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

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

#791

Post by bryanlarsen »

enoint wrote: post #668
bryanlarsen wrote: post #632

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed, it is a weird way of saying that. But it is basically what I'm saying.

I used the word "endorsed", not "voted". The distinction does matter.

Only about 25% of the voting age public voted for Trump. Almost 25% of the voting age public weren't registered to vote, perhaps some of them wanted to vote but couldn't, so let's use the registered voters as the denominator. 75.8% of them voted; roughly one third for Trump, one third for Harris and one third didn't vote.

Choosing not to vote against a likely outcome is an endorsement of that outcome in my opinion.

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

#793

Post by mytailorisrich »

rsynnott wrote: post #714
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.

Turkey, only a tiny part of which is geographically in Europe, is a candidate (though talks are suspended in practice until, at least, Erdogan is out of power), and Cyprus is geographically in Asia/Middle East, not Europe. The rules could certainly be loosened further with agreement. But also, yes, Canada probably does not want to be a full member, at least in the near-term; they want some sort of alignment not amoun…

Good point regarding Cyprus but considering the political and social situation in Europe I think that any loosening of the rules is a non-starter.

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

#794

Post by graemep »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #770
thaumasiotes wrote: post #764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

England, which is why he's called the King of England and never called the King of Canada.

His title is "His Majesty Charles the Third, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith" but he can claim many others. In Canada he is announced as King of Canada.

Yes, and he is also:

"Charles the Third, by the Grace of God King of Canada and His other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_titles_and_honours_of_...

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

#795

Post by graemep »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #666
graemep wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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

yes, i was just pointing out the inconsistency.

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

Legally speaking they both have exactly the same relationship.

I do not think King of England is actually one of his titles.

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

#796

Post by InTheArena »

LastTrain wrote: post #557
InTheArena wrote: post #488

Imagine what the EU reaction would be if the United States offered to make bring in the UK or Poland as state(s). Geopolitical games like this are how real wars eventually start.

Did you miss the part where the US president said he would annex Canada against their will?

no. I am pointing out that a hyperbole from the EU is likely to cause a problem after this dipshit has left the oval office.

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

#797

Post by sajithdilshan »

throwaway283737 wrote: post #481

This is the same EU who once reduced the Canadian trade minister to (literal) tears, and made her denounce the (accurate) fact that, and I quote, "Europe is not capable of signing a trade deal". Notably, the EU has never ratified the Canada FTA and everyone's just sort of pretending it did for convenience's sake. Nice symbolism, but this is merely being used as leverage in Canada's negotiation with the US. "See, we h…

I think a lot of non-europeans have this illusion that EU is this one big liberal, open-minded continent. It is mostly true if you look at certain cities like Amsterdam or Copenhagen, but in general most EU countries are way more conservative, and traditional.

Not only abortion, some EU countries still have laws to discriminate people based on their sexuality. One recent example is that one of the prominent openly gay German politician (Jens Spahn) had to give up his position (although he had it coming because his other political scandals) because he used a surrogate mother in US to have a kid with his husband. I didn't know till then, but apparently surrogacy is still illegal in Germany and nobody was talking about making it legal and let women decide what they want to do with their bodies.

All those democrats and celebrities in US wants to move to European countries and I would love to see their faces when they realize that old world is still archaic in so many aspects.

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

#798

Post by ololobus »

Alles wrote: post #491
ololobus wrote: post #331

I have no idea how we do it, but I think we should somehow ban the expansion of all the existing unions (EU, CIS, NATO, whatever else we got). The overall worldwide tension is pretty high, but now - US goes after South America and Greenland - EU goes after Canada and Georgia (country), which is just ridiculous in terms of geography - Russia invades Ukraine and goes after Eastern Europe and Middle-East to some extent…

You dont really see a difference between US wanting to take over SA and Greenland militarily and Canada and Georgia wanting closer ties to the EU voluntarily? You sound like Puting fan boys arguing about NATO expansion, NATO does not expand. countries voluntarily ask to join them, because the alternative is being destroyed

I think you miss the symmetry part. You like NATO, OK, that’s good. But will you be equally happy if China will fund PTO (Pacific Treaty Organization, no pun intended) and Mexico, Cuba, Algeria, Egypt, Brazil, etc., will absolutely voluntarily join it?

This can work if one country/alliance is doing it, but when everyone starts doing the same it becomes a zero sum game with the dead end. It’s pretty much the prisoner’s dilemma: “if we don’t expand, they will expand/invade” although it’s a common interest to not escalate

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

#799

Post by morkalork »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #778
harhargange wrote: post #68

From Blackberry to a budding VFX industry and many other sustainable businesses to come out of Canada has always made it seem like a very EU-like philosophy. This will be great for fair trade.

I mean Blackberry is long gone and missed its full potential, VFX industry only exists there temporarily because of tax credits, once a better deal is offered elsewhere all that will up and leave that’s how that industry works. Not to mention AI is going to obliterate large VFX teams for a lot of productions. So neither of these are good sustainable examples.

The VFX industry is in dire straits here

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

#800

Post by mytailorisrich »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #787
mytailorisrich wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Bluster has a connotation of empty threats and loudness for the sake fo loudness. Canada has been making real moves, and doing it quietly. In the past year non-US exports have grown by a record 11%. New trade and defense deals have been signed with more than 20 countries. Whatever is going on in Ottawa, bluster is not the word for it.

Not Canada, it is Von Der Leyen who took upon herself to use this "associate member" term and even EU countries are surprised not least because of basically whhat I explained earlier [1].

[1] https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-capitals-mark-carney-ursu...

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