General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsShould Canada join the EU?
I know that many will dismiss this idea as silly and unnecessary, but we're living in a much, much different world. New, bold ideas are needed to deal with Trump, Musk, and MAGA. This is not like George W. Bush where we could just wait him out. MAGA is here to stay and will be a threat for years to come. So, Canada should seriously consider all options now instead of waiting until it's too late.
So, Canada joins the EU and blue states then join Canada. Hmmmm...that could work.
There could also be some perks for both sides to a closer union. As Pignal suggests, Canada could offer the EU access to vast reserves of strategic resources much rarer on the continent, like rare earth minerals and fossil fuels.
Canada, meanwhile, might benefit from access to Europe's large and skilled labour market and reduce its dependence on the U.S. and its volatile politics.
"Ottawa must prepare for a world where Washington is less reliable," said Teona Lavrelashvili, a visiting fellow at the Martens Centre, an EU think-tank in Brussels. "Strengthening engagement with Europe is not just strategic, but essential."
With its U.S. alliance under pressure, could Canada join the EU?

Meowmee
(7,653 posts)But they will likely become closer and try to support them in the current craziness.
Justice matters.
(8,079 posts)But a free trade agreement (0% tariffs on both sides) are in the talks and currently a huge growth of trading relations with Japan is actually happening.
Submariner
(12,908 posts)and move to Europe those bastages.
JanMichael
(25,492 posts)Adjacent is too risky.
Canada needs to Fill An Ocean along the 49th.
DFW
(57,414 posts)Besides the fact that Canada is nowhere near Europe (except for those two tiny French Islands), and Canada gains nothing by allowing Eastern Europe to dump its organized crime, unemployment and excess welfare cases on Canada. Thats what western Europe did by admitting Bulgaria and Romania before they were anywhere near EU levels of economy or corruption repression.
There would also be the cost of redoing all the maps and computer programs to reflect that the Atlantic Ocean north of Presque Isle would now be the Gulf of Canada.
Yavin4
(37,091 posts)It has a huge land mass. They could easily assimilate and accommodate people from Eastern Europe.
DFW
(57,414 posts)Canada accommodates and assimilates people from Asia and Lain America as well. But it's Canada who decides who and how many. EU membership means any citizen of any EU country has the right to live and work in any other EU country. Italy, NL, Germany, France and Italy especially were inundated with gangs of organized criminals--both violent criminals and human traffickers, and they were forced to let them in due to their newly acquired EU citizenship. A Romanian, Croatian, Czech or Bulgarian passport is already a residence (and right to seek welfare) permit, as well as a work permit, and for any EU country from Portugal to Finland. People are aware of stories like the Romanian who lived in NL, went back to Romania and changed his name fifteen times (you can legally do that something like every 15 days in Romania), and was picking up welfare payments fifteen times a month under fifteen names in NL before the Dutch caught on.
Those stories have not escaped the governments of the victim EU countries, nor the governments of non member countries. Anyone can ask Canada for a residence and work permit. I imagine the number of US citizens doing that will increase shortly. If they feel you would fit in there, they will grant entry. But not being an EU member means they are not forcedto grant entry, and I can fully understand that the Canadians are not eager to lose control over that. If the idea is to go to Canada and sell fifteen year old Romanian girls into sex slavery just because they have to let you in, and the heat in Bucharest or Cluj is getting too hot, then no, I see no reason to force Canada to take just anybody. It has been happening here in the EU for close to two decades now. Here in Germany, it has only served as rocket fuel for the anti-foreigner Neo-Nazi movement wanting to pull Germany out of the EU. The far right loves it, since it provides their raison d'être. It is also grossly unfair to Romanians who came here to lead better lives. One of my elder daughter's classmates is the daughter of a Romanian physician who fled socialism, learned German, started again in Germany from the ground up, and became a physician here in Germany. His daughter, my daughter's classmate, is now a successful businesswoman, a German citizen fluent in German, Romanian and English. Letting Romania's bad guys in indiscriminately unfairly makes it harder for people like my daughter's classmate's family to get accepted.
bif
(24,787 posts)Yavin4
(37,091 posts)And Canada has a strong history with the continent. It's not too far fetched.