Feddit.onlineCanada won’t become the 51st US state – but could it join the EU?
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/08/canada-wo…
...
While [Joachim Streit, a Member of the European Parliament of Free Voters] admitted that the possibility of Canada as a full member of the EU “may be aspirational for now”, he wondered if it was an idea whose time had come.
“Canada would be a strong member,” he said. “If Canada would be a member of the EU, it would rank 4th in terms of GDP. It’s part of Nato. And 58% of (working-age) Canadians have college degrees.”
Canada also has vast energy reserves – an asset that could prove useful to the bloc, which is still struggling to wean itself off Russian gas, he added.
Since launching his campaign last month, Streit has become the most visible proponent of an unlikely proposition that has been gaining traction since Trump began floating the idea of Canada as the 51st state.
In late January, a former foreign minister of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, called for Canada to be invited into the EU. “They are more European than some European member states anyway,” he told Germany’s Pioneer Media.
Media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic have delved into the idea, while a February poll of 1,500 Canadians found 44% of them believed Canada should look into joining the EU.
...
In April, Streit submitted a written question to the European parliament, asking whether the treaty article stipulating that states must be European could be interpreted in a way that could allow for Canadian membership or, barring that, if it could be legally revised. He has yet to receive a response.
...
Since launching the campaign, he’s been in constant contact with Canadians; meeting twice with one of Canada’s high-ranking envoys to the EU and meeting with a Brussels-based association that promotes Canada-EU trade.
As news spreads of his efforts, his office has received a handful of emails of support. Some have offered up their own thoughts on how to skirt around Canada’s geographic location; one recent email laid out what the writer described as a “killer argument”, pointing out that as part of the Commonwealth Canada was tied to the UK and, by extension, Europe.
...
21 Comments
Comments from other communities
Che BananaI like this idea.
Australia can come too.
If they qualify for one or two more Eurovisions, they can use that as a proof of European-ness I'd say.
Norah (pup/it/she)I was gonna say, that MEP calling Canada the "most European country outside Europe" when they haven't even competed in Eurovision!
the entrants have to turn up the weirdness, though, to have a chance
*Yes please*. If it's not kitsch, weird and/or flashy as hell, it's not true ESC. There was a year when it was like almost everyone had agreed to sent their most boring crap, it was terrible.
🇦🇺𝕄𝕦𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕕𝕔𝕣𝕠𝕔𝕠𝕕𝕚𝕝𝕖I'd be hesitant to give up monetary sovereignty to another organizing body.
That highly shackles the amount of fiscal policy space a federal government can use.
PowderhornBeing in the EU is not the same as giving up local currency. It's not like the UK abandoned sterling during its foray into the union.
acargitzSince the adoption of the Euro, the EU rules require new entrants to eventually adopt it. Exceptions like for the UK and Sweden were made at the time of the negotiations before the adoption of those rules. If Canada were to join now, we would have to adopt the euro.
HumanPenguinExactly. But if we are honest. Canada joining the EU with no land border even close. Would be such a huge change in how it needs to work Vs other members.
It is much more likely to negotiate an EEA like arangment. As customs etc would face huge complications with the US being their largest trading partner.
Just about everything would need to be up for debate for such a deal to be practical on Canada's part.
Just things like electrical trade would be questionable. Localisation meant almost all other members were using 220v like systems before unification. Food standards make EU / north American trade in many products complex. So either way any merge is going to be long and complex. So differences will be needed,
jarfilCanada shares a border with Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, which is part of the EU.
I know it's a stretch... but it's there 😁
An EEA agreement could be a start, then see how things go on from there. With the USA's isolationist politics, USA might no longer be a viable largest trade partner for Canada.
Oof. TIL. On the plus side, it's been a far more stable currency since its introduction than CAD over the same time period. Swinging wildly back and forth from USD parity -- and I'll admit I'm coming from a U.S. perspective -- can't have been a fun time. When I was living in Victoria at the turn of the century, I got CAD1.60 per dollar after ATM fees, which made everything insanely cheap, since rack rates for everything mirrored U.S. pricing.
My girlfriend and I could go out for a nice dinner with drinks for what to me was $20.
But some 15 years later (I don't remember exactly when, as when you get older, time starts to lose meaning), the Canadian dollar was actually stronger than ours.
I'm coming from a PIGS-crisis perspective, having immigrated from a PIGS country to Canada during the euro debt crisis. The euro is too unwieldy and it's monetary policy has basically been mostly what suits the Northern European banks plus northern populism against lazy southerners to keep transfers low. In a way, the eurozone is one giant version of Italy.
