Pierre Poilievre, a Conservative Party candidate for Prime Minister and current Member of Parliament (MP) of Canada, is attempting to earn favor in Bitcoin and the larger cryptocurrency industry as Bitcoin (BTC) becomes a rising tide in politics.
In a video shared on Twitter, Poilievre can be seen using the Bitcoin Lightning Network to buy some chicken shawarma from Tahinis, a Canadian restaurant, the cost for which was one Satoshi. This was Tahini’s first-ever Bitcoin (BTC) purchase.
On Monday, 28th March, Poilevre said in a statement that,
“Government is ruining the Canadian dollar, so Canadians should have the freedom to use other money, such as bitcoin,”
Poilievre claims he intends to keep bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies legal while avoiding a ban or a China-style crackdown. He has also argued that cryptocurrencies, not only bitcoin, should be recognized as commodities, according to reports. Because securities regulation is a provincial duty, Poilievre says he expects to collaborate with provinces to reduce the “cobweb of contradictory rules.”
This view is not unique to Canada; many citizens throughout the world have expressed strong opposition to central banks’ arbitrary practice of quantitative easing, in which they artificially boost the money supply to fix their issues.
Global Bitcoin adoption soon?
Countries around the world are looking into alternate, neutral assets to counter the flaws in our traditional banking systems.
Malaysia had recently blocked a bill to legalize crypto in the country, citing that it was not reliable at the current moment.
Mexico, too, is looking into legalizing cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal mode of payment for their citizens.
Rumors about Honduras accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender was also circulating the online space. But the central bank authorities of the country have since clarified that Bitcoin is not yet regulated in their country.
Additionally, Yoon Suk-Yeol, a former top prosecutor who promised to deregulate the crypto business, is poised to become the next president of South Korea.
El Salvador remains the only country to use Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender.
With so many nations looking at crypto to solve their economic problems, it is not surprising that the current scenario has seen a politicizing of crypto assets. Politicians around the globe are using Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to reach out to a new section of voters, namely the crypto crowd. And this strategy sure seems to be a safe option as crypto investors are at large in today’s society.
Canada had recently seen one of its biggest protests (against vaccine mandates), in which Canadian truckers had blocked the Canada-US highway. The protests saw a large number of crowdfunding initiatives and many in the form of crypto and Bitcoin donations.
Unfortunately, the Canadian government seized most of the fiat donations, and also a large portion of the crypto donations as well. This reflected poorly on the Trudeau administration, leading to them losing the confidence of many of their voters.
Although we are at a fairly early phase, the stage for global crypto acceptance seems to be set. It is only a matter of time, it would appear, before countries with larger global footholds start accepting cryptocurrencies, making a giant shift in the economic strata.