I don't think Canada should fully be in the EU, but some kind of set of bilateral arrangements like Switzerland has would be a good start.
Since Canada has lots of historical ties with the UK, it might work out well to have some kind of arrangement with the UK, Canada and the EU. That would let Britain start to undo some of the damage from Brexit, while also allowing Canada to reinforce those ties to the UK.
France here, our mainstream media is currently either billionaire-owned and pushing Trump and Musk admiration or publicly owned but influenced by our current government (Macron and co.) which does everything possible to cosy up to billionaires so they haven't yet (and probably never will) called Trump a fascist or Musk a neo-nazi.
You came and died in France during two world wars in the 20th century but I'm afraid France as a nation isn't gonna have your back in this timeline - except if we manage to elect a real-left government next time.
I was kind of expecting this, thanks for your honesty. Many people in Canadian sub talk about NATO’s article 5, but the truth is nobody can send military gear to the nose of US navy and aviation across the Atlantic. An article 5 would be nationalization of US asset in Europe, reversing all investment in the US and maybe expelling the US from military bases in Germany. Not much would be done on Canadian ground.
Free media and journalists encouraged to dig deep and challenge things is a big part of democracy.
Most Americans have your back too...it's just our messed up voting and education systems that let the lunatic fringe gain all the power. For a representative democracy, it really doesn't represent the people.
According the most recent elections, most Americans don't.
There has to be a point where Americans who don't support chaos stop saying "this isn't who we really are" and start admitting "huh, I guess we're assholes now."
Elections tell you, semi-accurately, what THE VOTING POPULOUS WANTED OR WAS FOOLED INTO BACKING. So you got data on less than 40% of the population and half were against this.
States cant secede without war. It is a kinda silly dream anyway. It is better to let the red states rot and have a display of how their ideals fail and how blue states flourish, then take our country back, then go through the insane process of digging out the roots and backdoors they are rushing to put in place as we speak
Inasmuch as we can, yeah. None of our planning so far has allowed for the possibility of Moronica turning into a loose cannon and going around threatening all its friends and allies. As with Ukraine, if Moronica decides you're fucked, you're fucked, and there's not a whole lot we can do about it.
From the UK and personally, 100% yes but not sure I feel the rest of the population would agree. I mean, a lot of us turned our backs on the EU and there's a lot of cross over with US right wing nutters.
However, I would believe that when push comes to shove, we would be generally willing to defend Canada, Australia and NZ over anyone else, and then European countries at the next level. The reaction in support for Ukraine was pretty universal here and there are still lots of donations and support that is not shared with any African, Asian or Central/South American countries having similar problems.
Basically, you're white so yes you can count on us!
That's a very good point and can't believe I didn't think of that! Surely the British army would have to protect "his majesty's realm" or some bollocks like that.
I just read that Canada hosts Britain's largest overseas base, although it seems to be for training purposes.
If we rolled back a decade, Putin wasn't around and something happened like idk, China invaded western Russia, I can imagine us helping Russia.
I should change it to "your population is mostly white so yes you can count on us". I say this as an English born non-white person who has seen the differences in public reactions to Ukraine and other conflicts (Syria, various African ones, Gaza etc). Can't say for certain it's because of this reason but certainly feels like it!
What does it really mean to have each-other's backs?
I think one thing would be making some agreements in advance when it comes to refugees. Make it easier for Canadians to escape to the EU if the US does something stupid, and make it easier for Europeans to move to Canada if Russia does something crazy.
Other than that, I don't know what immediate steps could really be done. I'd love it if Canada would adopt some of the European privacy regulations, ditching the American-style laws currently in effect. But, a lot of things wouldn't be easy to change. Our cars, appliances, construction techniques, electricity voltages, plug designs, etc. are all very American-style, and those kinds of things have a lot of momentum.
But, I don't really see a downside to making the movement of people a little easier. I think plenty of Canadians would love to live and work in Europe. I think a fair number of Europeans would love to live and work in Canada -- at least once Canada finally adopts proper vacation lengths, parental leave laws, etc.
Canada would be happy with most if not all of Europe’s privacy laws once we choose to ignore US interest.
Quebec has some decent parental leave and the current federal government (Liberal-NDP) wants a nationwide implementation.
Electricity could stay different just like UK didn’t use the Euro when they where member. Most other laws should be Europe inspired even if we ‘compete’ with the US deregulation. I would love agriculture related laws to be harmonized to the high standard in Europe.
A different electrical system would mean that all safety laws about electricity wouldn't apply, there are probably work-arounds for that, but you'd lose the benefit of harmonized rules for hundreds of millions of people.
And while actual Canadians would like Europe's privacy laws, the Canadian oligarchs (the Weston family, the Irvings, etc.) probably wouldn't. Same with parental leave, vacation time, etc. And governments don't have a good track record of listening to Canadian citizens instead of the oligarchs / business interests.
Personally, I'd love for Canada to become more European, but I know there would be a lot of resistance.
There's already EU territory with 110V systems, even 60Hz, or more precisely said Guyana is a clusterfuck of different systems. Standardisation would be nice but it does have limited market impact so the EU is comfortable to just not. Also the main reason European stoves won't work as intended in Canada isn't 220V, you do have 220V, but because they're expecting three 220V phases to be fully powered, they can pull up to 13kW with everything at full tilt. Most can be configured to draw less and be hooked up to a single phase, though, you could use those. Modern DC converters don't mind the differing voltages and frequencies in the first place and with DC motors being quite popular making e.g. a blender dual-voltage is actually quite simple, which leaves us with things like hair dryers and I mean who cares.
Sure, it's nowhere near as bad as America, probably very good compared to American standards (you only really have USA and Mexico up there) but not too great either.
But if USA would invade Canada, I would support us defending Canada. We both swear fielty to His Majesty King Charles III, and we're part of NATO, which I support. An attack on one is an attack on all. Even if the attacker is a rogue American state.
Let's see... The UK....who needed America to get involved to end WW2 and France who are literally a meme for surrendering these days (despite having the greatest military track record of any nation still standing).
What an incredibly deep ignorance about the modern world.
If you're curious about how countries militaries actually stack up these days I'd suggest looking into the results of some of the recent NATO joint exercises. The French military is actually quite formidable with a lot of recent heavy intervention in old colonies and anti terrorism strike force actions lately... now, nothing can really compare to the insane US military budget but France is pretty fucking serious.
The UK is a joke, though.
The real sleeping bears are the Baltics though. Those fucks are scared shitless of Russia and have heavily invested in widespread training in an effort to present Russia with an occupational nightmare due to partisan resistance if they ever invade.
As a contrast while China has a shit load of stuff there was a massive amount of military supply corruption leading to a really high practical failure rate. They've got infantry for days of course, and their navy is quite serious... but there's a strong suspicion that China's airforce is much weaker than numbers would suggest.
UK and France both have nukes. They just need to let Canada borrow a few for a while if Trump starts mobilizing the US military for a special operation.
It would normally be a nothing burger... except for the timing of it. Poland and Canada both getting threatened by nuclear powers, and when Canada's PM is on his way out and there's a whole bunch of other shit going on he randomly finds the time to go over to Poland to make agreements on both defense and nuclear energy. Maybe nothing, but it's a bit odd, isn't it?
Not when they surrendered dingus. The meme/joke that Frances official flag is a white flag has been going around since I was a kid in the 90s and both my little brothers also know that meme.