Trump warned he will impose additional tariffs on the European Union and Canada if they band together to “do economic harm” against the United States.
Get @#$%ed, Trump. Good read. Short but detailed about how partnered we are already and what our next priorities should be
Excellent article.
Main points for me:
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Horizon Europe, digital sovereignty and technology, GDPR. YES! And absolutely we should be strengthening our privacy laws. We should be moving towards GDPR and we should be pushing for right to repair, etc.
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Green Alliance, climate collaboration, and collaboration on the Arctic. YES! But see the impacts of CETA/ISDS/ICS too.
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Freedom of movement. Yes, but: Europe’s model of immigration has the opposite values than ours. We shouldn’t let European phobic attitudes to immigration hamstring us from developing further ties, e.g., with the north african and sub-saharan francophonie. But we should definitely, absolutely further develop Erasmus+ and other EU-Canada youth exchange programs. And it should become extremely fluid and frictionless to recognize European professional credentials in Canada. An Italian doctor or a Greek nurse or a Spanish engineer or a German tradesperson should be able to start practicing in Canada within weeks at worst. EDIT: Also, linked with deepening research collaboration: Canadian temporary permits (study, work) should start to be recognized as means to expedite or eliminate EU visitor visas. We welcome fantastic international students who come from places Europeans over-scrutinize (the Maghreb, Africa, Iran, India, …) and are in a disadvantage for research collaborations and/or research visits in the EU.
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But I would be squarely against closer political and monetary integration with the EU. We absolutely do not need the Euro or the Stability and Growth Pact, and we do not need the various Orbans, LePens and Melonis, or the various debt-phobic Germans and Dutch having any kind of veto over our policies or say over our politics. The Norwegian, Swiss and Icelandic models are good models of EU-collaboration, and we can of course develop our own. We can be very very very good friends, but just like we don’t need to be anyone’s 51st state, we also don’t need to be anyone’s 28th member state.
Finally: for that matter, we should be looking for similar degrees of integration with Japan-Korea-Australia, etc. We are uniquely positioned to unite Pacific and Atlantic. To quote Carney: “if US no longer wants to lead, Canada will”.
All great points.
Having every privilege of EU without any governance or foreign policy or funding role is awesome, and Canada would win even as all EU wins, though I think Canada wins more.
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I have no interest in Canada joining the EU, which I see as having a bunch of governance problems of their own, but being close allies with well-integrated and mutually supportive economies via trade and other agreements sounds good to me.
Honestly, the idea floated that Canada would form a bloc with the UK, other commonwealth countries, and the EU, then have that bloc negotiate trade agreements with China sounds absolutely ideal to me. That’s apparently already been raised by Carney in private talks on his visits to Europe and the UK. It would unite most of the world and cut the US off unless they changed course on their insane path. That’s the foundation for a much more positive world order
Hmm. What level of integration do you think would be too close?
I don’t want Canada under the EU governance system, and I don’t think it’s necessary to join the EU as a member just to have close and mutually supportive relations. Unless the Conservatives win today, we’re still quite aligned with the EU in terms of values and commitment to similar international standards and goals, so I think we can form many trade agreements, cooperate on defense, and support similar international institutions, but just doing it with Canada as country that is a friend of the EU and not a member of the EU.
We’re done with the US but we’re also not joining the EU, although we have great allies there.
You mean you are done with the US and you are not joining the EU and not all Canadians feel this way.
A national survey conducted by Abacus Data in late February 2025, involving 1,500 Canadian adults, revealed:
- 44% believe the Canadian government should “definitely or probably” explore joining the EU.
- 34% are opposed to the idea.
- 23% remain undecided.
high level figures in the EU have repeatedly stated that while they appreciate the gesture, Canada wont ever be a member. So its best to abandon those pipe dreams. When it comes down to the details, the EU is a boys club for Western and Central Europe, they dont even treat their Eastern members as anything more than a buffer zone against the Russians,
the EU isnt flawless either, Russia has infiltrated it with trojan horse governments like the Hungarian Fidesz party and the Slovakian SMER party, who embezzle EU funds and politically roadblock motions with their veto. Canada trying to decouple with the US just to dive into the EU is like running from a burning house into a house with a basement meth lab.
high level figures in the EU have repeatedly stated that while they appreciate the gesture, Canada wont ever be a member.
