Imagine a back-to-school September of the future — one in which Canada is an official associate member of the European Union.
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Canada → imagine → Union
Parents aren’t driving their university students back to campus, but to the airport.
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Parents → drive → airport
The kids are catching flights to the Netherlands or Spain or France for a year of study under Europe’s Erasmus Plus exchange program.
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kids → catch → program
At those institutes of higher learning, scientists and researchers are collaborating with their Canadian counterparts on technologies to benefit people and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic with Horizon Europe research funding.
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scientists → collaborate → funding
Those businesses employ Canadian skilled workers and expats who apply their trade abroad without the need for special European credentials or pesky work visas.
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who → employ → credentials
In very real and concrete ways, the Canadian gaze starts to shift east, across the Atlantic Ocean, to the distant shores of the Old World.
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gaze → start → World
We will not have forgotten about the border to the south that has so long defined our nation, but the political and economic shocks that emanate from America will start to feel less urgent and existential.
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that → forget → America
That, at least, is the plan spelled out in speeches this week by Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before the European Parliament.
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That → spell → Parliament
Carney spoke Thursday of a geopolitical Garden of Eden, with the roots from Canada and Europe stretching out and intertwining, exchanging nutrients and growing into a protective canopy against the “ferocious storm” sparked by the bluster of U.S. President Donald Trump and the changing international order.
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roots → speak → Trump
Damian Boeselager, a German Member of the European Parliament, offered a more humorous — but still heartfelt — vision of the harmonious future.
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Boeselager → offer → future
“You have green hydrogen to keep us warm, maple syrup to keep us happy, and Heated Rivalry to keep us entertained,” said the member of the European Parliament’s committee on Canada-EU relations.
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member → have → relations
“We really need to double down — Double-Double down — on our relationship.”
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We → need → relationship
But just as Rome was not built in a day, the implications and impact of Canada’s associate EU membership could take many years to be felt.
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implications → build → years
One close observer described the shared Ottawa-Brussels ambition as “a moonshot.”
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observer → describe → moonshot
The respective leaders are “setting a political direction that is firm, fixed, that’s beyond just simply aspirational,” said Mark Camilleri, president and chief executive of the Brussels-based Canada-EU Trade and Investment Association.
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Camilleri → set → Association
In time, the plans being set in motion could see the rehabilitation of a 1,300-kilometre railway to a deepwater port in Churchill, Man., and the major expansion of a Port of Montreal shipping terminal, making it easier to export natural resources and Canadian-made goods to European buyers through ports in Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg.
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it → set → Rotterdam
The ships would be carrying critical minerals such as copper, nickel, platinum and zinc that are mined in Ontario’s Ring of Fire and the Canadian North, and sold to a proposed European Critical Raw Minerals Corporation that manages the supply and stockpile for EU countries.
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that → carry → countries
After hearing about the vision for the transatlantic relationship, a BMW executive pointed to a recent memorandum of understanding signed with Export Development Canada to access raw critical minerals needed for the German car maker’s global production.
“This partnership is a great example of the spirit behind (the) important political announcement and the growing strategic relationship between Canada, Germany and Europe,” Glenn Schmidt, vice-president of global sustainability, wrote on LinkedIn.
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Schmidt → hear → LinkedIn
In some respects, though, the new relationship between Canada and Europe could resemble the one from colonial times in which loggers and trappers got rich by sending the in-demand resources like timber and pelts back across the sea.
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loggers → resemble → sea
While the U.S. president makes angry social media posts and changes the name of Lake Ontario,
But the supply-and-demand partnership could strengthen the business case for things like a liquified natural gas pipeline heading to Canada’s East Coast to supply European countries that have weaned themselves off Russian gas and now endure Trump’s threats to shut off the taps.
Such projects may be a long way off, but Deirdre Giblin, chair of the Ireland—Canada Business Association, said the ambition expressed by Carney and von der Leyen this week, coupled with the prime minister’s close ties to Ireland and Europe from his time as the top central banker for Canada and then the United Kingdom, could have a trickle-down effect.
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ambition → make → effect
“I have a huge belief that the political and diplomatic absolutely paves the way for the business piece to happen,” she said.
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she → have → way
Ireland, Giblin noted, already serves as the European headquarters for a number of leading Canadian financial, pharmaceutical and cybersecurity firms.
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Giblin → note → firms
“I think Ireland actually gains more significance in an (enhanced) Canada-EU relationship … than other countries because we are seen as the gateway to Europe,” she said, noting the two countries’ historical, cultural and political links.
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she → think → links
Europe and Canada were first connected by the Valencia Transatlantic Cable, an undersea electric telegraph link, that ran between County Kerry and Heart’s Content, N.L., starting in 1866 (though, of course, Canada was not yet a country and Newfoundland was a separate, self-governing dominion).
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Newfoundland → connect → course
To this, the new alliance will see the addition of a subsea digital cable linking Canada and Europe (and eventually Asia) through the Arctic Ocean, boosting security and connectivity in the north.
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alliance → see → north
Canada and Europe’s respective space agencies already co-operate closely, but expect to see more partnerships in which European firms launching satellites from Spaceport Nova Scotia, which was on display at Carney’s Toronto Investment Summit earlier this week.
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which → co → Summit
But for Carney’s alliance with Europe to succeed, the Prime Minister will have to convince Canadians back on earth to follow him in a quest for new opportunities across the Atlantic.
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Minister → succeed → Atlantic
This week’s revelations shine some light on where we could all be headed.
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we → shine → light
“I wouldn’t say anything in life is inevitable,” said Camilleri.
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Camilleri → say → life
“But the path that we’re talking about now is certainly clear.”
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we → talk → that
The Aporia
