Why? Seems the US doesn't like democracy anymore and the EU for all its faults still does. I can see Japan joining too and potentially South Korea, Philippines, and others who are concerned about the state of the world and want to work together rather than drive the world apart.

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Chance-Device 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If I’d said to you last year “Hey! I bet Canada is going to join the EU! No, of course not as charter-violating full member, as a newly invented ‘associate member’!” You’d probably have said “That’s both crazy and oddly specific, the chances of that have to be approaching zero”.

That’s why.

	▲	ben_w an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Yes but also "associate member" is, despite specificity, less surprising than full membership would have been. Same as economic gravity meant that Brexit didn't disconnect UK from EU it only made trade harder, neither this kind of deal nor full membership can be much more than a band-aid for Trump's BS, it won't fully compensate for the harm he and his administration are doing to Canada.

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ra 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think the world would be jumping into alignments like this if the US hadn't spent the last 80 years building a "nuclear umbrella" for the "western alliance" with itself in the centre.

I bet many countries would prefer to disassociate with US foreign policy right now if they weren't security dependent.

I expect after this destructive episode in history has played out, if we're all still alive and free in another decade then there will be alternative umbrellas.

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ExoticPearTree 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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nutjob2 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Do you have anything at all to contribute besides mindless EU hate?

The mentally enfeebled only seem to be able to parrot hateful things they don't understand that they read on some social media cesspit.

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ExoticPearTree 2 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

	▲	vrganj 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I live here. I talk to older people. They tell me about the horrors of WW2 and how glad they are the EU succeeded as a peace project. Before the EU, we had centuries of cruelties between what are now members of the same block. It might be good to expand your perspective a little. Standard of living isn't just the economy.

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nolok 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Even ignoring your point that I massively disagree with ... It's not about joining the EU at all so what are you talking about

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trolleski 2 hours ago | parent [-]

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	▲	nolok 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I thank you for this very high level analysis that gives absolutely zero actual content or details because big funny words, but I think we have to agree to disagree on that one. And on the climate policies in particular, my personnal belief is that we haven't gone far enough fast enough, limit access to our market to product made using climate respecting or restoring ways should have been the rule decades ago already. I know some people look at the way the world climate is changing and think "ehh so what / it's not really us doing it", but that's not how we see things here.