier this year, Trudeau gave way as Liberal leader and was succeeded by Mark Carney. The fact that he’s now become prime minister is made all the more remarkable considering he had next to no political experience before. Instead, he’s best known as the former governor of the Bank of England.
As you’d expect, Carney’s views on Bitcoin in the past have been a lot less complimentary. He’s repeatedly dismissed the notion that BTC can serve as a form of money — and even if this is the case, the digital asset is heavily reliant on the value of traditional fiat currencies. Back in 2018, he said:
“It is not a store of value because it is all over the map. Nobody uses it as a medium of exchange.”
Yet it’s fair to say he isn’t as staunch an opponent to cryptocurrencies as some other politicians on the world stage. Carney has repeatedly stressed that he has no interest in stifling innovation, and would like the crypto space to be regulated.
“It is a privilege to be part of the financial system, to be connected to the financial system. And responsibilities come with those privileges.”
That’s a sentiment that few major crypto businesses will disagree with — and in fact, it’s one that many would welcome.
In the run-up to the Canadian election, Stand With Crypto graded Carney with a “B” — indicating that he somewhat supports the digital assets space. But this was reliant on statements that haven’t been made fairly recently, including a speech in 2023 where he lobbied in favor of CBDCs. Similar assertions were also made in his book, with Carney writing:
“The most likely future of money is a central bank stablecoin, known as a central bank digital currency or CBDC.”
Yet his ascension to power comes seven months after the Bank of Canada confirmed that it is “scaling down” its work on developing a retail CBDC — arguing there is “no compelling case” to launch one at the moment.
Countries don’t need a pro-BTC prime minister for crypto to thrive. But with Donald Trump firing the starting gun on countries establishing strategic Bitcoin reserves, having a leader who’s open-minded toward digital assets can be advantageous.
There would have been a decent chance of Poilievre pursuing this policy, but you can bet your bottom dollar that Mark Carney won’t.
With the new prime minister vowing to stand up to the U.S. president, Canada’s choice still has the potential to affect Bitcoin’s price immensely in the weeks and months ahead — especially if the threat of tariffs and an all-out trade war intensifies.
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