Canada welcomes EU proposal to become 'associate member'

solox3

> US President Donald Trump earlier called the idea "laughable" and threatened "very serious tariffs" on Europe if he considered it a "hostile act". So if Canada tries to make friends with anyone other than the US, it's a hostile act? Makes it all the more obvious that USA is Canada's abusive partner, that they should have broken up with a long time ago.

close04

> US President Donald Trump earlier called the idea "laughable" and threatened "very serious tariffs" on Europe if he considered it a "hostile act". There's a lawsuit [1] on the way related to the Epstein files so this Canada-EU topic gives Trump the perfect opportunity to divert the attention. [1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/lawsuit-trump-do...

HelloUsername

Related: " EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member' (bbc.com)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49724141 863 comments

delichon

Reaction from the Canadian opposition leader: The Prime Minister can’t seem to get his story straight about the “associate membership,” “unique alliance,” or whatever else he is negotiating with the EU. Conservatives are clear: we support the decades-old free trade & NATO defence alliance with Europe. But no EU taxes, no EU laws, and no EU open-border immigration policies should be imposed on Canadians. Canada must be independent and sovereign. Period. https://x.com/PierrePoilievre/status/2100274078066036766

WarmWash

Meanwhile, Alberta, where all of Canada's "energy security" is located, is holding a secession referendum on Oct 19. The chances of Canada getting everyone to go along with this are close to zero. (As are the chances of Alberta actually seceding). It's just political theater

flowerlad

Can the blue states of USA become associate members too? He has declared that the blue states are the "enemy from within" and may launch the military against us soon. https://www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5557232/hegseth-general...

mattz56

That's unbelievable to be honest ! As european who live in Canada i have a weird feeling

alpineman

According to the FT, Von der Leyen didn't really get the OK from member states before coming up with this. Let's see what happens in practice, the trade agreement from 2017 hasn't even been ratified yet. (you can downvote all you want, don't shoot the messenger!) https://www.ft.com/content/7b1a00f1-6842-4f5e-ace4-d6a57e98b...

isodev

Good. The EU is an economic and political union so facilitating trade and movement between political allies seems only natural.

jmatthews

Without commenting on the EU, particularly, I would be concerned if I were a Canadian about Carney's commitment to globalism when the degenerate cases have become so common. It's a weird two-front war where people tend to answer the social question and ignore the economic one, but the economic question has not done any favors to the EU or the US for that matter

philippemnoel

As a Canadian, I find this unbelievably good news. Canada, the EU, and other middle powers need to unite. Stronger together, while preserving what makes each country unique.

hedora

In other, less covered news, Trump and Rubio are misusing their positions to loot Cuba: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/17/trump-marco-... They are currently targeting civilian populations there by weaponizing access to necessities. They have intentionally created multiple humanitarian crises, then rerouted food and energy imports through Florida companies for private benefit. This is a long way of asking: Can the US west coast become an associate EU member too? Here in California, the Sierra Nevada and deserts of the southwest are already 99% of the wall we’d need to protect our border from maga zealots.

_ink_

Man, I'd love if Canada became part of Schengen and had freedom of movement for workers as well.

chaostheory

The irony in this was that Canada, led by Alberta, was leaning towards a break up that would have likely led to slowly merging with the US, until someone really smart, a very bright individual, threatened them militarily.

fashg182

While I would welcome Canada as an associate EU member, one must be aware of the possibility that this is political theater in order to sell more Ukraine support to the Canadian public. Canada proposes to join EU funding for the Ukraine war, so both the EU and Canada follow literally Pete Hegseth's instructions from 2025 for burden sharing in NATO and finance the US proxy war: https://www.ft.com/content/9cd8cc79-e98a-449f-a903-609b034a5... So both the EU and Canada are compliant US vassals despite the talk.

temporallobe

My understanding is that an EU member state has to physically be in Europe unless they are an “extension” of a state already in the EU. I get that it’s supposed to be an “associate” state but I’m fascinated by what kind of legal hoops they’re going to jump through to make this happen. They did make an exception for Cypress, so I suppose there’s some kind of precedent.

ratelimitsteve

Hey, so what do y'all think it felt like back in the 30s to watch the world split between a handful of really aggressive countries and everyone else? Specifically, what do y'all think it felt like to be a non-aggressive person living in one of the handful of really aggressive countries?

pigpop

Is this some kind of astroturf campaign? It's like the 4th time this topic sourcing a BBC article has appeared on the first page in about as many days and the comments on it are all the same drab, short and repetitive expressions of support. This really doesn't seem like the kind of material that normally interests HN users.

petermcneeley

Shacked to a corpse! Europe where is your NVIDIA, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, OpenAI, SpaceX ... You have high power cost, high electric cost, high taxes; What fertile soil!

sajithdilshan

What’s going on with HN? This article from BBC is like the 4th time in front page in HN with everyone worshipping EU with support and adoration. And ever comment critical about this is being downvoted by bots. Since when did HN became a nonsensical propaganda machine for EU?