I personally don't see any advantage for Canada to let go it's monetary sovereignty. We are at our core a resource and trading nation, and having control of our own levers is best.
I am absolutely for tighter integration with the EU, as I don't see any reason Canada shouldn't enjoy the things we take for granted as Europeans. Potentially in the Icelandic or Norwegian model (ultimately in the Canadian model of course), but just like as Canadians we don't need to be anyone's 51st state, we also don't need to be anyone's 28th member state.
Ps. I'm confusing "we"s above, just the pitfalls of being a dual EU-Canadian citizen.
PIGS clarification? Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain? Useless websearch term.
On the flipside there's overseas territories which don't use the Euro, and there's been plenty of talk of a multi-speed Europe. Single market won't be negotiable, though, so there's going to be inspections at the border keeping refrigerated eggs and chlorinated chickens out.
Then I'd be all for it. They should find what safety they can with countries that aren't bat shit crazy like the US
Can we then rename the USA to "Northern America leftovers nobody wants to ally with"? NALNWtAW. Exactly the name Tramponia deserves.
The EU won't be allowed to expand so deep into the US sphere of influence. Not saying I'm against it, but it won't happen.
This is probably just a political play to show Canada has more cards than Trump thinks
The guy who can manage to run casinos into the ground? I'm not sure he knows what cards are.
Well he sure likes to talk about who holds them and who doesn't
Sure, but understanding what cards are involves reading. He heard the idiom once and decided it sounded good.
Who's gonna stop them? The US has pretty much thrown away all leverage it'd use to prevent such a thing.
The US is actively shrinking its "sphere of influence". Just look at USAID: a worldwide sphere of influence, shutting down as we speak.
If it can bring more holidays and better working conditions, then I'm all in.
4 weeks minimum paid vacations would be hella nice.
I'm pretty sure it's a requirement to have proportional representation, so I'd jump at the opportunity if only as an excuse to abolish FPTP.
We don't need to join the EU in order to build closer ties with them and to adopt some of their more progressive regulatory frameworks.
First, Canada should just join Eurovision. This should be mandatory IMO, for all european members, candidates and future prospects.
But realzies, Canada is just too far away. They can get a trade deal and join in for certain policies(environmental, etc) but ultimately, unions mostly make sense for neighbours. I dont think either the EU or Canada will benefit that much from a union, at least for now. Maybe in a few decades, after both sides integrate better and have common policies, things will be different. However, if globalization collapses and the US keeps going the way it is going, i can see this accelerating things.
Sorry we're not getting along Canada but we have an illegal alien you're going to have to take back. He's addicted to a lot of drugs, and is a deadbeat dad many times over. His favorite hobby is accusing people of pedophillia.
AnUnusualRelicThere first has to be a train line to Canada. This is an unavoidable prerequisite. Then we'll see.
ssillyssadassA train line joining mainland EU with the UK, Iceland, Greenland and Canada?
Greenland is either connected by train because it's part of Denmark, or doesn't need to be because it's a quasi independent territory.
As for Iceland, nobody knows.
The Easter coast of Canada is closer to Britain than Britain is to the furthest east point of the EU.
Closer integration and cooperation, yes absolutely. Membership, no.
We don't need to be anyone's 51st state and we don't need to be anyone's 28th member state.
That's not really how EU works
What part of what I wrote are you referring to?
Your comment wasn't complex enough to merit this question. I was referring to the only part of your comment where it was relevant to. Which is almost all of it.
So you're saying that the EU doesn't work in a way that allows closer cooperation and integration without membership. That's factually wrong. This model works for Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
Got any more snark?
Oh, I have a lot of that, but I'm realising you need everything to be spelled out very thoroughly and subtlety is lost on you, so here we go:
The EU isn't an authoritarian institution that you are afraid of, and as Britain's example showed, the closer you are to being a full member, the better the benefits, and the more you're trying to play a big boy, the more you're in the shit.
Canada doesn't have the proper ratio of citizens to stored Nazi gold to properly pull off Switzerland thing anyway.
But sure, closer cooperation is better than no cooperation
Britain was already an integrated member that decided to exit. That's very different from opposing new deep integration.
We might not have a great Nazi gold to citizens ratio but our resources to citizens ratio is more than Iceland and Norway combined many many times over.
I never said that EU is an authoritarian institution, you made that up.
My argument is for keeping our existing sovereignty, such as for example being able to keep our own currency, and our more welcoming immigration policies. Canada doesn't need the Euro, doesn't need the ECB, we don't need the Dublin treaty and we don't need the Stability and Growth Pact.
Anything the EU does right (eg the GDPR) we can adopt and adapt for ourselves already. There is absolutely nothing holding us back from becoming better.
