Evan Dyer, writing for CBC News:
Hans-Gert Pöttering, a former president of the European Parliament who visited Canada last week, told CBC News that the Trump administration’s treatment of Canada had shocked Europeans.
“There is somebody who wants to make Canada the 51st state of the United States. And all these crazy ideas, I think are the basis that we see how important Canada is for us,” he said.
Both Canadian and European officials often say they want to work with “like-minded” allies, and for the Canadians, “like-minded” has increasingly come to mean “European,” while for Europeans, it increasingly means “Canadian.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada plans to begin discussions for a ‘unique alliance’ with the European Union — but not membership — as he gears up to address the European Parliament on Sept. 17. Reporting from the Wall Street Journal said Carney suggested that Canada could take on a title of ‘associate member’ within the European bloc of 27 countries, a move panned by Conservative critics and one former Liberal leader.
Canada is engaging with Europe in order to strengthen its sovereignty, not to dilute it, a senior official told CBC News.
The same official said that reporting in the Wall Street Journal that suggested Canada was looking to reproduce arrangements that non-EU members such as Norway have with the union — which do involve some concessions on sovereignty — are false.
Read Evan Dyer’s article at CBC News