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Trump currently still has a 40% approval rating, so I think it would be a mistake to assume that things will go back to normal when he’s out of the picture. There is something fundamentally wrong with a large portion of the US, and the other half is mostly either apathetic or complacent to it all. The “No Kings” protests, for example, are too little, too late.

If the US even cares to fix its fundamentals, it would probably take decades of sustained work. I don’t think they have the conviction to do that.

And so, I think joining the EU at some tier is a fine idea. We are stuck in our geography, but we don’t have to be stuck in our mindset.

I’d rather be part of the EU than part of the USA and I think Canadians could be convinced to trade their LOONIES for L-EU-NIES.

But

Canada is twice the size of the entire EU with a population less than that of Spain (a little more then Poland). The capital of our easternmost province is closer to Brussels than it is to the capital of our westernmost province (it’s also closer to Berlin, Vienna, Bratislava, and maybe even Rome). I don’t think that a governing system designed to meet the needs of European countries is going to be that good of a fit, we have many European values, but our econo-political-geography is probably too dissimilar for it to work.

If the EU created some sort of half-in, half-out affiliation for us to join then maybe?

I don’t claim to have the most sophisticated view on this.

There are some attractive aspects to being a part of the EU at the moment, but they could become less attractive, after building a major dependence on them, at which point leaving would be extremely harmful and difficult. In some ways, a bit like being so close with the USA, but moreso. And while Canada’s voting could help to mitigate that in theory, the chairman of the IDU being Stephen Harper and our mass export of freaks like JP or Lauren Chen suggests we’re not unlikely to fuck it up (wish it were not so, it’d be almost like giving Florida EU membership).

I think what could make sense is having a very strong relationship with the EU, including some bilateral regulations, maybe even some pooled funding for shared purposes, without necessarily being fully managed by the EU, and without necessarily having undue influence within the EU.

I would love closer ties, even very close like customs union and freedom of movement. Also personally I’m not attached to the Canadian dollar, and if it made economic sense to replace it with the Euro I wouldn’t mind.

I’m not sure what a “European Republic” would entail. I assume that means that a lot more issues will come under the responsibility of EU institutions such as the EP, as opposed to local governments. Canada is big enough as it is, and people often complain (rightfully or not) about bad decisions made in far-away Ottawa. I think Canadians won’t like to delegate a significant chunk of our sovereignty to Brussels.

And anyway as you pointed out the EU is far from perfect. What bothers me the most is the frequent need for unanimity and the ability of small countries like Hungary to block fairly routine decisions about spending. In Canada unanimous consent is required only to depose the King or something like that.

As a Canadian, I’m happy to have close relations with the EU but have zero interest in joining the EU. To me, it makes no sense. Canada is a Pacific nation just as much as an Atlantic nation, by trade we’re even more Pacific than Atlantic, and we have many interests that are not shared by all the other European countries that have a vote in the EU. True that Canada’s population is not large, but the area is double the whole EU put together and we have a lot of regional diversity that it’s better for us to be able to set independent policy for.

Geography matters even in the modern age, and so I’d worry that entering a bloc like the EU would raise the potential for severe economic disruption (in Canada), depending on the bloc’s own relationship with the US at any given point in time (what if a spat between the US and EU means we cannot source food from our southern acquaintance for some period of time?). I’d love to read a deeper analysis on these issues by someone more knowledgeable. Were that not an issue, well, I personally admire the European project and think it would be incredible to be a part of it.

It’s interesting to hear that this is something people are talking about in Germany.

I think, if you were to poll Canadians on the street, there would be a lot of public support for this idea from people from left-leaning cosmopolitan types. Honestly I think part of why the idea is attractive to people is the free movement aspect, people like the idea that being a Canadian citizen would allow you to go and live and work somewhere in Europe for a while. People here really romanticize the European way of life.

But in my experience though most people who are into this idea don’t seem to have given the logistics behind it much thought. I think if this were to be actually implemented though there would be some decrease in public support because people would be forced to think about what it would mean to be part of the EU (getting rid of our currency, decreases in our foreign policy, etc).

I can’t speak for anyone but me, but I can at least offer my perspective.

I think it would largely depend on how relations with the US go in the future. After Trump croaks, will the US continue further on its current trajectory, or return a bit closer to a pre-Trump state? If the US continues to threaten us, I think there would honestly be a decent chance. We’d much rather be in the EU with representation than made into a vassal state.

If the US returns to more pre-Trump relations, I doubt there would be much interest in joining, despite the potential benefits.

I would like us to be part of a Schengen Area and other mutual recognition to make it easier to travel and get work permits between Canada and EU nations.

We need to start accepting ISO/EN standards as an alternative option to UL and American standards.

