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  • Australia? New Zealand? UK? Is CANZUK going to be a thing? Kind of got to know quick, Germany, France and Denmark just asked us out.

    In all seriousness, I think this would be a great idea, with two caveats. First being, we aren't that close to the other EU countries, because we aren't in Europe. I don't know how that would interact with the hypothetical benefits of EU membership. Being able to take a high speed train from Spain to Germany has as much to do with geography as it does EU membership. Sure, political reality means you can't take a train from Poland to Belarus, but geography also means you can't take a train from Poland to Sweden. Actually, I think there is a bridge/tunnel across the Orseund now. Point being I don't think there is going to be a bridge from Canada to the EU anytime soon. Besides there

    My second concern is that there is some risk to tying ourselves to the EU. Short term, we have seen per capita GDP stagnate in the EU and Canada. Assuming we also join the Eurozone, we also loose control of our own currency, offset by joining the second most "powerful" (Fungible? Useful?). This is a double-edged sword, but I think we are offering a lot of stability to the Eurozone, especially when compared to some other Southern/Eastern EU countries.

    On balance, I think it's worth it to pursue. Despite the drawbacks, Canada historically has been an exporter of raw materials, a "country of lumberjacks and hockey players". Having a built in market for Canadian goods the size of the EU is just a plain benefit.

  • @sp3ctre

    Pierre Trudeau worked towards developing more trade with the EEC back in the day, as he feared that too much trade with the US made us vulnerable to economic pressure. Fair to say he was probably correct.

    That went out the window with Mulroney and the FTA with the US and then NAFTA including Mexico.

    I'd be down with adopting EU standards and continuing to widen the trade pact. I'm not sure if a currency union would work, possibly?

    I absolutely think we should take it seriously though.

  • @sp3ctre It's an interesting concept in terms of geoploitical alignment but as a colonial nation we have a very different dynamic from European countries. We even abandoned commonwealth affiliations for the most part as our regional issues are just too diverse.

    • @ianrogers @sp3ctre Eh, Europe is no stranger to diversity... but yes, assimilating the acquis communautaire would be a major undertaking.

      • @martinvermeer @sp3ctre I meant diversity in terms of from one another, but I understand. As a post-colonial nation Canada has a dominant society made up of various colonial diasporas, and indigenous peoples from whom the land was simply taken - within the space of a few generations. The post-colonial legacy of European countries within the EU is a different thing. The people that are now Germans lived in Germany at least since the neolithic era. Germans in Ontario? Since the 1700s.

23 comments