Two years ago this month, former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi warned that the continent faced a “slow agony” of decline without radical reforms aimed at boosting investment and innovation, reducing regulations and increasing its energy security.
What happened next was typical of the bloated bureaucratic behemoth that the European Union has become. Much talk and a few symbolic gestures followed Mr. Draghi’s report. But it was soon back to business as usual in Brussels.
As chatter builds over Canada becoming the European Union’s (EU) first “associate member,” many questions are being raised about what this would mean for Canadian jobs, immigration, sovereignty and identity.
While full EU membership isn’t available for non-European nations like Canada, creating this unique “associate status” would forge unprecedented ties between Ottawa and Europe.
STRASBOURG, France—Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is attempting the most dramatic reorientation of his country’s economy and international alliances since Ottawa entered a free-trade agreement with the U.S. almost 40 years ago.
On Thursday, he used an address to the European Parliament to insist that his efforts weren’t aimed at creating a third bloc “to become a great-power rival—only with better manners.”
Mexico appears to be moving closer to an interim trade agreement with the United States. It was reported last week that negotiators are accelerating discussions in hopes of reaching a deal before the U.S. midterm elections in November.
No agreement has been announced, and significant differences remain. Talks reportedly focus primarily on automobiles, steel, aluminum, American content requirements and Chinese investment in Mexico. Nevertheless, Ottawa should be paying very close attention. If Mexico signs first while Canada remains embroiled in a tariff dispute with Washington, the consequences could extend well beyond automobiles and metals. Canada’s agri-food economy could become collateral damage.
TORONTO — A new report by RBC says just over half of Canadian parents with adult children say they are still helping them out financially with expenses including groceries and rent.
The report says 51 per cent of parents with adult children aged 18 to 40 surveyed say they provided financial support in the past year.
Of those helping out, 56 per cent say the money was to help pay for groceries, while 43 per cent have helped with an unexpected or emergency expense.
h/t Patti Jo
New travel restrictions for citizens and foreigners came into effect in China on Tuesday, including potential exit bans for those who run afoul of Chinese regulations.
“The law provides for a host of conditions under which authorities could restrict your ability to leave the country,” Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University, told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday.
“After this law comes into effect, China is becoming ‘Hotel California’ – you can try to check out, but you might never be able to leave.”
I doubt visiting Canada will be safe for Canadians soon given Carney’s ChiCom security MOU.
In between ignoring Parliament after walking away from trade negotiations with the U.S. and ignoring Parliament to speak to the European Union, Prime Minister Mark Carney ignored Parliament to announce a suite of new economic policies, while hosting his “investor’s summit” in Toronto this week.
Previous prime ministers certainly viewed the House of Commons as inconvenient. What makes Carney unique is that he doesn’t seem to consider it at all, not even as an obstacle to overcome or a tedious obligation of his office. It would be too much to say he wished Parliament didn’t exist, because in his mind it is not clear that it does, unless he is physically in the building.
Canada, understandably, has no interest in becoming the 51st state, but becoming the honorary 28th member of the European Union would be foolhardy.
On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen invited Canada with great fanfare to become the bloc’s first “associate member.” The arrangement is intended to reorient Ottawa from Washington toward Brussels by integrating manufacturing, technology, security and energy. Details will be negotiated at a summit next month.
It was smiles, applause and handshakes all around on Wednesday in Strasbourg as Mark Carney sat in on EU President Ursula von der Leyen’s “state of the union” address, in which she floated the idea of Canada becoming the EU’s first “associate member,” whatever that means. But let’s not get carried away by all the well-wishing and good fellowship. The EU is a bloc that sensible countries like Iceland and Norway keep refusing to join. They already have the market access Carney wants and live right next door to the regulators he is courting, and yet they have repeatedly rejected closer integration.
In August, Icelanders voted 52.8 per cent against restarting accession talks that were abandoned more than a decade ago. Turnout was high at 82.5 per cent and the question was not membership but simply whether to reopen negotiations. And still the voters said no.
A word from VDH
Prime Minister Mark Carney is calling for a “deeper partnership” between Canada and Europe in order to hedge against great powers encroaching on the sovereignty of smaller nations.
“Together, Canada and the European Union can anchor our ground to hold our values while forming a protective canopy under which our citizens can thrive,” Carney said in an address to the European Parliament on Thursday morning.
I’ll feel so much safer in EU hands!
Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal to make Canada the EU’s first-ever “associate member” risks stoking political tensions with EU candidate countries that have been waiting for progress towards full membership for years.
On Thursday morning, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, is set to take the podium in the European Parliament following von der Leyen’s pitch.
His predecessor, Justin Trudeau, did so twice already, in 2017 and 2022. Yet this time, the scene is different.
Carney of the EU makes speech!
The alliance between Canada and Europe is not defined by what we oppose. It is about what we are for: freedom, solidarity, prosperity, sustainability. An alliance strong enough so that no one can dictate our choices.
Europe and Canada are each strong. Europe and Canada are even… pic.twitter.com/RW85Z0EauJ
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) September 17, 2026
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, began her sixth state of the Union address in Strasbourg by invoking the spirit of Charles Dickens. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” she quoted from the start of A Tale of Two Cities, adding: “If I look at Europe today, I would say the state of our union is the strongest it has ever been. The state of our union can feel as precarious as it has ever been.”
It is a novel title, but not a new idea.
And it’s not one that has been universally appreciated.
Associate membership in the European Union, as was proposed Wednesday by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, would be another Canadian first.
PENTICTON, B.C. — Canada’s leading taxpayers’ watchdog is calling on the Carney government to make about $60-billion in annual spending cuts, including the end of taxpayer support for corporations, the CBC, the Senate and expense accounts for past governors general.
In its pre-budget recommendations to the federal government, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) also calls for slashing the costs of the federal bureaucracy and Parliament itself as part of a plan to make government more affordable and to reduce the costs of the fast-growing federal debt.
OTTAWA — In this episode with Jason James, we discuss how fast Mark Carney’s government is pivoting toward China: Dominic Barton’s return, Canada’s newly disclosed military talks with the People’s Liberation Army, the RCMP’s partnership with China’s Ministry of Public Security, and what all of it means for Canada’s standing with the United States as the world edges toward a collision over Taiwan.
h/t handy n handsome