The EU is a complicated institution, parts of it are structurally neoliberal, in the same way that parts of Canadian institutions are structurally colonialist. So we really don't need the craziness of European politics internal dysfunction. We have enough of that of our own.
Keep the snark coming.
No thanks, the Euro area has enough problems itself. Hence their desire to rush in a CBDC, and to limit free speech.
This report outlines the economic fantasy land of Europe the best.
https://icecap.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022.02-IceCap-Global-Outlook.pdf
"To demonstrate our skepticism towards the Europeans’ ability to achieve escape
velocity and forever leave behind their zombie banking system, unmarketable
debt and complete dependence on suppressing price discovery - consider the
following policy reactions orchestrated by the European Central Bank (ECB) since
the 2008-09 crisis:
• European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF)
• European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM)
• European Stability Mechanism (ESM)
• Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT)
• Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO)
• Long Term Refinancing Operation II (LTRO)
• Long Term Refinancing Operation III (LTRO)
• Tripartite Committee consisting of ECB, IMF, EC agreement (TROIKA)
• Forced austerity and bailouts of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain
• Activation of FED USD Swap Lines
• Asset Purchase Program (APP)
• Corporate sector purchase programme (CSPP)
• Public sector purchase programme (PSPP)
• Asset-backed securities purchase programme (ABSPP)
• Covered Bond Purchase Programme (CBPP)
• Covered Bond Purchase Programme II (CBPP)
• Covered Bond Purchase Programme III (CBPP)
• Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP)
• Quantitative Easing (QE)
• Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP)
• Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP)
Recal"
Yea I would not want to give up monetary sovereignty to them either, it will not work long term, and the needed bailouts are just a symptom of the larger issues
Deleted by moderator
Are they driving the vehicles across the ocean to ram you?
Cars don’t kill people, people kill people. Go look up vehicle ramming attacks by migrants in Europe the past decade.
Ignoring whether this is a thing or not, those migrants would still be in Europe... Not Canada. The European Union and the Schengen zone are not the same thing.
We've already had people in cars in Canada ramming Muslims, but joining Europe isn't going to cause a guy in Europe to drive across and ram a Canadian family. They would have to travel here first, and if they are the type of person to plan a flight to rent a car to ram people, they are going to do that anyway
A friend of mine had an interesting idea for this. We Canadians own a ton of islands. A bunch of European countries do too. What if we just... traded one or two? Ones that have nothing on them but would then geographically mean that Canada exists in Europe.
Better yet start a new kind of Union that will eventually replace the EU and hopefully leave some of the baggage behind.
Denmark and Canada already share an empty island. The border goes right through the middle, but the treaty includes the freedom for any visitors from either side to enjoy the entire island.
Is that the one where they trade the bottles of booze?
Yes. It was finally settled in the end of 2023.
Hans Island could become the biggest trading hub in the north.
Canada being technically in the EU geographically to become a full EU member state would be an epic "technically correct is best kind of correct" moment.
That would be pretty friggin' awesome, not gonna lie.
Canada so totally has those "Contemporary European" vibes, too (or maybe we have the Canadian vibes, either way!), would be an excellent fit imho. It'd make a lot of sense.
Considering the historically close connection that Canada shares with the UK, it makes sense. The area I'm from, Newfoundland, is also even more European-feeling in certain areas because of how things have stuck in time here. Like Ireland if you looked at it and its culture through a kaleidoscope.
Sorry, the number of EU members is limited... We'd have to throw one out....
...
...
😑🦶🇭🇺
This is very unfortunate Hungary, but on the bright side, I'm sure Russia would gladly absorb you on their terms, that's what you want anyway isn't it?
I'm not against strong EU-Canada relation, but let's not rally behind a politician who's never been to Canada. Especially not a German one who launched a one-man campaign he himself describes as aspirational.
I'm confused, what's wrong with this guy being German?
"especially a German one"
You really need an explanation?
Yes, I do, as I am not German, nor European and do not have "common knowledge" of the goings-on in the EU, vis-a-vis politicians and their rhetoric.
Please no, we don't want to have the US as a bordering country to the EU
Why not? We already have a very long border with Russia.
But we must of course build a wall to USA, I'm sure we can get Trump to pay for it.
The entire thing reads like that German was looking for an excuse to say something racist. They will never change.
What is 'racist' here?
yeah 🤨
But is this a dig at Hungary/Slovakia or is it really as racist as it sounds?
I'd assume that's exactly what he meant. Europe comes with a set of ideals and it seems that Canada by and large aligns with those closer than ex Soviet block countries, even after all the years.