Polymarket opens trading on Ontario mayoral races including Windsor
Polymarket has opened trading on several Ontario mayoral races ahead of the October 26 municipal election, including Windsor's contest. The markets went live as of Tuesday, September 15. The expansion into Canadian local politics comes shortly after the platform activated markets on Vancouver's municipal election. Polymarket is also gaining visibility in Serbia, where it is pricing the country's prime minister race at 56% for Vučić and 42% for Srdanović, per Serbian Monitor.
Polymarket is testing whether Canadian provinces will tolerate election-linked event contracts that fall outside federal CIRO dealer registration. Ontario has no provincial gaming license for prediction markets, so Polymarket operates in a clear gap between securities and gambling law. That mirrors the platform's stance in Brazil, where it kept 40 election markets live despite a central-bank ban. Ontario or British Columbia moves to block these markets, Polymarket risks a domino effect across provinces.
The platform's CFTC registration gives it credibility with international users but no shield against local enforcement. Competitors like Wealthsimple and Interactive Brokers hold the only CIRO permits for event contracts, so they face a different calculation: stay inside federal lines or match Polymarket's province-by-province trespass. The first province to issue a cease order will signal whether Canada's ten provincial gaming authorities fragment the market or coordinate a unified response.
The move follows Polymarket's launch of Vancouver municipal election trading just days earlier, doubling its Canadian local-election footprint as the platform probes provincial tolerance for election-linked event contracts outside federal CIRO channels.