Mark Carney: Canada is now the first non-European country to be granted a membership in SAFE.

[Swede]

Can EU membership be far behind? Then becoming a Schengen area country.

Defence Minister David McGuinty says Canada has now officially joined the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) program, which offers loans to member states to invest in defence capabilities.

"The agreement strengthens our collective security, supports the development of key defence capabilities, and gives Canadian industry access to European defence markets while contributing to European and Ukrainian security," McGuinty said in a statement sent to CBC News.

The official joining comes less than a year after Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a strategic defence and security partnership with the European Union, which included joining SAFE.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-eu-safe-agreement-defence-loans-weapons-9.7090635

[Botany]

1. The rest of the Western Democracies are now cutting Trump's America out of their plans for defense & trade

N/t.

[GiqueCee]

4. Which is exactly...

... what Putin wanted to happen. And Republicans are cheering him on.

[Botany]

6. Russia/Vlad/Storm 15-16 have been feeding and supporting right wing republicans for years in order to

… weaken and bring down American from within. Trump was recruited by the KGB of the old
Soviet Union in 1987 and he has been worked and turned into a Russian asset ever since. I
guarantee that Russia has tons of Kompromat on Trump, and other Republicans (see Mike Johnson,
Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson, the NRA, Fox News producers & on air talent, and other rich men
(see Epstein and Musk). I almost guarantee that Vlad knows about dead girls, video tapes, and
Russian bribes/election interference too that Trump is aware of and that makes him be “a good
boy for Vlad.

[Fiendish Thingy]

2. I don't see Canada joining the EU and moving from the Loonie to the Euro

But clearly Carney is pushing to strengthen ties to Europe for both trade and defence.

[Bev54]

3. Yep he is just moving ties away from the US and looking for new partners, now that the US

cannot be trusted. I am happy to hear that a large delegation of just under 400 industry leaders have joined our government trade delegation to their visit to Mexico. If Trump tears up the free trade agreement, we will be stronger partners with Mexico and they with us.

[OGBuzz]

5. Breaking NATO, breaking the UN, destroying the global order, abandoning Ukraine.

If I were a conspiracy theorist I would swear that this man's loyalty is to, as Trump himself would say, "Russia, Russia, Russia".

The Russian leader often credited with saying that they would "destroy America from within" is Nikita Khrushchev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

We are right on schedule and proceeding according to the plan.

[Botany]

7. Getting Trump to put together his own private army to attack, arrest, and kill their fellow Americans

.. must make Vlad very happy.

[OGBuzz]

9. Fashioned after every 3rd world banana republic paramilitary force.

[Emrys]

8. There are options other than full EU membership which might suit Canada (and the EU) better

Membership of EFTA (European Free Trade Association) might be one option which would confer a number of the benefits of EU membership - e.g. access to the European single market and other worldwide free trade agreements - without some of the political entanglements. But EFTA currently only has four members - Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland - and adding Canada with a vastly larger economy would likely unbalance it.

The EEA might be another option. It currently includes the EU member states plus the EFTA members minus Liechtenstein and Switzerland. That would give rights to free movement of capital, goods, services and people.

The other option would be a customized wide-ranging free trade agreement between Canada and the EU with whatever other bangs and whistles might seem like a good idea. That would be bulding on what's already in place, and is probably most likely to happen.