Canada in the European Union? Poll suggests broad openness to the idea (www.cp24.com)

submitted 4 hours ago by Sepia@mander.xyz to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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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.

Spark’s chief strategy officer Bruce Anderson says the survey suggests Canadians are increasingly open to finding ways to buck Canada’s reliance on the United States after more than a year of tariffs under U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration.

France’s foreign minister last month openly floated the idea of Canada joining the EU, while Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he’s looking to deepen trade and security ties with the continent but not as a formal member of the bloc.

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[-] 5PACEBAR@piefed.ca 1 points 56 minutes ago

[-] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 2 points 1 hour ago

It's starting to look like some kind of CPTPP-EU mashup with Canada in the center is where things are going, instead.

[-] FreeBooteR69@lemmy.ca 1 points 44 minutes ago

Yup, we aren't joining the EU, we don't need to. A large trading block of middle powers, CETA/CPTPP and eventually MERCOSUR and a few other countries is brewing. Not to mention reformation of the WTO, a "plan B" due to the dispute mechanism being sabotaged by the US for it's own unilateral protectionist purpose. Let's just hope the US gets bogged down in Iran and is too preoccupied to invade Canada before the mid-terms turns the US Congress and Senate against their president.

[-] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 hours ago

Yes, please.

[-] ninthant@lemmy.ca 19 points 4 hours ago

I’m with the 58% who think it’s worth exploring. But we need a lot of time and much deeper ties before we’d jump into eu membership.

I’d love to see us adopt EU standards, to reduce our reliance on the US standards which are increasingly prone to corruption and anti-science manipulations. If a car can be sold in Germany or a drug can be sold in France let’s immediately allow those here too. If a person gets a medical degree in Spain, they can work at a hospital here with just some minimal localization.

It may also be worth exploring pegging the CAD to the euro, again for stability and commerce reasons. This also has significant risks and downsides but it also could insulate us from American chaos somewhat.

There are likely areas in defence where we could cooperate with the EU, with the health of nato being questionable at best.

After all that, let’s talk.

[-] Reannlegge@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 hours ago

I like how the EU is moving away from the big tech firms in the US, I am all for that. If I had the money I would get something to replace my iPad and something to replace my iPhone last year. I paid my last iCloud bill a few months ago as I have moved to self hosting almost everything. Discord is the only other closed source tool I use, have not had the heart to close my facebook account “because I may need to talk to a friend” type deal but I have not logged into it anymore than 2 maybe 3 times since March or April of 2025.

[-] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 8 points 3 hours ago

But we need a lot of time and much deeper ties before we’d jump into eu membership.

Yeah, it's very easy to be "open" to the idea. I'm interested myself, but I know next to nothing about what the effects of that sort of integration would be.

[-] expatriado@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago

not sure is the EU wants a big ass border with the US

[-] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 2 points 1 hour ago

Or that we'd love how much it has to be firmed up to join the Schengen. I mean, it's probably better done sooner than later, but if there's a huge jump in prices and everyone's trips become impossible that's not how it's going to be received.

[-] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 hours ago

https://media1.tenor.com/m/iPfCAJEhmJMAAAAC/bugs-bunny-canada.gif

[-] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Well these broads need to think twice

[-] ProudCanadianCitizen@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

Canada using the Euro as its international trading currency? I wonder if the Americans will take it 'at par'?

[-] FederatedFreedom1981@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 hours ago

This sort of pivot makes sense. We can collaborate more closely on all kinds of things, given that we have more similarities with the EU than the US, historically and philosophically speaking.

[-] VeryInterestingTable@jlai.lu 1 points 11 minutes ago

Government-wise I agree. Including companies that are funded fully or partially by the government.

But as soon as you look at the private sector in Canada it's "USA USA!" chanting in unison. Canada is mostly socialist whilst having obsene and depraved capitalistic private companies.

I'm smelling a strong pushback from them if Canada get's closer to EU.