Who? I haven’t heard anything so definitive.
When it comes down to the details, the EU is a boys club for Western and Central Europe, they dont even treat their Eastern members as anything more than a buffer zone against the Russians,
Lol, no. The east gets tons and tons of subsidies. It’s the whole reason Orban still wants to be in the EU.
You’ll also notice new eastern countries are lining up to join while euroskepticism has made headway in your “boy’s club” countries.
the EU isnt flawless either, Russia has infiltrated it with trojan horse governments like the Hungarian Fidesz party and the Slovakian SMER party, who embezzle EU funds and politically roadblock motions with their veto.
Definitely true. The difference is that the US is terminal in a 1933 Germany way, while the EU seems like it might have a bright future.
- Referring to a statement made by Ursula von der Leyen’s spokesperson Paula Pinho of March 2025
(“We are honored with the results of such a poll. It shows the attractiveness of the European Union, and it shows the appreciation of a very large share of Canadian citizens for the EU and its values,” said Paula Pinho, spokesperson for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, at the Commission’s Wednesday briefing, before adding that she “will not go into” a possible EU application from Ottawa.")
- The extremely delayed reaction and infighting in European politics and society during what is essentially a code red / five alarm fire in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has shown that many countries in the EU are willing to sacrifice another for time rather than face the reality that the EU and their way of life is directley being threatened, thus why we’re seeing many countries in the EU having chosen to sit on their hands and wait, for YEARS at this point when the prospect of a third world war is closer than any other point in history other than the cuban missile crisis. When the chips are down, the EU for the longest time showed itself to be one that would rather point fingers, delay, and sacrifice others on the altar.
Polish farmers blocking NATO weapon shipments and railways to a critical combat theatre over a dispute with European markets and Ukrainian Grain, Hungarian vetos blocking EU financial packages to Ukraine, Ukraine has very much become a litmus test for countless issues worldwide, everything from testing the strength of alliances and unions, to testing the rationality and morality of individual people. and the EU has been taking one step forward one step back for much of it, It took them until the US basically took a turn into a terminal illness of fascism, for the major power players, namely France and Germany, to step forward and acknowledge that there can’t be anymoe of this sitting on hands they played for the last 3-5 years as our world swirls the toilet bowl
in short, Yes, those eastern countries get subsidies, but its increasingly being seen as a bribe from one side to the other to keep them on the blue team. while hostile actors like the states with the parties I mentioned, just pocket the money while playing interference for the Russian mob state.___
Thank you for context.
Hungarian vetos blocking EU financial packages to Ukraine
Veto should be a uncriticized power of EU membership. A not particularly creative agreement EU members can make is to fund and benefit from a program budget on which just the approving members decide upon. If you wanted a $100B bill to gift stuff to Ukraine, and Hungary’s share was going to be $1-$5B, then a $95B-$99B bill could be passed among other members.
Thanks. I’d say “will not go into” is decidedly neutral, though. Which isn’t surprising, there’s no point starting a big controversy when nothing is actually on the table yet.
I dont think anyone from the EU is going to take concrete steps to a Canadian application, because they havent concretely ruled out that America wont physically invade it. Its an insane prospect, but this world is already insane.
Europe is already dealing with a hostile Russia, They can probably handle Russia alone, They can’t handle Russia + America, so unless we’re all ready to write it off and Blast each other with nuclear weapons, I think Europe has quietley agreed that if America does turn psycho, and the cost of keeping America Neutral, and not allied with Russia, is sacrificing Canada, they will Sacrifice Canada in a heartbeat. Officially, at least
Unofficially it will just be a fucking shadow war.
I dont think anyone from the EU is going to take concrete steps to a Canadian application, because they havent concretely ruled out that America wont physically invade it. Its an insane prospect, but this world is already insane.
The thing is, it’s not actually that insane if you zoom out enough. We just convinced ourselves history was over, or at least over here.
Unless you know something I don’t I suspect they’d still be open to a defence pact right now, especially with the American threats to Greenland as well. If we were to wait until it’s imminent that would all change, and then it would be build nukes or bust.
Russia has infiltrated it with trojan horse governments like the Hungarian Fidesz party and the Slovakian SMER party, who embezzle EU funds and politically roadblock motions with their veto
Unfair considering CIA infiltration of rest of EU. Not gaslighting their people with Russophobia warmongering is a sane position that has created FDI and growth exceeding rest of EU, as in rest of free (non US colonized) world.
