I am asking myself if the Canadian population knows what that means to them. At irregular intervals, the EU is given more powers in order to have more power. There is currently a debate about whether the 27 armies should be converted into a European army. This would also affect you if you are part of the EU. In many areas, Canada would lose its powers and passing them on to the EU. This can be seen very clearly in financial policy. You would have to adopt the Euro as your currency and the European Central Bank would make interest rate policy. Of course there are more positive things, but you have to understand and accept that you would lose some of your independence.
I like this idea. If we’re just associating rather than becoming full members, that’d also give us more leverage on things like (for example) not adopting the Euro.
Fairly inexperienced with international finance, but wouldn’t adopting a stronger currency be good for Canada? We would lose part of our canadian-ness by not having a loonie, toonie, etc, but wouldn’t having the euro mean buying goods internationally would be favourable for us?
The main thing we’d lose is the autonomy to manage our own economy. Given that’s something we’ve handled especially well resulting in impressive economic stability in spite of global events, it’s not a thing to be sacrificed lightly - or at all.
The main benefit of joining the Eurozone is tight economic integration that lets member nations share the larger group’s economic stability. That benefit is never going to substantively materialize for a nation physically separated by an ocean. But we’d still be losing the right to decide how many power coupons we print, directly regulate our own banks, and set interest rates/inflation targets.
I’m open to other forms of EU association, but the Eurozone is a solid hell no.
That’s a major aspect I hadn’t thought of before, it would definitely change a lot of how Canada is run. Thanks for the insight.
Oh, I agree! I just wanted to say if that was the sole stumbling block to moving closer to the EU, then your idea would prevent that from blocking everything else.