• AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Even if it was possible, wouldn’t it require a huge amount of work on the Canadian side to implement the European level of regulations?

  • golden_zealot@lemmy.ml
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    6 hours ago

    At this point I feel like Canada could only join if:

    1. Canada did a lot of work to meet the regulations as set forth by the EU.
    2. Canada had successfully rerouted the majority of it’s trade to EU members.

    If Canada were to try to join the EU at this time, something tells me the US government would call that an “attack” of some kind, and would hurt Canada with tariffs greater than what was just threatened, or something worse than tariffs.

    If Canada started trading the majority of its oil and gas to the EU, this would create big fucking problems for the US, which would again, cause the US to create problems for Canada. Furthermore, this would probably kneecap Russian gas sales to the EU, so Russia would also suddenly be working it’s ass off to prevent such a thing at all costs.

    I suppose it is possible, but there is an enormous amount of work that would need to be implemented, so I don’t expect it would happen any time soon.

  • Gladaed@feddit.org
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    6 hours ago

    The apparent corruption in the Edison Motors case and widespread lack of housing would be glaring issues that require fixing.

    Free Trade, yes, maybe. But they are to distant and have fundamental issues that we might not be able to beat. Their geography and distribution is very unusual compared to Europe.

  • yannic@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Consumer protections and laws against engineered obsolescence? Yes, please!

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 day ago

      The Greenland (so currently Denmark) land border is real, and might have the weirdest history of any border now, which is saying something. Saint Pierre and Miquelon are separated from us by 45 km of sea, though, so you might as well include Iceland.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          5 hours ago

          Yup. That’s the story I was thinking about, and it lasted decades over the most useless square kilometer of land imaginable.

          Also, not only did we split it down the middle in the end, we split it down the middle along the nice seam that was visible the whole time.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 day ago

    As a Canadian, absolutely. Most of the relational downsides have dropped away at this point, even - Trump wants a less porous border and less trade. CBC did an article on this recently, though, and basically said while possible it would be too mean to Bosnia for the EU to even consider, on their end.

    At the very least, we need a separate defence pact with Europe in case Trump rethinks his annexation strategy, and should give Europe access to whatever trees and cool rocks it wants in return.

  • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    As a Canadian I’d be in favour of starting with joining the Schengen zone. A currency union might be a hard sell as our economy benefits from being able to float the dollar for exports, but it would probably still be a net benefit once trade with the rest of the EU improved and regulations got normalized.

    Transitioning should start with more and tighter trade links. Working toward harmonizing rules and dropping tariffs. There’d be a lot of sticking points.

  • Metz@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Wouldn’t that mean that the borders to the USA would be closed or more strictly controlled? As far i know, US Citizens need a visa to enter the EU.

    • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      As an American, this would be awesome. The northern US states need to know how this feels from the other side. I live in Texas, and the way we treat the border with Mexico is a fucking travesty. Maybe if all the red northern states had their daily lives upended by this, they’d stop voting for stupid political grandstanders.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 day ago

      Yes. Maybe Trump wouldn’t care at this point, though. And, the Canadian public is really pissed, so it would go over smoothly if it happened immediately.

    • frank@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      Not for vacation or something they don’t, but it is progressively getting tighter

    • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Yeah, more robust rail links and fixing some of the dumber parochial interprovincial trade rules.

    • Hildegarde
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      7 hours ago

      Pretty much every part of the EU is in some way negotiable. You absolutely can join the EU without adopting the currency.

      The main exception is Schengen. You can’t become any kind of EU country without being part of the single market/open boarders agreement.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 day ago

        Man, I still have one of those bills in a ziplock, and it still smells like maple.

        The mint insists it never happened.