As a Canadian I'd be in favour of starting with joining the Schengen zone. A currency union might be a hard sell as our economy benefits from being able to float the dollar for exports, but it would probably still be a net benefit once trade with the rest of the EU improved and regulations got normalized.
Transitioning should start with more and tighter trade links. Working toward harmonizing rules and dropping tariffs. There'd be a lot of sticking points.
Consumer protections and laws against engineered obsolescence? Yes, please!
As a Canadian, absolutely. Most of the relational downsides have dropped away at this point, even - Trump wants a less porous border and less trade. CBC did an article on this recently, though, and basically said while possible it would be too mean to Bosnia for the EU to even consider, on their end.
At the very least, we need a separate defence pact with Europe in case Trump rethinks his annexation strategy, and should give Europe access to whatever trees and cool rocks it wants in return.
Well Canada already has borders with France & Denmark if I recall correctly
The Greenland (so currently Denmark) land border is real, and might have the weirdest history of any border now, which is saying something. Saint Pierre and Miquelon are separated from us by 45 km of sea, though, so you might as well include Iceland.
Wasn't there some island you had a friendly dispute over with bottles of spirits being exchanged ? Got resolved a couple of years ago by splitting it down the middle ?
Edit here you go, Hans Island, split down the middle in 2022
Yes, with regards, from Kentucky.
Also from Kentucky, and I second the motion.
Not in Kentucky but I agree too
I can't say anything about this topic in particular. But I saw this link to an overview what EU is doing for its members on Lemmy yesterday. Which could be interesting for you as well.
Lol, my tired brain thought for a moment EU was highlighting what it's doing for it's Lemmy-members 🤣
Well considering they have an official Mastodon outlet...
I had a hard time writing that sentence, I totally get you :D
ibx2cat makes a great point in that we should fix our interprovincial trade and logistics before joining the EU👍
Yeah, more robust rail links and fixing some of the dumber parochial interprovincial trade rules.
Wouldn't that mean that the borders to the USA would be closed or more strictly controlled? As far i know, US Citizens need a visa to enter the EU.
Given the trajectory of the last few weeks I don't think that would be a bad thing
Not for vacation or something they don't, but it is progressively getting tighter
Yes. Maybe Trump wouldn't care at this point, though. And, the Canadian public is really pissed, so it would go over smoothly if it happened immediately.
As an American, this would be awesome. The northern US states need to know how this feels from the other side. I live in Texas, and the way we treat the border with Mexico is a fucking travesty. Maybe if all the red northern states had their daily lives upended by this, they'd stop voting for stupid political grandstanders.
Only if we got to keep the loonie
Just because the Euro doesn’t smell like maple?
Man, I still have one of those bills in a ziplock, and it still smells like maple.
The mint insists it never happened.
Pretty much every part of the EU is in some way negotiable. You absolutely can join the EU without adopting the currency.
The main exception is Schengen. You can't become any kind of EU country without being part of the single market/open boarders agreement.
At this point I feel like Canada could only join if:
- Canada did a lot of work to meet the regulations as set forth by the EU.
- Canada had successfully rerouted the majority of it's trade to EU members.
If Canada were to try to join the EU at this time, something tells me the US government would call that an "attack" of some kind, and would hurt Canada with tariffs greater than what was just threatened, or something worse than tariffs.
If Canada started trading the majority of its oil and gas to the EU, this would create big fucking problems for the US, which would again, cause the US to create problems for Canada. Furthermore, this would probably kneecap Russian gas sales to the EU, so Russia would also suddenly be working it's ass off to prevent such a thing at all costs.
I suppose it is possible, but there is an enormous amount of work that would need to be implemented, so I don't expect it would happen any time soon.
If it's possible and they want to I would greatly welcome them.
Even if it was possible, wouldn't it require a huge amount of work on the Canadian side to implement the European level of regulations?
I read where you say "improve safety by following rules proved elsewhere" and I can only think the goal is worth the work.
Our closest neighbour just canned anyone who can tell them where and how they're being unsafe - and relaxed the rules on lead content in drinking water - and I'm thinking we know whom we don't want to follow!
I've always kinda considered that the EU is more of a political than a geographical thing, so having Canada join wouldn't really shock me.
But it would be a very different direction from the one followed next to the noisy US neighbour, and likely one that would displease it mightily.
It should consider it. The EU isn't the US, joining isn't a requirement to stay as Brexit has showed, and joining a common Euro economy is a good way for Canada to stabilize it's dollar problem. It should begin normalizing its trade and regulations to those required by the EU if it's interested. Unfortunately, it would also mean not accepting the trash that's allowed to circulate within the US and which Canada is pressured to accept, which would limit trade with a land neighbor.
Well they fucked up the thumbnail, unless Vancouver island and the other islands on the west coast arent allowed to join
Ah, the New Zealand problem.
I was joking about this in another thread.
The apparent corruption in the Edison Motors case and widespread lack of housing would be glaring issues that require fixing.
Free Trade, yes, maybe. But they are to distant and have fundamental issues that we might not be able to beat. Their geography and distribution is very unusual compared to Europe.
