La metà dei canadesi preferisce unirsi all’UE

I am sure Canada will be welcomed to have as close ties as possible with us. Get it to 75% in favor and I am sure we can even get across the “not actually in Europe” hurdle 😉

Canada already meets all the criteria for EU membership:

✅ Liberal democracy, rule of law

✅ Tax-and-spend for social supports

✅ Theoretically a monarchy, but nobody really pays attention to that (cf Belgium, Spain, Sweden &c)

✅ Member of free trade agreements, but sometimes chafes with American trade policy

✅ Weird language politics which a few Canadians can get Very Angry About, but make little sense to outsiders

✅ Has competed in Eurovision. This is the most important criterion.

Would be actually great.

And what is the issue? Let them in, we already have Cyprus that are a bit far and no issue so far.

I like Canada, but guys, try to look at the full picture.

Applying the Union law in Canada would make very little sense as Canada sits in a completely different context than the existing EU states. They would get outvoted on everything and would effectively have to apply legislation designed for Europe.

What could happen is some kind of an EEA style of cooperation with the fundamental rights, shared legislation in certain areas, etc. But even then, it’s hard to imagine how free movement of goods would work since it would effectively mean having Canada adopt EU standards on all goods. That would in turn mean that they wouldn’t be able to source some goods from the US and would have to replace them with local sources or expensive imports across the Atlantic.

For example, Canada imports over 100 million kg of chicken meat from the US per year. I suspect this would no longer be possible as that meat likely isn’t in line with EU safety standards – and by allowing it into Canada, you’d be also allowing it in the EU via free movement.

Of course you can say that it’s not good for Canadians to eat that crap anyway (and I do agree) but you have to think about economic implications as well. Similarly, Canada wouldn’t be able to produce some low quality goods for the US export.

Sometimes even very pro-European people seem to not understand what the EU is. It’s not a fancy club of friends who go out for a beer on Friday evening. It’s a political union with a legal system, laws and large impact on day to day life.

Oh come on. This is in no way realistic. Canada even has strong trade barriers between its own provinces.

Closer ties, sure. Membership, barring a string of miracles quite impossible.

This doesn’t need to actually happen. I think what we can take from this is that a lot of Canadians trust the EU, and this is probably the beginning of strong cooperation between Canada and the EU. Which is great, because both can really use good friends right now. The US is coming for us.

Canadian Brothers and Sisters it’s about time to strength our relations!

Well they are not in Europe, so too bad. It’s not “The Intercontinental Union”.

Toronto Raptors in Euroleague, make it happen.

While I think it’s extremely unlikely Canada will join the EU, I think it’s important to take a maximalist position on this sort of thing.

Look at the right wing in America. They constantly pushed as hard as possible for totally ludicrous demands, and as a result they constantly got partial concessions from the Democrats, so even if they didn’t get exactly what they wanted, they got part of it. As time went on this pushed the political landscape farther and farther to the right, making their demands look less ludicrous while getting bits and pieces of what they wanted. It wasn’t that long ago that Roe vs. Wade being overturned was totally unthinkable, but it eventually happened. There are of course other factors involved in this process, like stacking the courts and state news propaganda, but the above approach was absolutely a key part of the strategy. Even in Canada certain traitorous premiers are taking this approach, and separatist nonsense that was totally off the table is now being taken seriously by news, politicians, activist groups, etc.

I think non-conservatives have to stop thinking about what is and isn’t possible and start just pushing for the outcomes that they REALLY want, even if they are out of reach. Because of the right wing taking the above approach, Canada is now in the awful position of being economically attached at the hip to a psychopathic USA careening towards fascism, and as a result we risk effectively losing our sovereignty.

We need to break away from the USA as much as possible, and aligning ourselves with our allies in Europe is crucial for this. So, is it realistic to imagine Canada will join the EU right now? No. Are there a bunch of rules and laws and details that would make the process difficult? Of course. But taking the “realistic” approach of eeking out tiny little changes that don’t make a difference is going to get us nowhere while the USA constantly makes massive changes to our relationship that severely hurt Canada and threaten our existence.

The unthinkable is now constantly happening, and we have to break out of the mindset that something cannot happen just because it seems like it can’t happen right now. Canada’s future depends on it.

As a proud Canadian, I don’t think we should be formally “joining” any group or organization where we give up our sovereignty. However, as a realist, and seeing our closest ally morph into an autocracy with an express desire to assimilate us into their rapidly disintegrating union, I think Canada needs to further our relationships with like-minded countries. Canada will never be the biggest or the most powerful (except at hockey), so we need to exercise what we have and that starts with good relationships amoungst a number of countries.

I do see some merit in investigating the so called CANZUK alliance. With the UK going it alone, there is a natural relationship there that has not been fostered well in the last few decades. Having Charles III open parliament was a good start. There’s a strong relationship between Australia and New Zealand and Canada currently – you can’t go skiing in the Rockies without a Auzy or Kiwi lifty holding your chair. There has been a strong youth exchange for a number of years and that could be broadened to a more formal trading and security relationship.

The world will soon be a much more difficult place to operate. Canada needs to move with the times.

This would probably be good for the EU too. We could learn a thing or two from the Canadians as well! 

I’m still sad we lost the UK. 

Canada has much more in common with the US culturally than Europe.

Many Europeans would be delighted to have Canada join us, I think. In doing so, they could also shed any inter-provincial trade barriers and take alongside us this as an opportunity to really investigate the reason and validity of many rules and regulations. Quite a lot of those make sense, but those lacking could be discarded. Then we could build a wall against the barbarians on their southern border XD.

Canadians that are “in favor joining the EU” are not aware of what it takes to be part of the EU. I’m totally pro-EU but once you are in there are things that need to change in terms of law, rights, industries, exports, etc… The idea behind the EU is to have a community that balances themselves in. I remember when PT joined the EU there was the need of replacing some types of agriculture by others to balance what was available in the EU.

Being on the EU will limit the freedom of decision which is mostly a good thing since polarization of people, mainly less aware people, causes countries to decline in terms of growth and people’s wellbeing. Though some other freedoms improve significantly including movement around EU and around the world since EU in general is viewed as a source of “well behaved” people (thought there are some recent changes due to migration influx). The EU parliament is made of all kinds of PMs from different countries, backgrounds and beliefs which is a good way of making general positive changes around EU as supporting people.

Canada is quite a big country and relatively distant from EU. Canada is also a 1st world country with a relatively well educated and informed population. It’s mostly self-sufficient on goods and it’s relatively well armed and good from the political point of view (internally speaking and on the diplomatic level too). Things said, I don’t see big advantage on becoming a member of EU but there are always other groups that it can be part of and that bring some good advantages too (with tradeoffs of course).

It’s not thr Eurovision lads