The Bank of Canada has confirmed that, after two quarters of negative growth, the Canadian economy is technically in a recession although the bank would prefer to call it a "mild contraction." The dollar is at a six-year low, mainly due to the falling price of oil and gas.

There have been persistent rumors for some time here that New York-based digital currencies exchange Coinbase is planning to expand into the Canadian market.

One of the largest exchanges in the world, and a benchmark for the NYSE's bitcoin index NYXBT, Coinbase was named one of the 50 "Smart companies" of 2015 by MIT Technology Review.

When Bitcoin Magazine asked Coinbase's International Expansion Head Sam Rosenblum to comment on the speculation, he would say only:

"Thanks for thinking of Coinbase… While we currently operate in 25 countries around the world, Canada is unfortunately not one of them.  We certainly hope to launch our operations in Canada sooner rather than later."

You may think Rosenblum is being coy, but he, along with other potential investors, may very well be reassessing the Canadian market in light of new economic realities and a sea change at the federal government level as every poll indicates the socialist New Democratic Party (NDP) will likely win the upcoming election.