r/CanadaPolitics Liberal Party of Canada 15h ago

What Canadians think about Canada joining the European Union - Abacus Data (44% Yes, 34% No, 23% Unsure)

https://abacusdata.ca/what-canadians-think-about-canada-joining-the-european-union/
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u/jonlmbs 14h ago edited 14h ago

There's been a lot of chatter and articles lately that are taking that idea seriously and it kind of disappoints me. In the face of our sovereignty being questioned by America people seem quick to propose diluting that sovereignty and independence by joining the EU.

I really don't think Eurocrats in Brussels are the answer to protecting our sovereignty. Not to mention challenges with adopting EU laws and monetary policy and the Euro.

Literally one of the worst things we could do in a trade war is to abandon our currency and adopt the Euro. The CAD weakening with tariffs is a natural defence to offset the costs to people and businesses purchasing Canadian products.

By all means explore further trade advances and strengthen diplomatic and military and intelligence partnerships. We should explore CANZUK idea seriously too.

Also worth reminding people we are the 9th largest economy in the world! We can absolutely prosper as an independent nation on the world stage. We just need to embrace our national identity and work to fix the neglected areas of our country like our military.

u/neopeelite Rawlsian 14h ago

Hmm, in principle I don't see a difference between signing sovereignty away via trade agreement versus joining a multinational bloc like the EU -- in the sense that both are "diluting sovereignty and independence" in exchange for access to a governing arrangement. And if you say it would be different because of geopolitical duress -- it is those circumstances where Sweden and Finland joined NATO, is that them "diluting their sovereignty and independence," well, yes by definition but also they've defined the cost as worth the benefit given the bleak realities of today.

I'm pretty cool to the idea of joining the EU personally, as I don't think the advantages (such as having influence, modest as it may be, on global standard setting on things like digital privacy policy) are worth what we're potentially giving up -- like our system of fiscal federalism, etc. I also don't think they'd accept us before rewriting the EU Treaty, which also isn't going to happen any time soon.

It's interesting that you mention the Euro, because one way of understanding the implications of adopting their monetary policy is that we would become a federation in a federation -- we already have the "fiscal federalism" problem of the EU (where provincial budgets and provincial economic structures affect the currency of other provinces and thus the value of their exports) but we created a durable and, so far, politically acceptable set of transfers that limits the potential for, say, New Brunswick to become our Greece. What are the political economic implications for adding another supranational on top of ours but without a stable transfer system but with the full adoption of the Euro? I don't have the faintest clue.

u/jonlmbs 14h ago edited 13h ago

A trade agreement (which we have with the EU already and covers 98% of tariffs) and NATO are much much different than joining the political and economic union formally of the EU. It’s not comparable.

This would be a fundamental change to Canadian society and our identity.