Nuclear weapons are treated by the governments that have them as a useful tool. Obtaining a nuclear weapon enters you into a rare club where you are Taken Seriously. It also allows you to credibly defend yourself against countries much more powerful, larger, and more militarised than oneself.
Ottawa has been particularly critical of Israel recently, often moving in lockstep with European allies as the Trump administration’s relationship with the Netanyahu government deepens.
Last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney warned Israel against launching a “significant” ground offensive in Lebanon in a joint statement alongside European leaders. Just a few weeks later, he condemned the very military invasion he and Canada’s allies said should have been averted.
Canadians have long looked away from their often gruesome southern neighbor, tempted instead to embrace a chicer European identity. They could point to a more civil public culture, greater bilingualism and a more generous welfare state, compared to the dog-eat-dog reality of the United States. Prime Minister Mark Carney has called Canada “the most European of non-European countries,” and some policy wonks now advocate joining the EU.
The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, the former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, and other European figures have speculated about the possibility of Canada joining the European Union (EU). Prime Minister Mark Carney has dismissed the notion of Canada joining the EU but has advocated for closer, stronger ties with the bloc. If he were inclined toward EU membership, it would be imprudent for him to announce it at this time. It would be far better to continue aligning Canadian laws and regulations with those of the EU before making any formal announcement. Joining the EU is a slow, multi-year process that often takes a decade or more.
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The idea keeps coming back. A French politician mused about it in Berlin last month. A Finnish leader visiting Ottawa this April didn’t dismiss it out of hand.
Fresh polls show a majority of Canadians would support it.
And in an era when the United States has turned on its closest allies, the question has acquired a new urgency: Could Canada join the European Union?
Where did this idea come from, of Canada joining the European Union? I know the Prime Minister likes to say that Canada is “the most European of the non-European countries,” whatever that means. (More European than, say, Argentina? Uruguay? New Zealand?)
And sure, we’ve all joked about it, at least once, in the heat of Donald Trump’s latest outrage (“that’s it, we’re joining Europe!”). But we are now well past a joke. Finland’s President, Alexander Stubb, is the latest world leader to appear to entertain the prospect, pronouncing it “a marriage made in heaven” that could be negotiated “faster than Finland joining NATO.”
The European Commission, the unelected executive arm of the European Union, assured Europeans in 2019 that it was not spending their hard-earned taxpayer money on supporting the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). In response to a question by Charlie Weimers, a Swedish Member of European Parliament, about the Commission’s funding of the MB, European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas said:
“[T]he European Commission does not finance extremists. On the contrary, we have very strong oversight and audit of our financing… and if you have evidence to the contrary, I would be very interested to have it.”
It feels like there is a campaign underway to get Canada to join the European Union. We have polls and news stories pushing the idea, and politicians seemingly regularly commenting on how or if it could happen.
It’s an utterly ridiculous idea that would see Canada surrender more sovereignty than we would in any trade deal with the Americans. To the smart set, though, the people who allow Donald Trump to occupy every corner of their brains, joining the EU is the antidote to Trump.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb says he exchanges messages with Prime Minister Mark Carney almost every day.
“We’re tight,” Stubb said with a smile.
Now, Stubb and Carney have the opportunity to talk in person.
Stubb is in Ottawa for his first official bilateral meetings with Canada’s prime minister. The pair are working to develop trade and defence ties, according to Carney’s office.
Not sure how long the EU has left and besides I thought we were on the waiting list for the Great Big China Co-Prosperity Sphere?
Nearly three in five Canadians support the idea of Canada joining the European Union, a new poll suggests.
A Nanos Research survey conducted for The Globe and Mail shows that 57 per cent of respondents would either support (28 per cent) or somewhat support (29 per cent) Canada becoming a full member of the EU.
The results also show that 32 per cent of respondents were either opposed or somewhat opposed to the idea, while 12 per cent were unsure.
Maybe those in favour hope they can Schengen their way out of here?
U.S. Vice President JD Vance has accused Eurocrats in Brussels of meddling against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a bid to topple the MAGA ally in Budapest at this week’s parliamentary elections.
In a press conference from the Hungarian capital just days before voters will head to the polls to select the next parliament, and therefore the next prime minister, Vice President Vance said that he was not there to tell citizens who to vote for, but merely to show support for Prime Minister Orbán, whom he described as the “rare exception” among leaders in Europe willing to stand up in defence of Western and Christian civilization.
OTTAWA — New polling suggests a majority of Canadians think Canada ought to explore joining the European Union at a fraught time for geopolitical relations.
A survey of 4,000 people conducted by Spark Advocacy’s polling arm in March found that one in four respondents thought it would be a good idea for Canada to formally join the economic and political bloc of European nations.
A further 58 per cent indicated it was a proposal worth exploring further, while the remainder felt it was a bad idea.
For starters I believe the EU’s constitution insists prospective members actually be located in Europe.
Secondly if Carney wants in you know it’s a bad thing. The EU is a confederacy of Dumpster Fires.
The war against Iran unleashed by the United States and Israel two weeks ago brings to the boil the clash of civilisations that has been simmering since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Despite the efforts of the mullahs to incite the entire Muslim world against the West, that conflict has so far been largely contained. Iran’s sporadic drone and missile strikes on the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have failed to provoke these states to distance themselves from the US, while the “Arab street” has remained quiescent.
RATHER like a concerned friend staging an intervention with an alcoholic, the Trump administration has again and again tried to save Europe from itself, to tell a friend drunk on delusions that it is time to sober up. The short-term high of progressive virtue comes with a long-term hangover of economic ruin, international irrelevance, and total societal collapse. Nowhere is this more abundantly evident than in the welcoming of, and indulgent patronage fading into submissive terror towards, third world Muslim populations who refuse to integrate with Western culture and values.
Since taking office, Prime Minister Mark Carney has made his desire to cut Canada’s economic dependence on the United States crystal clear. And along the way, he’s referenced Europe as a top destination for Canadian goods.
“As the most European of the non-European countries, Canada looks first to the European Union to build a better world,” Carney said last June at an EU-Canada summit in Brussels.
From that point on came steady and deeper integration. Canada has since signed a security and defence partnership with the EU, and this week the two sides agreed to enhance their existing free trade agreement.
Joining the EU would be like an orgasm for Carney.
