What If Canada Joined the E.U.?

New Yorker: “Ever since Trump’s combustive, combative second term began, a conversation once consigned to academic circles and the parlor rooms of Brussels and Ottawa has entered the mainstream: forget being the fifty-first U.S. state—what if Canada became the twenty-eighth member of the E.U.?”

“A widely read column in The Economist from January, 2025, laid out the case: Canada’s huge territory and abundant natural resources offered a complement to the crammed, resource-sparse European continent; Canada’s social-welfare state and social-democratic foundations dovetailed well with the values and practices of European democracies; Canada’s vast Arctic border with Russia presented obvious shared strategic interests; and, perhaps most pertinent, an upgraded Canadian-European alliance would be a useful hedge against the uncertainty posed by a bullying Trump and an increasingly unpredictable United States.”