At any rate, trade deals with EU is awesome to pursue. A political union with extreme hate groups who beg for greater US subservience to increase their hate is very dangerous for Canada to submit to. CIA control over all western democracies makes gaslighting on US resistance easy, and push comes to shove, EU would happily help destroy Canada if it gives them more US brownie points. EU faked interest in a trade deal with Ukraine in 2013, only to have US controlled (with EU puppet votes) IMF sabotage it, and assist in coup against Ukrainian president who trusted EU.
EU is simply not reliable, even if Canadians programming aligns with their current chaos. Canada wanting it more than EU is a recipe for failure.
No thanks.
We have enough right-wingers in Europe already.Good thing it’s not up to assholes who make ignorant, sweeping generalizations that are likely going to harm Europe more than help it. Personally, I’d sooner chip off my own nutsack than vote right, but hey, don’t let that stop you from being CATEGORICALLY INCORRECT.
So, when you generalize canada in your mind right-wingers is what comes to mind? Or just the govt?
Hard to call Canada not right wing when basically 90% of the country is voting for central right and far right parties. Liberals haven’t been even slightly left leaning for a long time. The most generous way to describe them is a party that uses left leaning policies to achieve right leaning goals.
And yet, we’re way more immigrant-friendly and tolerant than literally anywhere in Europe.
I have no idea what your criteria is here. I’m pretty sure Carney would be mainstream in Germany as well.
Pretty sure you’re wrong, even compared to those awful germs
I don’t get it.
Not surprised reading the comments on here
Germs?
Most of the Liberals’ positions is to use the markets to solve social issues. That is completely a right-wing ideology, and the name for it is Liberalism, literally what the party is called. Liberalism is by definition prioritizing the individual actions and limiting government intervention.
While the Liberals do not advocate for small government, they do advocate for minimizing direct government intervention, relying on corporations to do the government’s job. They just are willing to push for social spending to make the markets fix their problems. The problems that have created by the markets because market forces do not have a line in their accounts for morality or public good.
The Liberals do quite a lot of good for the country, since they don’t try to run it like a third world purely resource based nation, but that’s because they’re pretty progressive and understand that resource-based economies don’t last and are fragile. But they are still economy first, people second as a party, a party that prioritizes the capitalist system with only a few concessions for social programs.
Boy do I have news about the founding values of the European Union.
achieve sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and price stability and a highly competitive market economy with full employment and social progress
I mean, it did start out during the Cold War. The other values are given more emphasis but that’s still there.
Yea, but this was back in the times when the left was considered anti-west. Left nowadays just means socialistic policies and is where most of the EU stands. Though far-left is still pretty taboo since it’s equating to communism, far right is lately considered more neo-Nazism rather than unregulated capitalism (though to be fair both are still considered far-right depending on who you ask).
Founding ideals get pretty obsolete and often don’t reflect reality after a few generations. Just look at how much the US talks about their founding ideals and how the country looks nothing like it despite talking about their supposed ideals constantly (like how one of the original ideals was that only rich land owners should be allowed to vote).
You haven’t got a clue about what policies or our very diverse governments of Europe represent, not even about simple basic political terminology of what political views stand for.
" both are still considered far-right depending on who you ask"
Second time I hear someone come up with the embarassing and laughable horseshoe theory.
I couldn’t imagine more than a few weirdos falling for it, it’s on the level of flat earthers. I guess education is as bad as in the US.
Or they get their ‘knowledge’ from Facebook ,YT or whatever online moron channel.
Wrong.
Canada should join BRICS
Ok we’ll take that under consideration lol. 🤡
Yes, let’s join the countries that run on slavery! Then the conservatives don’t have to hide their plans to convert Canada into the North American branch of China’s slave labour industry.
Canada uses prison labor. They rent out prisoners to private firms for rock bottom wages.
But that’s different, right?
So which is it, liberals are too easy on crime or prisons are labour camps?
They said BRICS not the EU
Nah, those countries that are behind that are authoritarians.
As expected from a lemmy.ml comment…
Authoritarians? You mean glorious communists! /s
Hungary is in the EU, but they’re white so it doesn’t bother you.
Here’s the baseless accusation out of nowhere and no I do not like Hungary as Orban has been cracking down on press freedom, persecuting lgbtq+ folks and has been consistently enabling Putin’s crimes against humanity.
