In response to my post wondering why Trump hates Canada and suggesting that that country may look elsewhere to trade and even join the EU or BRICS, there were some very informative comments about other options to those extreme steps. As result, I decided to look into this topic more closely and discovered that other serious commentators have explored various options

The short answer is that while it is theoretically possible for Canada to join the EU, it is also unlikely since it would have to surmount major obstacles, a major one of which is the long land border with the US that would require more stringent customs checks. (Recall the thorny issues with the much shorter Ireland-Northern Ireland border after Brexit took the UK out of the customs union (that allowed free transport of goods over national borders) while Ireland stayed in.)

Back in January 2025, just after Trump took office, an editorial from The Economist made the case for why Canada should join the EU, citing Trump’s openly expressed contempt for Canadian sovereignty and its then-prime minister Justin Trudeau. It argued that both Canada and the EU had much to gain from such a union, and that Trump’s recent jingoism and threats of tariffs have only made the case stronger.

The (not entirely straightforward) case for CanadEU predates Mr Trump. It is, in short, that Canada is vast and blessed with natural resources but relatively few people, while the EU is small, cramped and mineral-poor. Sure, EU rules reserve membership to “European states”. Yet despite a residual attachment to the frontier spirit, Canadians can be thought of as honorary Europeans. The country has endured three sets of colonists from the old continent, starting with a brief Viking incursion. Like Europeans, Canadians believe that markets work but must be tempered by welfare states. Their governments offer similar deals to citizens: high taxes, messy parliamentary politics (Canada may soon have a new “governor”, given Mr Trudeau’s unpopularity) and good living standards for nearly all. Both trade openly, fret about global warming and dislike guns, the death penalty and Russian aggression.

But Europe has more to gain from a tie-up with Canada than access to Quebec’s strategic maple-syrup reserve. Europeans can be sold on enlargement by the prospect of their union tripling its surface area while adding only 40m Canadians to a population of 440m. The EU would go from having a population density not far from China’s to that of America—assuming enough Greeks or Belgians volunteer to live in rather chilly conditions. Europe is short of energy, too; Canada has lots of oil, gas and hydro power. A rich new joiner would help the eu’s finances.
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If CanadEU remains but a geopolitical thought experiment, that does not preclude an ever-closer relationship… The Canada-EU trade deal, enacted in 2017, is the bloc’s most ambitious, but remains in “provisional” application; ten EU countries have yet to ratify its most far-reaching measures. Short of bringing Canada into the club, Europeans could start by getting that deal over the line.

This article from a few days ago discussed the various options for Canada vis-a-vis the EU in the light of Trump’s recent escalation of the trade war with Canada. It says that “A poll of Canadians conducted in March found that almost half the respondents would support joining the E.U., with only twenty-eight per cent against it.” Canadians also view the US more negatively than they do China. Various EU politicians have been talking up the idea and taking steps to make it possible, arguing that Canada is more European than some EU states. Canada is also joining the Eurovision song contest next year.

The article goes on to discuss both the positives and the negatives.

Ever since Trump’s combustive, combative second term began, a conversation once consigned to academic circles and the parlor rooms of Brussels and Ottawa has entered the mainstream: forget being the fifty-first U.S. state—what if Canada became the twenty-eighth member of the E.U.?
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[Canadians] may not be eager to accept the sweeping transformation of their country’s laws and regulations that E.U. membership would entail. The process would create an even more severe disruption of relations with the U.S., including the scrapping of existing trade treaties and the imposition of a strict customs operation at the border.
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[T]he E.U., much to the chagrin of some policymakers and pundits on the Continent, gave Trump a raft of concessions in an earlier round of trade negotiations. Watching Carney’s Saturday remarks—in which he said that the United States wanted “to break us, so they can own us” and vowed to “hit back”—the former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni wrote, “Here’s a speech that I’d like to hear from Europe.” Canada and Europe may not share the same political path, but, when it comes to the United States, they can still teach each other how to walk away. 

The Canadians have one big advantage when they try to diversify their trade relations away from the US. Most countries and economic blocs would want to trade with a sensible and rational nation that would make mutually beneficial deals and honor its commitments for the long term. In contrast, they would likely prefer to have less to do with the US, a terrible trade partner that does not negotiate in good faith, tries to bully to get maximum advantage, and even after achieving that, abruptly reneges on its commitments and tries to get more.

Carney’s public rebukes of Trump and willingness to walk away from a deal that he thinks is bad has paid political dividends for him domestically (a recent poll found that seventy-six per cent of Canadians supported his decision to walk away from the talks with Washington) and has also increased pressure on EU leaders to take a similarly firm stand.

Jonathan Pie has some things to say about Trump’s attacks on Canada.