Carney made sovereignty the test with Washington. Then he sat in Strasbourg while Brussels offered us a membership that does not exist. Sign the petition. Ask him why Canadians do not get a vote.
I am getting really tired of finding out what my own government is doing from somebody else’s podium.
Canadians were told Mark Carney was going to diversify our trade. He was going to find us new customers and make us less dependent on the United States so future trade disruptions have less impact.
Okay… so diversify!
Nobody remembers voting to blow up the relationship with the country that buys roughly two thirds of our exports, walk away from a deal because American demands supposedly threatened our “flexibility, independence, and sovereignty,” and then start sidling up to Brussels looking for something called associate membership.
That was not in the Liberal election brochure. That was not on the election ballot. And it was not explained to the people who actually live here.
Three days ago, Carney was asked about reports Canada was exploring EU associate membership. No, he said. Canada was not looking to become a member of the European Union. He wanted a “unique alliance.” Then he flew to Europe.
There he sat in the European Parliament while Ursula von der Leyen delivered her hour long prepared State of the Union speech and proposed that Canada become the first associate member of the EU, a position that does not even exist yet.
Well… that seems to have escalated quickly. Except it didn’t.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s incoming ambassador to the EU, wandered out afterward and ruined the surprise. They had already talked about it. They knew it was going to be on the table. So stop playing word games with Canadians Mark Carney.
I do not care whether Carney calls it membership, associate membership, a unique alliance, or European Friendship Deluxe with free continental breakfast. What are you actually negotiating?
Do we get a vote on EU rules Canada may be expected to follow? If Brussels changes those rules, can Canada say no? Can Parliament? What Canadian laws and provincial regulations are being discussed? What has Ottawa already promised?
And why do we need this at all?
We already have CETA. We are already negotiating a digital trade agreement. We are already cooperating with Europe on defence, critical minerals, energy and technology.
So what does associate membership add? And more importantly, what does Canada give up to get it?
This is where my patience runs out.
A real leader in a real democracy would put this in front of the country. A referendum. A clear question. A yes or a no from the people who have to live with the answer. Instead we get word games, photo ops in Strasbourg, and a Prime Minister who treats the House like a demon treats holy water: he will not sit in it unless he has to!
Carney walked away from Washington telling Canadians sovereignty was the line in the sand. If that's the case - the real reason sputtered by Carney, then explain something to me like I am sitting at my kitchen table in Saskatchewan trying to pay the power bill…
If another country having too much influence over Canadian economic decisions is a threat to our sovereignty, how does another political bloc having influence over Canadian economic decisions protect it? Does sovereignty expire somewhere over the Atlantic?
Washington wanting a say in Canadian decisions was apparently so intolerable as to warrant walking away from the negotiating table with America. If Brussels wants a say, we are supposed to call it strategic autonomy. That is quite a parlour trick. One superpower wanting a say is tyranny. A whole bloc wanting a say is statesmanship. How convenient.
And drop the piety for a minute. A lot of the people who built this country left Europe for a reason. They left class systems, imperial ministries, conscription, religious tests, and distant capitals that decided their lives without asking. They crossed an ocean so their kids would not live under somebody else’s “common space.”
So why the hell are we walking back into it with a smile and a press release?
Europe is not sitting around enjoying unprecedented prosperity while von der Leyen hands Canada the secret recipe. She is getting hammered inside Europe over competitiveness, energy costs, climate policy, migration and the direction she is taking the bloc. EU governments are already questioning parts of this proposed Canadian relationship.
Meanwhile Carney and von der Leyen sound like somebody photocopied the same economic manual and handed each of them half: carbon, climate, economic security, strategic autonomy, integration... all the things that make them indistinguishable from each other. One works from Brussels. One works from Ottawa.
Maybe this arrangement is wonderful. Then show us. Tell Canadians what you have discussed, what you have promised, what we are expected to follow, and whether we actually get a vote.
Do not brief Europe first. Do not announce it from a foreign parliament. Do not hide behind “unique alliance” like that phrase is a substitute for consent. Carney made sovereignty the standard. Not me… him.
So I have one request for Mackenzie Gray, Judy Trinh and every other journalist who gets close enough to stick a microphone in front of the Prime Minister.
Ask him.
Mr. Carney, if Canada could not accept becoming a rule taker for Washington because we are a sovereign country, why should Canadians accept becoming a rule taker for Brussels?
And if this is such a gift, why will you not put it to a national referendum instead of stepping around the people and the Parliament that is supposed to speak for them?
Please do not let him answer a different question. Canadians have been handled enough. At the core, it's the same country, same sovereignty, and the same test.
Until we know what the hell they are signing us up for: Do not sign a damn thing!
~ Melanie in Saskatchewan ~
I am Melanie in Saskatchewan. I do not sit in those rooms. I live with what comes out of them, just like you. I write so the people who live with the consequences of Ottawa’s deals still have a voice.