In terms of becoming an EU member state, I’m open to it but don’t rush us to the front of the line. Ukraine, Morocco, Algiers and other north African countries, Norway, Balkans, etc., if any of them have put official Expressions of Interest they should be considered before us.

I support the idea as Canadians need to become closer to other democratic countries and remove its dependence on the superpower down south that keeps attempting to water down our sovereignty, safety standards and institutions.

Canadians need to get off this unhealthy attachment to the US in the name of “geography” as that’s just a cheap excuse to do nothing while enabling Washington’s problematic behaviour. We need to stop copying their accent, car-centric infrastructure, over the top individualism, date format, excessive airplane travel, automakers self-tests, single family homes.

Uruguay doesn’t do their majority of trade with either Brazil and Argentina because they understand if feed one of the 2 larger countries too much they would become a vassal state that would be eventually militarily annexed.

Britain used to be our largest trading partner in the past and yet people are saying that “it’s impossible” to do the same EU even though shipping has gotten much cheaper today.

I wouldn’t mind adopting the euro as it simplify the experience in traveling and buying from European businesses as one wouldn’t need to pay for the conversion fees.

Expanding the Schengen area to The Great White North would be incredible! Imagine all the sights the visitors could see.

Having danish and french bases opened here would help Canada and Greenland defend against the tyrants in Washington DC.

To become a part of a fully federated EU? I don’t think so. I would love to be an EU member, but I wouldn’t want to stop being Canada either.

I’ve often dreamed of a world where there are no countries, just a single global government. I think it would be great, but I don’t think it’s realistic at this time. We’d need to undergo a lot change before that could become feasible.

Another issue I would have is not being able to control our foreign policy. Canadians have seen first-hand just how dangerous it is to get in bed with the united states, and we can’t afford to go back to that. If we became a single unit, we’d be beholden to any relationships made with the u.s., which is unacceptable.

We wouldn’t want to become dominated by them again, so we couldn’t surrender our autonomy. I would very much like to join the EU, but I would not want to give up my national identity either. I’m not some ultra-proud patriot, though I do love my country. I’m just not content with the idea of not having control over what affects us.

I love Europe and I hope we can become closer friends, but I wouldn’t be willing to surrender our autonomy completely.

Comes and goes, it used to be really popular now it just seems hopeless.

I would go all-in without much hesitation if that actually became a feasible option. But I agree with your analysis and agree that we probably don’t need to.

Canada is strong enough to stand on its own, and we don’t need to actually formally join the EU to align with it, however strictly or flexibly we choose to. There is very little preventing us from mutually operating in near-lockstep and I think that we largely will in the future, even without the specific rules and guardrails imposed by formal membership. We would reserve the right to go our own way, without actually needing to use it. It’s the best of both worlds in a lot of ways, for both us and for the EU.

I think the EU, especially post-Brexit, needs to develop a more flexible but still robust framework to allow extremely close alignment and ties spanning trade, security, and travel with nations like Canada and the UK that are exhaustive enough to make the distinction between full EU membership and strong EU partnership largely irrelevant while remaining flexible enough to endure and adjust to the potential friction points that would emerge.

Canada would make a great template for future partnerships and alliances of values-aligned western democracies to work with the EU in a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial way. I think we can put something together that really makes sense. We’ll see what happens.

I’m for Canada divesting it’s interests into more than just the states. We should have strong relations with lots of polities around the globe, not just the nearest one that will take us.

A lack of sovereignty is exactly why we shouldn’t be looking to the states for everything. Already we follow them too closely down a dark path, and are too dependant on them for too many goods and services.

I’m here on Lemmy partly to understand how a decentralized system works, and how to build and support that in other places. To see how much freedom each server has, and how well they can operate together. Falling in line with a polity on a different continent doesn’t sound like it would do us much good, as we would be beholden to people in a very different geopolitical position. I’d rather be allies than last among equals.

I think my position might change with evidence that such a united polity doesn’t just become Empire Mk176, but I can’t find it in me to want to integrate ourselves with other nations when our integration with another nation is the cause of so many of our problems.

I also think there is something to be said for having multiple levels of membership in the EU currently. Going from nothing to a full member is a huge change that could take multiple decades before bearing fruit, while much smaller changes could encourage growing closer more easily.

I would very much like to have many EU standards on chemicals, food, technology, and labour, while also supporting those standards globally. Yet I see little point to adopting the Euro, even ignoring the issues with tying different economies together. I don’t even know if that would prevent us from forming other organizations, like CANZUK.

In any case, this would be the work of decades, much more direct interactions, and many more conversations. We still haven’t fully switched to metric after 55 years.