During the 1990s, he criticized the policies of the Federal Reserve Bank under Alan Greenspan, warning that "corporate earnings could fall too far to sustain the current stock prices" and lead to an economic bubble-burst.

Canova vocally supported the efforts to pass the amendment to the 2009 Dodd-Frank bill authored by former Congressman Ron Paul, (R-TX) and Representative Alan Grayson, (D-FL) that would have mandated auditing of emergency spending by the Federal Reserve.

[11] After Canova lost the Democratic primary in 2016, he formed "Progress for All" to organize support for numerous issues, including the fight against the Sabal Trail Transmission Pipeline.

According to FloridaPolitics.com, he criticized Wasserman Schultz for "voting to give the president trade promotion authority, a move Canova said will destroy U.S. jobs by sending them overseas; supporting a bill that would block tougher regulations of short-term, high-interest-rate 'payday' loans, which he said prey on the poor; and opposing Florida’s 2014 medical marijuana ballot initiative, a measure that nearly won the required 60 percent approval to become law.

However, Florida Democratic Party executive director Scott Arceneaux specified that the exception would only apply to the contest between Canova and Wasserman Schultz, because of "the truly unique factors."

"[16] On May 21, 2016, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Canova, telling CNN's Jake Tapper "Clearly, I favor [Wasserman Schultz's] opponent.

"[17] Canova accused Wasserman Schultz for taking corporate money, citing his large base of small-dollar donors.

[12] At the June 15 press conference announcing Canova's candidacy, reporters questioned him about a video he had posted on his Facebook page in January 2017,[25] in which he said that Seth Rich "may have been the WikiLeaks source of the leaked DNC emails.

[26][12] On April 2, 2018, Canova announced that he would be withdrawing from the contest for the Democratic nomination and would instead be challenging Wasserman Schultz in the general election as an independent candidate.

[27] In a September 24, 2020 interview with The Floridian, Canova stated that "There is no way I can vote for Joe Biden," praising President Donald Trump's foreign policy and his apparent push to end the independence of the Federal Reserve.