Canada, whose relations with Washington soured over the tariff war that followed U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration, has begun looking for ways to draw as close to the European Union as a full member, breaking away from decades of U.S. influence.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is driving the effort, has gone beyond declaring that he will no longer tolerate Trump's public rebukes and issued specific instructions to find ways to strengthen ties with the EU short of formally joining the bloc, according to sources.
The Wall Street Journal said on the 12th that Carney is "accelerating a pivot of Canada toward Europe to ease the pain of its divorce from the United States," adding that European leaders have started calling Canada, half-jokingly, the EU's "newest member state."
Shortly after taking office, Carney began studying the cases of Britain, Norway and Switzerland, which have not obtained full EU membership but have signed various agreements with the bloc. Over the past several months, in addition to publicly meeting the leaders of France, Italy and Germany, he has met almost every leader and royal of Europe's smaller countries, sources said. The Journal reported that Carney had even suggested to European leaders that they adopt a new designation, "EU associate member state," and that the EU showed some receptiveness during the process.
The Journal assessed that months of effort have brought European and Canadian officials to the stage of exploring ways for Canada to gain informal access to the European market in strategic supply-chain areas such as energy, artificial intelligence, the critical minerals needed for batteries and semiconductors, and defense.
