As Canada isn’t in Europe, some renaming has to happen… perhaps Freedom Union?
How about Canada becomes an EU
colonyoverseas territory instead of a full member?That term has been thoroughly tainted.
Only in one certain country, so it works.
A union of nation states that value freedom.
United States of Freedom?
Not sure I want the EU to share a border with the US
The EU already shares a border with Russia…
Just my 2 cents. Having a border with Russia is no easy task . Ask Finland and a bunch of other countries that were “blessed” to deal with it
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.
I was partially in favour, but this article changed my mind. There are many ways to cooperate on everything if this is the point. In the article there is little understanding of what the EU is
And the articles said nothing about what joining would bring Canada.
I think the main things would be free trade and no borders. Fancy living in Ireland or the South of France for a bit? Hop on a plane. No questions asked.
But then that’s not EU. Canada could join a free trade group such as EFTA, like Norway. If free movement is Schengen. EU is more than those 2 things.
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!
Australia as well please, love to join the grand EU project. Anything that brings people closer together in a fractured world is a good thing.
Better start practicing your Canadian then.
Fukan lol, been there
Make maple syrup part of the standard European breakfast!
Ooh, can you imagine the freakout that would happen in Washington?
All for it
I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate here: I’m against this because many European projects are incompatible with Canada. In some parts, Canada’s infrastructure is as bad as the USA’s. Look at public transport, for example. Everything is car centric, and if you’re not rich enough to own a car, you’re basically excluded from public life, I don’t mean this in an elitist type of way. Even Germany has significantly better public transport than Canada. Many of the other networking projects such as TEN-T or ETCS do not make sense as it is quite literally separated from the EU. Common standards are only useful when everyone agrees to use them. But as Canada would be the only EU state on the North American continent, they would be the only ones using it. Enhanced political cooperation and trade is always a positive thing, but the EU is more than just FTAs and other diplomatic pleasantries. IMHO.
Everything is car centric, and if you’re not rich enough to own a car, you’re basically excluded from public life
Amsterdam changed.
Seriously, visiting North America is “we’ve tried adding a [car] lane to the highway and can’t figure out why nobody is cycling or taking transit.”
Transportation networks indeed make little sense when there’s an ocean in between. Too bad the USA can’t play nicely with others.
Common standards would be a challenge, in some areas -can’t do electrical because 50hz vs 60hz and deep integration with USA grid. The NEMA plugs are a bit of a nightmare. But for vehicle safety and emissions it would be a step forward; more countries adopted the EU than US standards there.
It’s actually changing here too, at least in cities. Bike lanes being added, streets being repurposed back to foot and bike traffic. Improved public transit.
I don’t even think the electrical changes would be hard because of US integration, it would be hard because of so much of it. We could switch. Most houses already have a 240 circuit needed for things like car chargers, dryers and ovens. You could easily retrofit a house. But the grid feeding that house would need to be rebuilt from the ground (pun intended) up.
Edit: re electricity: We apparently did this in the early 50s once already. We were on a 25hz system, and power technicians went to every single house and retrofitted them to go from 25 to 60hz. Wild. I just learned that.
many European projects are incompatible with Canada.
That can change, it’s just matter of will.
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…
Neither is the South American continent but part of it is in the EU too.
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.
Could rename it to the Earth Union and keep the acronym
Earth United has a better ring to it.
Atlantic Union?
AU is taken, mate. But I reckon Australia would be bloody on board too.
After reading the article, I am still not sure whether that’s a good idea because such an expansion likely comes with additional conflicts. Wouldn’t mind a EU & Friends though. In general Canada has been very stable, reasonable and constructive in the last years.
There actually is an “EU & Friends” called the EEA. Would be pretty nice to have our Canadian Friends here.
It’s going to happen after Albania!
This would be wonderful!
Canadian here. Interesting points. I feel most Canadians would be cautiously open to the idea. How do EU regular people feel?
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 canCanadians need to up their standards and stop setting on being American-lite.
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.
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
German here - come on over! We need new english speakers since we lost the brits lol
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!
Generally warm and soft
