Carney's Bid to Make Canada an 'Associate Member' of the EU
wsj.comIf 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.
Shame that the Canadians don't have any significant ports open towards the Atlantic. Vancouver dwarfs everything.
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.
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Trump, or Krasnov is a bit of an aberration. Once he goes I don't think we'll see his like for a while.
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.
Re reading the article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bypass_Paywalls_Clean works