Carney's Bid to Make Canada an 'Associate Member' of the EU

JJumpCrisscross 1 day ago 33 commentsRead Article on wsj.com

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tempest_•1 day ago

If he is successful that would provide a road map for other nations to turn away from US hegemony and make deeper connections with Europe instead. Probably makes it easier that Canada is western and a commonwealth country. Carney definitely has the experience and connections in Europe to have a good chance at success.

jterrys•about 22 hours ago

Shame that the Canadians don't have any significant ports open towards the Atlantic. Vancouver dwarfs everything.

slipheen•about 22 hours ago

The St. Lawrence Seaway traffic isn't at Vancouver levels, but it's far from negligible.

In the relatively long-term, I'm also interested to see what's going to happen with the expansions at Churchill. It's still certainly small right now but there's an interesting opportunity going the northern route.

gedy•about 23 hours ago

It's been some years but when visiting Quebec there seemed to be a noticable push to have Quebec align with the EU. I remember the Quebec and EU flags hanging on buildings, etc.

gucci-on-fleek•about 23 hours ago

I've never seen this out west before (I'm in Alberta), so my guess would be that it's related to the sovereignty movement [0] rather than some broader grassroots movement to join the EU. But I could be wrong here.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_sovereignty_movement

valeena•about 13 hours ago

I don't think it has to do with the sovereignist movement but I could be wrong too. It could be related to some relations between Quebec and the EU, especially francophone countrys?

tamimio•about 20 hours ago

Can’t read the article nor I can find an archive link, but all of that is just a show. People underestimate how deeply interconnected the US and Cananda in so many ways, especially the critical infrastructure, decoupling that will need at least 10y of dedicated work, choose any sector, utility grid? Most hardware and software is relying on US based products, US can literally turn off the grid in minutes if anything got serious, same goes with other sectors, and no, boycotting US alcohol isn’t one if them. Sure, using that membership as a pressure tactic and all is worth the try, but realistically, the impact is not high.

fyredge•about 19 hours ago

Even more reason to show that Canada is making a strategic decision. Both of them are so coupled to each other that they can't afford to hurt the other without hurting themselves. But now that the US has shown it's willingness for self harm, Canada is making a strategic decision to safeguard their survival.

tamimio•about 3 hours ago

> making a strategic decision.

That would be correct if it is within Canada, not jumping on another entity like Europe or China to substitute. Canada is decades behind when it comes to manufacturing or development of hardware or software, Canada economy is based on services, realesate, and a bit of resources export. Canada economy is a repellent to startups, and if any local startup manages to get slightly bigger, they move to the states to sustain and grow or they will declare bankruptcy within the first 5 years.

fyredge•about 2 hours ago

I don't follow, what would the strategy be? Canada can change it's internal policy, but still relies on free trade with the US. Until then, what they need is partnership with other countries to offload potential instabilities that will be caused by the US during its tantrum.

I don't foresee Canada completely removing trade with US anyways, more of a hedging move to reach out and diversify trade.

snek_case•about 12 hours ago

Agreeing with you. Trump's attitude on the global stage has been to disrespect, insult and threaten every ally. Come at everyone with a "we're better than you" attitude and show that he can't be trusted. The only rational response is to take steps to be more independent and find ways to work around the US. What's the alternative? Give in to a narcissistic bully who won't keep his word and will inevitably come asking for more later?

In the medium to long term, Trump is very old, his approval ratings are in the toilet. I hope that the democrats do well in the midterms and put up a viable candidate to beat him next election (if he's still alive). I also hope that the republicans manage to put up someone smarter and less morally reprehensible next time. Because I mean, this guy doesn't actually represent any kind of conservative ideal in any way. The only people he appeals to are those one or two standard deviations on the left of the bell curve.

If the next US president is halfway sane, Canada and the US will likely begin to repair trade relationships, but I think that Canada and the rest of the world will be a bit more careful next time. The US may never regain the international standing they enjoyed before. Trump has made China look like the more stable and rational trading partner, and accelerated the decline of the US.

beloch•about 18 hours ago

The dependency goes both ways. We could cut off potash and they'd starve. We could cut off the oil and electricity. We could cut off steel and aluminum. The response would not be pleasant, but neither can they afford to risk our response. As dire as the trade-war seems, it doesn't affect even 5% of cross-border trade. No matter what Trump claims about "not needing" anything Canada has, we are dependent on each other.

Broadening our trade is similar to building a new oil pipeline. Nobody is sure a new pipeline will ever pay for itself, but one we started a decade ago would be making us a fortune right now. Trade diversification won't help us much in the current trade war, but it could help us out considerably in the next one.

Trump is a symptom, not the root cause. He may die of old age soon and MAGA may go dormant for a few years if the midterms and/or 2028 election beat them down sufficiently, but they'll be back eventually with some other clown at the helm. Americans voted Trump in twice. They'll vote clown again, and having options will help Canada when that happens. American checks and balances no longer work. If we'd known this was going to happen ten years ago we'd be in a better position today. Now we know it's likely to happen again in another ten or twenty years, so we'd be fools not to prepare.

tim333•about 8 hours ago

Trump, or Krasnov is a bit of an aberration. Once he goes I don't think we'll see his like for a while.

AnimalMuppet•about 8 hours ago

The most similar antecedent I can think of is Huey Long. That was 90 years ago. Whatever it is that Trump has, people that have that seem to be fairly rare.

wasfgwp•about 11 hours ago

Well they can be betting that Republicans will lose in a couple of months and the congress will have the guts to stop him from constantly imposing entirely illegal tariffs on random countries for no reason.

tim333•about 8 hours ago

Re reading the article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bypass_Paywalls_Clean works