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EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

bbc.com

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Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#661

Post by gizajob »

theplumber wrote: post #589
fidotron wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what happened afterwards. The referendum was triggered by a failed negotiation between Cameron and the EU in the first place.

This is was about immigration. I don’t understand why people are still in denial about this. I am pretty sure it would have happened anyway regardless of what economic concessions UK would have got. It’s worth to note that the immigration is still an issue in the UK and the EU and I think more EU members will leave because of this.

I think this is what will kill it in Canada too. There’s maybe only a million Canadian citizens who would be interested in the idea of freedom of movement to Europe. There’s probably 10-20 million Canadian citizens who would be a hard “absolutely no way” to opening their borders to 250 million random Europeans in return.

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#662

Post by Rover222 »

peebee67 wrote: post #366
neom wrote: post #75

No idea what this actually means, if it means easier trade, I'm all for anything that reduces our dependency on the yanks, as long as we don't need to be involved in their regulatory or legal regimes. The Americans are no longer our friends, Salut, mes amis Européens. :)

This is a sinking ship trying to lash unwitting tenders to it to try to keep it afloat while it rams an iceberg. Canada does not need that kind of trouble.

Seriously. Not to mention that Alberta is trending towards independence (still unlikely, I know).

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#663

Post by AlexandrB »

pyrale wrote: post #34
0xpgm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that is common about middle democracies is that prioritize a bureaucratic elite structure over an entrepreneurship culture, while both the US and China embrace entreprenuership wholeheartedly. If they changed that they'd perhaps become world powers themselves.

> One thing that is common about middle democracies is that prioritize a bureaucratic elite structure over an entrepreneurship culture No, that's just the 2010s propaganda fed to you by people who assert that not letting them do whatever they want is "bureaucratic". These very same people are completely fine lobbying legislature for more moat when they benefit from it. The difference between "middle democracies" or w…

You clearly don't pay attention to Canadian politics. Canada basically let McKinsey run their immigration policy[1][2] for 10 years and has now appointed the former CEO of McKinsey[3] to a business development role in government. I wouldn't say that Canada is just a satellite office of McKinsey, but it's getting closer.

Canada is corrupt as hell, just no one cares so it doesn't make international news.

Edit:

Oh yeah, forgot about the SNC-Lavalin debacle, where the ruling government tried to make the legal problems of their corporate buddies go away[4] by sneaking a new "slap on the wrist" law into an annual budget bill and then pressuring the prosecutor to apply it.

[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mckinsey-immigration-consul...

[2] https://thewalrus.ca/shadow-government/

[3] https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/08/31/prime-...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNC-Lavalin_affair

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#664

Post by mytailorisrich »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #640
mytailorisrich wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the law and it should be very strictly enforced because otherwise it'd open the door for the Middle East and North Africa... But I don't think Canada would want to join the EU, it's anti-Trump bluster.

Canada does not want to join the E.U. as a full member and that is not what is being offered. Canada very much is not “blustering” when it comes to Trump. A big majority of Canadians see sovereignty and less reliance on the US as a massive issue. Canada has embraced China in a way that was unthinkable 5 years ago in a deal intended to hedge against the US. The Canadian Conservative Party lost an election it was thoug…

I'll go back to my first comment above: What is an "associate member"? We don't know because it's a concept that does not exist but the very name suggests something stronger and tighter than anything that exists with non-members that have very close ties (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland).

Hence I think it is safe to say that this is a lot of bluster, or ar least hyperbole, considering what Canada and the EU might really want and the long and complicated treaty process to define and create an "associate member" status.

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#665

Post by fidotron »

lII1lIlI11ll wrote: post #563
fidotron wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the other part: if associate membership is a thing then won't half of the EU start thinking that's their future?

> This is the other part: if associate membership is a thing then won't half of the EU start thinking that's their future? Presumably by "half of the EU" you mean (sometimes) euro-sceptic states like Hungary or Poland? Well, these are not in EU because some illuminati/lizard people tricked them into joining and now won't allow them to leave, like some of their politicians would like you to believe, but because they e…

There is a strong case that much of the eastern bloc were tricked into joining, by the UK, in order to weaken the Franco-German efforts for ever closer union.

This was even a joke in the UK at the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVYqB0uTKlE

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#666

Post by thaumasiotes »

graemep wrote: post #282
leidenfrost wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK Charles III is the monarch both for UK and Canada. Doesn't this mean that Canada is, in a certain degree, dependent of UK?

No. He is separately the monarch of the UK and Canada. You could just as well argue that the UK is dependent on Canada for that reason.

You could, but it might be difficult to hear yourself over the explosive laughter of everybody around you.

Which country would you say has a closer relationship with the King of England?

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#667

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

throwaway283737 wrote: post #605

[flagged]

> Never you mind that millions of Europeans live in America and that doesn't happen in reverse

America may have been founded by Europeans, but nowadays most immigrants are from countries like Mexico, India and China. You won't find any European country in the top 10.

There are about 5 million Americans living abroad, lead again by Mexico.

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#668

Post by enoint »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #632
enoint wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system elected him without a majority.

It was 49.9% vs 48.3%. The 1.8% of people voting for a 3rd party candidate and those who didn't vote were implicitly endorsing Trump.

That’s a weird way to say 50.1% of votes were against Trump.

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#669

Post by LightBug1 »

fidotron wrote: post #283
klelatti wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Carney was asking for freedom of movement of goods, people and services, but without full monetary and legislative integration. > no payments into each others budget. Not going to happen! To enable free movement of goods and services the EU insists that the goods and services are produced in an identical regulatory environment. Even when the regimes are basically identical - eg the UK - then the EU doesn't permit i…

It's actually going to raise questions as to why the EU are A-OK with this now when a possible interpretation of associate membership is it's what Cameron was trying to negotiate the UK into when complete inflexibility on the EU side triggered the Brexit referendum. All depends on what an associate member is of course.

>>> "it's what Cameron was trying to negotiate the UK into when complete inflexibility on the EU side triggered the Brexit referendum."

"Negotiate" ... is that what you call it?

David Cameron (and team) were the most inept bunch of wankers this country has had the misfortune of being represented by in living memory (in terms of medium/long-term real impact).

We had better terms than anyone in the EU and we still fucked it up.

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