Finland's president on why he believes Canada could — eventually — be part of the EU
(www.cbc.ca)
from HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to world@lemmy.world on 15 Apr 15:24
https://sh.itjust.works/post/58569200
from HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to world@lemmy.world on 15 Apr 15:24
https://sh.itjust.works/post/58569200
Finnish President Alexander Stubb says he exchanges messages with Prime Minister Mark Carney almost every day.
“We’re tight,” Stubb said with a smile.
Now, Stubb and Carney have the opportunity to talk in person.
Stubb is in Ottawa for his first official bilateral meetings with Canada’s prime minister. The pair are working to develop trade and defence ties, according to Carney’s office.
“I think Finns and Canadians are quite similar,” he said. “We’re cool, calm and collected except in the ice hockey rink. And then when the going gets tough, we go to the sauna and take an ice bath and calm down.”
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Do it! Canada and the EU already have a ton in common.
Nooo …. they’re neoliberal and treat indigenous people awfully.
So you’re saying they’ll fit right in?
Yes, cementing the direction things are going in. I’ll only celebrate disruptors from now on who want to right the wrongs we’re doing to acquire “nice things”.
If joining the EU makes Canada less neoliberal, then please let us in!
We’re just as bad unfortunately! I’ve been hoping that the climate disaster and growing inequality would prompt a rethink but this is a match made in hell.
Lots of countries want to pivot closer to the EU as a hedge against a mercurial America or authoritarian China…
I’m definitely a fan of closer ties though I’d be a little wary about fully joining an organization where decisions can be held up by a recalcitrant Orban or Le Pen.
imagine counting EU as something against America, lol.
We should lobby for a sauna in every basement, and a hot tub in every back yard.
We need to rapidly get to parity with the finna and their awesome lifestyle.
Oh yeah: and tax the fuck out of the yanks owning all the oil and gas instead of them being taxing to us.
I’m a dual Canadian-EU citizen and I oppose Canada joining the EU. I’m all for tighter relations of course but there are parts of the EU legal and economic framework that Canada should not have anything to do with.
Most importantly, the EU rules for state aid make it impossible to implement democratic socialist policies that remove sectors of the economy from the for-profit market. The public options that new NDP leader Avi Lewis is proposing to correct market failures become legally impossible. The bold ecosocialist policies needed to transition away from the planet killing economic policies, predicated on infinite growth, become legally impossible.
Beyond that, joining the EU means signing on to the Stability and Growth Pact and taking up the commitment to join the Eurozone. The SGP would have made even the left-liberal policies of first term Trudeau impossible. The Euro structurally ties the Canadian economy with that of Germany’s and its sclerotic fiscal dogmatism. (You’re goddamn right I haven’t forgotten how the Eurogroup treated Varoufakis’ reasonable proposals with contempt and condemned Greece to decades of unnecessary misery.) Canada does not need them.
Of course, if the EU were to reform and climb down from the doctrinaire neoliberalism that underwrites many of its most important treaties, I would be open to changing my mind. But as it is, nope, nope, nope.