As an American:
Look, alert(canada) is 3400kms away from stockholm and 4100kms away from most larger canadian cities. Canada has a border with france and its right next to greenland, a place thats already european even though its technically not in europe. They speak european languages, and the list could go on.
I would like to see our dollar pinned to the EU, I know we are an exporter and that is not a good idea to have a stronger currency but if we can do that the world will move away from the US dollar even faster.
Pinned while CAD and Euro are relatively close… Not after the Great Drone Wars when 1 CAD = 47 Euro and the
former USAGreat Wasteland is ruled by the Guzzoline Gangs.The USA invaded Venezuela to prevent them from doing oil deals with China in Yen which would challenge the USD as the defacto currency for oil trade.
So we can also further your objective just by turning away from fossil fuels.
We should be electrifying as many things as we. It costs less to run and the electricity supply is more reliable than gas or diesel.
The world will still need oil for durable plastics until that is replaced too.
I like the idea of turning away from dino juice, but it would take a lot to actually get people to do it.
Or sell oil to China in Yen
or sell Yen to oil in China
Dude I can’t wait to move to the French motherland 😎
If Canada can get some of the consumer rights that Europeans enjoy I’d be for this in a heartbeat.
And have America invade us for threatening their corporations profit margins /s
I would love this but I don’t see it happening. fellows named Galen and Roger I doubt would be very thrilled.
Only more reason to do it.
We should invite Aldi and Lidl over
How do you not have Aldi? Even Australia has Aldi.
Fuck Aldi. I worked for them for several years, the cheap prices are at the expense of overworking their employees and keeping an absolute skeleton crew. In the one I worked at in the US, it was in the supervisor handbook that any employee that even joked about forming a union was to be fired on the spot. Legal protections vary state to state on that ofc, but I’m not interested in doxing myself further as to what state I worked in.
I’d only be interested in them being in Canada if the workers could unionize. They would still make a killing even if unionizing increased the costs of operation, their stuff would still be cheap compared to most grocers.
The closest comparison price and quality wise I’ve seen is FreshCo, but even then uhhh not really. The store brand items from Aldi were actually good or passable quality. The store brand items in Canada from any grocery franchise is shit imo.
I have never been to a US Aldi only the German and Austrian (Hofer) ones. And I have never worked for any. Their products are great and the prices reasonable. That’s what I am looking for.
The German and Austrian ones are much better from what I heard internally and I believe they are also unionized? Or just have more labour protections. But yeah the products are cheap and the quality was oftentimes acceptable or even better than name brand stuff. The cheap prices were the only reason I could eat well in the US. I love and hate them.
Expense of overworking their employees and keeping a skeleton crew
So the same as everywhere else?
Pretty much yep lol. To Aldi’s credit, I got USD$18/hr while everywhere else paid at most $11-13/hr. The working conditions sure as hell made you earn it though, I still have back pain from my manager pushing me to unload the food deliveries faster and faster. One whole food pallet of mixed foods, 7ft tall or more, needed to be done in 30 minutes on average, within 3 hours before opening. We would regularly get 6-7 pallets, and during peak sales I’d have to solo 10-13 pallets by myself.
Grocery workers need to unionize YESTERDAY. I wonder if a grocery store union could be an element in solving the overly greedy food profiteering. Call me a communist but food should only be sold exactly at how much it cost to grow and transport it to the store and a living wage for the farmers and employees. Go make profit somewhere else capitalist boy. Deeply interested in how those New York City owned grocery stores will play out. I hope they are successful.
NGL this was mostly just me ranting rather than making any worthwhile discussion lol
Trump should be happy. This will allow us to export more to Europe and less to the USA. That should reduce our trade imbalance that is absolutely destroying the USA. That’s what Trump wants, right?
Right?
Right, he said he didn’t need Canada and finds Canada nasty, so everyone, including him, will then live happily ever after. The sooner the better!
I’m jerking it to the fact that he’s probably super furious and jealous he wasn’t invited to the club. I hope he just dies from anger.
the fact that he’s probably super furious
I expect all the investment announcements coming out of Carney’s investor event is also causing Trump to be upset.
Maybe a chance of overload?
They should give Carney the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump would drop dead on the spot.
Carney does not deserve a peace prize, maybe a bankers prize but nothing from the Nobel commity.
He deserves it at least as much as Obama did, and way more than Kissinger did.
Nobody knows yet what that actually means, at least not publicly, and we’re still hearing from Canada’s representative that he doesn’t know what it means. So, what is there to be excited about? We already have free trade with the EU. We obviously have good diplomatic relations. What is being added on? Until we actually know details, I’m not excited about anything here, because I don’t know what it is.
This is simply a public announcement from both sides to deepen cooperation on trade, defense and likely other areas as research etc. Not more, not less.
There is a lot that the EU and Canada can cooperate. Canada and the EU have also a lot of room to intensify strategic cooperation on resources, arms etc. I would assume that we see more concrete joining of forces on various initiatives as we go in the future. Right now there was for example Canada joining the EU’s SAFE program, which is the EU’s defense capabilities and arms procurement program.
I’m looking forward to learning more what this means and watching the meltdown south of our border.
I don’t think I want full EU membership, I don’t want another layer of bureaucracy where I’m at the whims of other countries’ laws and size. That’s trading one problem for another.
I do want closer trade, better investment options and markers, and the ability to work for European companies would be nice. Mutual defence I’m completely onboard with too. If Russia attacks Europe, I want Canada to be part of the defence. If the US attacks us, I want Europe at our backs.
