A further 58 per cent indicated it was a proposal worth exploring further

  • Goldholz @lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    Honestly i find it funny. Lets add australia and New Zeeland too! Britain leaves the union “to have trade deals with australia” then australia joins the EU. Would be the funniest shit ever

    • Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      I think you give too much credit to the morons who voted for economic suicide. They didn’t vote to have deals with Australia, they all thought we were so big and important that the EU would bend over backwards to give us a favourable trade deal even though every single expert on the subject disagreed. The Australia and Canada deals came up only after we shot ourselves in the head.

      • Goldholz @lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        I didnt give any credit to the morons voting for economic suicide. But i pitty them for all they fell for.

        Charles de gaule said it best “britain will see the european community only as replacrment to its dying empire and wont ever dedicate itself to it”

  • balsoft@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Canada is not geographically eligible to join the EU by definition. The founding treaties would need to be rewritten and re-signed by all parties, which does not seem feasible short-term. The way more likely route is more trade agreements and such, which would indeed be good for everyone

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Also, being in the EU means meeting a lot of product, drug, food, etc. safety standards.

      Just to pick one, to meet electricity standards, Canadian outlets would have to accept Type C Europlug devices and supply them with 230V at 50 Hz. That would mean redoing the entire Canadian electrical grid in a way that would make it incompatible with the American one. I don’t think that’s realistic.

      More realistic is some variation of the deal that the EU has with Switzerland. Not in the EU but lots of bilateral deals that mostly make the border disappear for travellers.

    • RudeOnTuesdays@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I don’t think there is an actual definition of European state in any of the EU documents, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.

      • balsoft@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        Actually, you are right and I’m mostly wrong. The Maastricht Treaty just says:

        Any European State which respects the principles set out in Article 6(1) may apply to become a member of the Union. It shall address its application to the Council, which shall act unanimously after consulting the Commission and after receiving the assent of the European Parliament, which shall act by an absolute majority of its component members.

        So, what is a “European State” is effectively just a political decision by the Council and Parliament. I guess if Cyprus and Armenia were considered “European States” then Canada is not that big of a stretch.

        Additionally, the next paragraph is

        The conditions of admission and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the Union is founded, which such admission entails, shall be the subject of an agreement between the Member States and the applicant State. This agreement shall be submitted for ratification by all the contracting States in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements.

        Soo I guess even the Maastricht treaty allows itself to be modified, maybe removing the “European” criteria completely.

        So it’s not as difficult as I first imagined, it’s just a question of political will from Canada and the EU institutions.

  • UninvestedCuriosity@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Higher sales tax but sane policy like GDPR and workers rights by comparison in competition are a strong pull for me in this. I don’t hate the idea so long as we don’t receive just all the hardships on the bottom while the wealth class get all the benefits. Had Canada actually kept their budget in order and not just pissed it away when they had the chance, I might be more for sovereignty but I’d definitely take advantage of all the additional opportunity to contribute to brain drain if it made sense. I actually think they would find difficulty in keeping Canadians staying in Canada if this was an option.

    • orioler25@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      A more formal unification of white settler-colonial states would be a “united Earth,” eh? I wonder if anyone in the past said such a thing and what they did about it. 🧐

  • Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club
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    2 months ago

    Ok, but besides the bylaws, treaties, & other whathaveyous, afaik Canada has systems (trades, standards) way close to USA than to continental European countries. From the integration pov this would be a giant task. And if Canada would gain significant power (which it would) a lot more of “USA” things & ways of life would leak to “euEU”.

    It’s a very complex hypothetical question that can hardly be judged via sentiment tracking at “this stage” (which isn’t even a stage).

    Nevertheless positive responses are very nice, yay friends!

  • UnspecificGravity@piefed.social
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    2 months ago

    What is kinda wild to me is that I have read about a dozen articles like this and not one of them actually indicates what benefit Canada would get from joining the EU, apart from ‘we all know that America sucks’, but being in the EU doesn’t actually solve that either.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Some things I can think of:

      It provides a better chance to mutually recognize education and professional experience. It helps with both our export markets to each other. It motivates us to improve our tax system and other archaic regulations. We have an easier time at border checkpoints and can more easily immigrate for work across continents. We can move to a Euro-pegged currency or the Euro itself if we so choose and meet the European fiscal standards.

      • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        We can improve Canada in any way we want. We don’t need the EU to do that. There is nothing that stops us from recognizing EU credentials but ourselves.

        I don’t see how pegging the CAD to the Euro would be useful.

        I agree on negotiating freedom of movement, potentially joining Schengen. Same for negotiating recognition of Canadian credentials in Europe although that’s less of a problem, usually the other direction is the problem.

        • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          There are some ups and downsides to the member perks. As for the exchange rate, we could have a stable bloc rate rather than one that is more or less correlated to the price of oil or US events.

          We can accept credentials but the bigger benefit is if the Bloc can accept Canadian ones, which is best achieve through agreement.

          I think that joining the Schengen Area is inclusive of people’s idea of “open to discussion of Canada joining Europe”. Do we want or need to join the EU tomorrow? In my opinion not really but its a good time to foster a closer relationship and gradually remove barriers between Canada and the bloc.

    • Logi@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It would if Greenland were in the EU. And it’s odd that it isn’t. But Greenland isn’t “part of” Denmark. They form a union along with the Faroe Islands and chose to leave the EU.

  • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Yes, what we need is more bureaucracy and endless layers of useless people.

    I’m in! Tax me baby!