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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[–] ninthant@lemmy.ca 36 points 6 days ago (4 children)

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.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 20 points 6 days 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.

[–] Reannlegge@lemmy.ca 17 points 6 days 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.

[–] IndridCold@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago

I agree. Canada has been making some solid strategic trade deals without the EU. I don't know if joining them right now would make us stronger in the long run. I can see some benefits, but it also limits what we can do.

That said, I wouldn't mind being joined with the Euro. Canada saw benefits from keeping the CAD lower for trades with the US. Now that the US is becoming Gilead and pissing off the world, do we need to keep CAD lower? Does using the Euro help trade deals? I don't know the answer to those questions.

I think right now Canada should hold position, continue build bridges that bypass the USA, and focus on becoming the EUs BFF. The USAs downfall is happening much quicker then I think people expected, and it's only going to get worse. I think we'll look better if we stand our ground on our own feet right now.

Canada and Greenland has sort of become the darlings of the world for giving Trump the finger. We can use that to our advantage.

[–] einfach_orangensaft@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

It may also be worth exploring pegging

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