As a European, I have no interest in Canada joining the EU. It’s not even in Europe, nor near it, nor an overseas possession of its countries.
It’d also give us a large border with Fascistland.
However, I do think we could have association partnership with Canada - basically the closest to being a member state in all but name, membership, and voting rights. I also want labour rights to remain protected; and thus to ward off the influence of techbros.
liberal counterweight to autocratic hegemony
Nobody is expecting the European Commission.
Their chief weapon is beer.
I’m Canadian. Sign me up! I remember as a lad in the 1960’s that commercials on TV compared Canada to the nordic countries, not america. That’s right around the start of “capitalization” when “business administration” students were pushed out of colleges in huge numbers and everything slowly went to hell.
I like the idea, although our provinces would have to give up quite a bit of their sovereignty which would be a hard sell politically. We have more trade barriers between our provinces than the EU has.
We’re a good sized market, but not so big that the EU would be willing to put up with 10 exceptions to their rules.
would have to give up quite a bit of their sovereignty which would be a hard sell politically.
You say that like we don’t want to work together.
But I’m sure provinces in Germany and Spain get to have their own squabbles like our petty ones.
10 exceptions to their rules.
Provinces needing their snowflake exceptions get annexed by America. If the UK could join the EU there’s nothing stopping us but nostalgia; and I hear that’s not a strategy anymore.
Ultimately, we’re gonna have to one day decide whether we’re Canadian and quit the in-fighting. If we can’t learn the lesson of Queenston Heights then we deserve what we get.
As Canada isn’t in Europe, some renaming has to happen… perhaps Freedom Union?
A union of nation states that value freedom.
United States of Freedom?
French Guyana isn’t in Europe either and nobody cares, so there’s precedent.
Yes, and both French Guyana and Canada have the same economic power. And so have the Caribbean overseas territories of France and the Netherlands.
Your point being?
That term has been thoroughly tainted.
Only in one certain country, so it works.
How about Canada becomes an EU
colonyoverseas territory instead of a full member?
To join EU, a country needs to comply with several conditions. The conditions for economical and political stability are OK, I assume. But Canada would need to adapt to EU laws. How big is the gap between the laws in Canada and what EU requires?
Is it anything that stops EU and Canada from agreeing on free trade, open borders etc. even if Canada is not a part of EU? That would be weaker since one side can elect a weirdo and suddenly stop all agreements but it could be faster to implement and Canada could join later.
I also like it that their King Charles III has no say in it while some other parts of the commonwealth left EU in recent history.
Although I’d welcome the idea, there is an important caveat : Canada is a financial sovereign now but would have to give that up. All countries in euroland use a foreign currency called “the euro”. We have a central bank but no central government. Members are expected to finance themselves on the private market. Where as today Canadian government can buy any local goods and services it wants as long as they’re priced in canadian dollars. EU is great but needs to fix its design faults before we can expand again
There are still a few eu countries that have not yet start using the common currency. But i would say that it’s getting harder and harder to argue that staying outside is something positive. Sure it might feel like a big step but you gain so much more.
You’re missing the point. There’s 2 kinds of economic schools: Tax first, then spend it. And the other school that says 'decide democratically what you want to do, then do it by buying goods/services in your own currency. When the invoice arrives instruct the central bank to pay for it. Why do you still need taxation ? To force the locals to accept your currency for them to pay your tax. That also a big part if how money gets created in the first place. And the recognition that ‘the state’ is a source of wealth instead of the tax satan between buyers and sellers. I love the EU. But we need that democracy and government that issues policy and injects wealth. China and US understand their fiscal power. But we’re stuck with stupid Dutch and Germans who don’t understand what Nixon really did.
I don’t think that will work. We can’t have centralized decisions being made for Canada in Brussels and through consensus with a bunch of countries who we don’t even share a continent with. That being said, we exist because of mother France and father Britain (who unceremoniously left the family). So we will ALWAYS be aligned with Europe.
As a Swede I feel kind of the the same, but regarding joining the Euro. But what are our options? Sure the Krona could survive another 100 years but the full access to the inner market seems pretty rad. But yeah we need to have a serious talk about democracy with Hungary and a talk about sustainable finances with some countries.
No thanks. We don’t need another layer of bureaucrats to make everything even more complex and slow.
Not sure I want the EU to share a border with the US
The EU already shares a border with Russia…
That’s the point. We don’t need another one.
Canadian here. Interesting points. I feel most Canadians would be cautiously open to the idea. How do EU regular people feel?
Generally warm and soft
Can only speak for myself, but I’d love the idea. I think our french and some of our Belgian neighbours ( :) ) would be ecstatic to have more french speakers in the EU.
From a cultural point of view, especially Québec I experienced to be very similar to Europe.
I myself could see myself living and working in Canada for a few years if this would ever come to pass. I stayed in Toronto and Montreal for a while and loved everything about it. Currently there’s too much red tape in my field of work however to consider the move, whereas I’ve lived and worked in several EU countries already.
I love the idea.
German here - come on over! We need new english speakers since we lost the brits lol
We speak French and Indigenous languages too.
Most of Europe does just fine with English speaking on their own, and some would argue better than the Brits.
Just don’t let the French hear the Quebecois, they’ll veto straightaway.
Most French people are well aware of our existence. We generally treat each others as cousins and the people with who we have the most cultural affinity in the world.
Hey, we’re willing, nay desperate, to come back. Well, most of us, just not the sodding politicians!
Canadians need to up their standards and stop setting on being American-lite.
I have been in Canada for over 20 years and little by little I have realized most of what I like from Canada is what we inherited/copied from Europe and everything I hate came from the dumpster fire below.
As always, the devil is in the details, but in general I would welcome any stronger alliance with the EU
According to the article, Canada is above the average EU member on property rights protection, judicial independence, regulatory coherence, trade openness, and social security systems, low corruption, regulatory clarity, and overall investment climate, higher education quality, corporate research and development spending, patent registrations, and the diffusion of advanced technologies —from broadband infrastructure to digital services. The next line: In short, Canada already behaves like a de facto member of the club in all but name.
Our food, climate and vehicle standards need to be upgraded though.
Sounds manageable. 🤷
Paper is different than reality
As a European, i am happy that my country is in the European Union, would be bad otherwise for various reasons;
yeah, they sometimes do bad decisions, but overall it’s great-- chat control is the biggest shit but we should reject it as much as we canI think a lot of Europeans would be against the idea tbh.
Canadian here, yes please
As a Brit who emigrated to Canada, I’d be delighted if this is how I finally get my EU citizenship back.
EU here. Hell yes!
Article is too long…
It’d be a little weird as Canada is not in Europe but other than that it’d be a perfect fit. Much better fit than Turkey or even Hungary…
Could rename it to the Earth Union and keep the acronym
Euro-Arctic Union?
Earth United has a better ring to it.
Atlantic Union?
AU is taken, mate. But I reckon Australia would be bloody on board too.
Yeah but then we’d need to change the name again
Easy. Atlantic Sea Society!
Cyprus is in Asia, and is a member of the EU and was allowed because it was “politically and culturally European”. It could be argued that Canada would qualify under those same circumstances.
We even have something that Cyprus doesn’t, and land border with an EU country (Denmark), and a sea border with an EU country (France).
And while we were independent of the UK from a governmental point of view, we were still a dominion of the UK until 1982, which means we even have historical precedence in the EU as an overseas territory, though never in an official way.
Neither is the South American continent but part of it is in the EU too.
EU here, yes pls. I’ve never been there but I’ve always loved the idea of Canada. Hospitality, human rights, healthcare, … all values we should hold high and unite over.
Weil said 🙌