Why won’t you apply the same standard to the EU that you do to BRICS?
If BRICS is bad because Russia bad, surely EU is bad because Hungary bad?
Let’s just say that your comparison holds such a large inequivalence and hence makes the questions absurd. Maybe it’s just genuine ignorance or maybe something else…
The other countries are also not well known for upholding human or civil rights
Are Brazil or South Africa any worse than Canada?
Also, let’s not forget the human rights abuses of France in Africa. Formal colonialism might have ended, but neocolonialism continues. France continues to reap the natural resources and exploit the labor of its “former” colonies. Although the recent government changes in the Sahel region might finally kick France out of Africa, and then we’ll see how much they respect human rights.
Also? Let’s not ignore the way asylum seekers are being treated throughout the rest of Europe.
But maybe you don’t care about that either. They’re not white, after all.
so you’re saying Russia and China are totally not presently pillaging Africa then?
Classic whataboutism. We’re not talking about the former colonies here nor asylum seekers. And you are completely out of it. You’re not seeing that colonialism and asylum seekers aren’t the point as they’re persecuted outside their country for the latter or being persecuted by an outside force for the former. In the authoritarian BRICS regimes it’s internal persecution towards their own people. It’s not about skin color.
Also yes Brazil and SA are muchhhhh worse than Canada. Have you been? Clearly not. Cause going in a supermarket in Rio with heavily armed guards on alert cause you’re white which means a robbery could take place any moment targeting you or in SA having to take an uber down the street to not get assaulted and robbed? Yeah.
Comparing Hungary to China and Russia is like comparing a mosquito to a rabid dog. Yes, Hungary is annoying within the EU, has undemocratic tendencies and Orban should be dealt with, but Russia and China are full on authoritarian regimes. You know this, so you are either a troll or a shill.
either a troll or a shill.
A tankie. To her credit, though, sometimes she makes good points about topics related to communism like class warfare and how exploitative capitalism is. This was not one of those times, unfortunately.
Just a really bad shill take of supporting the authoritarian-“communist” countries that conveniently ignore the communist ideals of no hierarchical power structures and being run by the people.
@[email protected] said those countries are authoritarian, and your response is to say “so is this one, and you’re racist”?
You’re not even denying Sunshine’s claim, you’re just redirecting to a different topic and attacking the beliefs you prescribed to someone else. Just strawmen and ad hominem attacks. Nice.
Care to explain that a bit? I’m not that familiar with BRICS beyond the first paragraph of its Wiki page
There’s a few BRICS member and partner countries in the Western hemisphere already: Brazil, Bolivia, and Cuba. In addition to the current members, the US is pissing all over its partners in Latin America and I think we can expect even more countries to join. If the US really is declining, Canada has to think about who its partners in the Western hemisphere are going to be.
But why join BRICS over the EU? (asking because I don’t know)
BRICS would want us more than EU does. EU would likely play us if their devotion to US empire/hegemony forces can sabotage any trade/membership deal. BRICS are independent of US empire sabotage, and need to break up the evil unipolarism.
Russia and China are involved with Brics. We do not want to become more like them.
Thanks. I’ll give the rest of that BRICS Wikipedia page a glance over to find out more
It would definitely be a good read!
It makes more sense to shore up relations in the Western hemisphere than to go halfway around the world.
Montreal to La Paz Bolivia is almost 7000 km. Montreal to Budapest is 6600ish km. So the western hemisphere also can be half way around the world from Canada. You could reverse it and argue “It makes more sense to shore up relations in the Northern hemisphere than to go halfway around the world.”
Thanks for sharing your perspective :). I think Canada needs to pick options of strategic value, and in that sense I’d guess EU > BRICS for Canada but idk. Bolivia and Cuba are pretty nearby to Canada but otherwise I don’t see the geographic argument so much
China might not be the worst option if you had to pick any of the BRICS countries. Lots of people, not landlocked, and huge potential for business. Canada absolutely shouldn’t trust them for anything involving defense or global politics, but they at least have more stability than we do as a trade partner.
As for trusting BRICS as a whole… fuck no. Least of all, Russia.
But can we not negotiate a mutually beneficial agreement with both? The EU and BRICS?
Maybe! Without the US meddling, anything is possible.
