Canadians go to the polls to choose a new prime minister this month—but will they elect the Bitcoin advocate?
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is running for Prime Minister against incumbent Mark Carney—who called a snap election after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned.
When January began, Bitcoin Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, was flirting at $100,000 despite having already reached the landmark. endorsed The crypto-enthusiastic Candidate
But prediction market participants are now putting their money on Carney—who has criticized Bitcoin in the past and favors a Digital currency of the central bank North America is a country.
On prediction market MYRIADCarney is expected to win by 74% of the users. MYRIAD, owned by Decrypt's DASTAN is the parent company.
On popular prediction platforms PolymarketCarney’s chance is 76%.
According to Polymarket speculators, the tide is now in favor of Poilievre. Until March, they had a 70% winning chance.
Carney has also been voted the winner in non-crypto surveys, while an Ipsos poll of 1,000 Canadians giving the Liberal Party a 12-point lead over the Conservatives—46 percent to 34 percent.
Poilievre, who is considered a populist by political commentators, and Carney have very different approaches. Carney has an inclination towards the left and is a former governor of the Bank of England. He focuses his attention on sustainable politics and Trump. Poilievre—widely considered a populist by political commentators—also says he'll be tough on the U.S. president, though has been compared to the new American commander-in-chief in the past.
Carney wants more regulation of the banks while Poilievre calls for cutting government expenditures and bureaucracy.
Trump has been the hot topic for the election on April 28. He has threatened Canada with tariffs of 25% and said that Canada could become the U.S.’s 51st state.
Trump's harsh tariffs on major trading partners has rocked crypto and U.S. equities markets, sending Bitcoin's price and stock indices tumbling. But since the aggressive trade policy, Carney's popularity has grown—with Canadians approving of his response to the tariffs.
Poilievre has been pro-Bitcoin for years, once saying in 2022 that due to government mismanagement of the Canadian dollar, "Canadians should have the freedom to use other money, such as Bitcoin."
Trudeau criticized the comments as "reckless" at the time, made when Canadian truckers were protesting nationwide vaccination mandates and receiving donations from supporters in Bitcoin—not to mention Backing Musk.
Still, users on crypto-based prediction markets have their money on another candidate—the one who thinks digital money should be centralized.