I don’t think I want full EU membership
Carney has said previously Canada isn’t interested in this. We like making our own trade deals and agreements.
Well it is good that is not what this is.
Well you may be happy then. I’d personally love access to the Schengen area and the right to live and work in Europe. The other stuff is good too.
I doubt that is going to happen. Everyone who is expecting freedom of movement I think is going to be disappointed.
I agree. It won’t happen through this process. This is largely focused on freedom of movement for money.
Schengen would never happen.
Best case is that you get visa-free travel (which I think we already enjoy?) and maybe better access to European universities. Maybe easier to start working for a European country, but doubtful as they don’t want to off-shore as much as we don’t want to.
’m not 100% on this though.
My big worry is continued abuse of TFW style labour, where European countries might send problem migrants/refugees here. I would want some protection from that, because our employers are already abusive and use TFWs to suppress wages.
We’ll have to see the details, and it’s hard to have free movement but also limit it.
But as I said, there are European companies I’d like to be able to work at easier, and I’m sure there are European tech workers who could work here and benefit us.
There are no details at this time it all has to be worked out.
There are a lot of details to work out. I was just listening to Lawfare today and they were discussing the association between foreign workers and the rise of the radical right in Germany. Initially civil society was behind the influx but the mood changed after several years.
I can definitely see that. Immigrants are a huge focus by right wing news and scapegoated.
Where I live there are highly problematic immigrant sub communities that are causing trouble, but then it gets magnified massively on social media and the news.
I’d personally be worried about a mass influx of skilled labour coming to Canada and oversaturating our job market further. It’s already difficult out here, but maybe it’d equal out with people from Canada finding more opportunity in Europe? I think the people who would rather stay in Canada might find the competition stifling though. It’s a compliment in a way, Europeans are incredibly talented and skilled people.
It’d be great for the country, but I worry it might not be necessarily great for Canadian worker rights and employment.
at the whims of other countries’ laws and size
A hypothetical full membership would instantly catapult Canada to the #5 spot in the EU, in terms of population size. Granted, the other four (Germany, ~85 million; France, ~60 million; Italy, ~60 million; and Spain ~47 million) are all significantly larger.
But in principle, I agree - at the very least, full membership would require a much more in-depth national conversation that we’re simply not having right now.
It would also triple the land mass of the EU! Canada is about 10 million km^2, EU right now is about 4.3 million km^2
I don’t think I want full EU membership, I don’t want another layer of bureaucracy where I’m at the whims of other countries’ laws and size. That’s trading one problem for another.
Well this is the problem the early north american colonies had, but (for all the issues of the US), a federal system ultimately worked out pretty well. Same with Canada’s state system, I assume.
No one wants to be at the whims of other countries, but that’s kind of the cost of facilitating completely open trade and movement. US States and current EU members don’t like it either (especially now), but ultimately those somewhat homogenized laws are what makes movement so frictionless.
So the WSJ’s reports were accurate, even though some officials were downplaying it. “Associate membership” might be more of a rhetorical device to describe a relationship than to do with actual membership within the EU’s systems, but if it can lead to better mutual recognition of standards, and greater freedom of movement of people goods and capital between us and the bloc, I’m all for it.
I pointed out recently that Carney is a man of deliberate words. Some things were said after by him that made me think this was coming and what it really means
not looking to become a member of the European Union
That could mean it wouldn’t be happening, or it could mean that the EU is initiating, not us.
He didn’t say we would not accept a membership, he said we were not seeking one.
He said that he is seeking a special relationship with the EU. Well, if the EU wants Canada as a member in some capacity, and asks and Carney negotiates, then he got what he said he wanted, while the WSJ still telling the truth. Since “associate membership” is not yet a real thing, it could be left to Carney to decide.
Again… a man of deliberate words.
Just in time to institute age controls on social media and identify all accounts, everything said or looked at online, to make secret social scores to be used against their citizens!
Get your fucking politicians under control europe, or you will be the ones under control.
Europe trusts government more and North America trusts corporations more.
Exactly.
We’re going to end up living with all the EU’s limitations and zero of their individual benefits.
Open a better path to dual citizenship with EU nations pls.
Trump tantrum incoming in 3….2….
Fuck yeah
There are indigenous people across Mexico, Canada and the U.S who might have their inter relationships further torn apart by this.
Canadian indigenous peoples have already spent the last 400 years having to capitulate to the whims of Europeans. They might not be interested in this type of relationship with the EU.
A very crucial thing to consider. Currently, righteous Canadian nationalism has led most Canadians to give up the act of caring about indigenous sovereignty or anti colonialism (this Lemmy community is a great example of that). They know the US is “worse,” so they feel justified in doing whatever imperialism Canada has always done but now it’s for a “good” reason.
It’s genuinely disgusting.
Precisely.
No it is when stuff gets hard like it is now people stop caring about others and their care sphere shrinks to things that effect them and theirs. Always happens and is nothing new.
Source on that? You sure it isn’t a specific group of people who insist that is the case?
I was thinking that this might force Canada to meaningfully implement and abide by the UNDRIP.
Why would it do that before anything having to do with mining?
Because of political pressure from Europe I guess, idk.
Didn’t check?
Mate, I commented something I was thinking about. Cut me some slack
Cool then they can bow out and not sell anything to Europe not take any money Canada makes from this.
Official Side Piece
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