An invitation to deepen the relationship has become a dispute over what to call it
All this hoopla over associate membership is consistent with dumb European governance that I don’t want to live with. Good friends? Yes. Wanting to share a roof? No. This has just been a bunch of pointless nonsense distracting from the things that actually matter and the EU leaders come across like used car salespeople in how hard they’ve been pitching this.
Articles Author left Antwerp for Canada in 1979, cites reason being they way that Europeans think. Fails to understand that a membership system, underpinned by legislation, needs to (checks notes) consult the membership and follow process
Disappointing, but not the end of the world. This feels like typical bureaucracy shit and not a complete door slam to the face. I think the spirit of wanting closer association is still there, and who knows where it could go.
I have no intention of pretending Canada is a sanctuary from bureaucracy. We have considerable domestic expertise in making a straightforward task take longer than a human being can reasonably remain interested.
Canadian politics in a nutshell.
“Canada want’s to become more like the EU.”
*Look inside
Institutional racism against Indigenous people
Breakdown of national environmental protections
Selling weapons to Israel
Training Israeli troops
Selling weapons to the Saudis
Helping the US murder fishing crews
It was nice to think of, and I was excited… but let’s not pretend we’re a global leader of freedom and democracy. At least, not anymore.
While all those points are fair the real reason is major players in Europe do not want to water down EU laws and associate membership implied canada would get some of the benefits without the legal obligations which EU fairly is realizing wont work. Canada would need to pursue a Norway- or Switzerland- like deal that gives up on some sovereignty but canadians are not too warm to that idea either. In the end it will probably just mean more trade agreements and not much more.
