On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney stood before the European Parliament and said that he welcomed the “ambition” to bring Canada in as an “associate member.”
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he → stand → member
He framed it as a sovereignty-reinforcing move, but seeing how many strings and risks come with EU membership — and how little he’s told the public about his plan — it sounds like a slim prospect.
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it → frame → prospect
Because “associate member” isn’t a real type of EU membership, we’re stuck gleaning what it entails from Carney’s speech.
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it → glean → speech
“Seamless digital trade and non-agricultural goods and a wide range of services,” were mentioned, along with closer ties between our financial systems, more communications infrastructure and closer collaboration on AI rules.
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trade → mention → rules
Even gas exports made the list.
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exports → make → list
Carney spoke of “deepening people-to-people ties,” giving the example of young people living, working, and studying wherever they want within the hypothetical union.
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they → speak → union
On the studying front, he also suggested membership in Erasmus+, the EU’s multi-billion scholarship program.
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he → suggest → Erasmus+
The overall relationship between the two entities should be one of “deep co-operation,” he said.
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he → say → operation
Woven throughout the speech was a nice motif about oak trees grown in Canada from acorns collected at Vimy Ridge, as well as their descendant saplings which were planted several years ago on the former battleground.
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which → weave → battleground
It was speechwriting done well, and it tapped into exactly what elder voters love.
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voters → do → what
If you step out of the shoes of a person completely tuned out of politics though, it all starts to look drab.
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it → step → politics
For starters, it’s hard to trust the content of the speech given the contradictions emitted by the speaker in the days before.
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it → ’ → days
Remember that it was from American media that Canadians first heard of Carney’s push for EU “associate membership.”
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Canadians → remember → membership
Then, the prime minister denied it.
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minister → deny → it
“We’re not looking to become a member of the European Union,” Carney told a reporter at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday.
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Carney → look → Sunday
“What we are looking and will begin discussion for is a unique alliance with the European Union, between Canada and the European Union.”
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looking → look → Canada
CTV also reported that day that a senior government source said that Canada wasn’t seeking EU membership “in any capacity.”
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Canada → report → capacity
We just don’t know what.
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We → know → ?
During his speech, Carney praised the existing trade deal with the continent — Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) — as “one of the world’s most successful trade agreements.”
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Carney → praise → agreements
But this treaty isn’t even in full force because 10 EU member states haven’t ratified it since it was signed in 2016.
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it → ratify → 2016
The French Senate actually rejected CETA in 2024, and the other holdouts are Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Slovenia.
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holdouts → reject → 2024
For all the nice metaphors about trees and World Wars, we have yet to complete the decade-old trade deal due to disagreements on rules about the climate, GMOs, cattle raising and so on.
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we → have → climate
As for Carney’s vision of associate membership, it’s important to account for the unsaid drawbacks when evaluating whether it’s actually in our interests.
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it → ’ → interests
Banding together to push back against the big, bad AI companies might sound appealing to those who are unsettled by new technology, but Europe has alreadyfallen behind on AI in part due to tighter regulation.
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Europe → band → regulation
And if you’re already annoyed at the cookie pop-ups that are thrust into your face whenever you open a website, you should beware of what more could happen to our internet with greater collaboration.
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what → ’re → collaboration
And while working together on energy sounds nice, remember that you’re talking about the same European Union that once considered livestock culls an appropriate means to mitigate climate change.
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culls → work → change
Yes, we’d love to sell them more of our oil.
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we → love → oil
No, we don’t want any of their environmental regulations.
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we → want → regulations
Carney paints a picture of opening up a continent to our bright and promising youth, but it simply can’t be taken at face value given how poorly the Liberals have managed immigration and free-movement arrangements.
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Liberals → paint → immigration
Canada’s international study programs were supposedly merit-based and limited only to the global rich — and then we found out that middle-aged adults from poor countries were using them to move their entire families over, and that actual transnational gangs were using them to flood Canada with their members.
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gangs → base → members
In Europe, the migration wave of the last decade has brought in large populations of foreigners, many of whom have struggled to integrate.
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many → bring → whom
Depending on the country of origin, they’ve committed crimes at higher rates and have also been much more prone to welfare dependency.
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they → depend → dependency
And when they have kids, those kids are EU citizens, regardless of how integrated their families are.
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families → have → kids
Given that many of these individuals are cleared to study, live and work in Europe, we should assume that they would be able to take advantage of any free-movement program with Canada.
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they → give → Canada
To open our borders and accept EU rules on a wide range of subject areas would be a blight on Canadian sovereignty, no different than kneeling to the far-fetched demands of the United States.
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open → open → States
But Europe seems more polite and the vibe is more to our taste, so “associate membership” it is.
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it → seem → taste
Whatever the costs of Carney’s plan, he’s probably not going to tell you about them — it’ll be up to us to discern for ourselves.
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it → go → ourselves
The Aporia
