Canadians open to joining European Union to end reliance on US, new poll finds
Canadians are open to joining the European Union in a bid to distance themselves from the United States, according to a new poll.
The survey of 4,000 people, conducted by Spark Advocacy, found that one in four respondents thought Canada should formally join the bloc, while 58% of those polled were open to the idea being further explored.
Only 17% of participants thought it would be a bad idea to join the EU, with outright opposition peaking at 23% in Alberta and 30% among Conservative party voters.
Spark’s chief strategy officer Bruce Anderson has said the results reflect Canadians’ desire to be less reliant on the US in the wake of the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump last year.
‘What we’ve seen is obviously a real shock to Canadians’ sense of the status quo and whether or not it could endure,’ he said.
‘And alongside that, a real openness on the part of Canadians to say, ‘Well, let’s find solutions to this problem of reliance on the U.S. when the U.S. isn’t as reliable.’
He added that Trump’s designs on Canada – from imposing tariffs to expressing desires to turn the country into the 51st US state – had made citizens more aware of global affairs.
‘I’m not saying everybody’s sitting around the dining room table at night talking about it,’ Anderson explained, ‘but there was an idea there that immediately made sense to a lot of Canadians, which is that, if you rely too much on superpowers, you might not end up having as much leverage as you need to have when the going gets tough’.
It would be tricky for Canada to actually become an EU member since Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union restricts membership to European states, although there has been some suggestion this could be broadened to allow ‘like-minded democracies’ to also hold membership
It also isn’t the first time that the question of Canada joining the EU has come up. The European Parliament called for deeper ties with the nation last month, calling Canada ‘perhaps the most European country outside of Europe’.
While some, including Alberta politician Thomas Lukaszuk, have floated the idea of Canada holding EU membership, Prime Minister Mark Carney has dismissed the possibility.
Speaking at last year’s NATO summit, after signing a strategic defence and security partnership with the European Union, Carney said that while the country was seeking closer ties with the EU, he wasn’t intending for them to join.
‘The short answer is no,’ he said when asked. ‘That’s not the intent, that’s not the pathway we’re on.’
‘We co-operate much more clearly and broadly to our mutual benefit. Not as a member, but along that continuum.’