Unify Action - September 25, 2026


This AMERICAN Thinks 'Canada Should Join The EU' - What He Said Will Terrify You

Hosted by
Sarah Dotzert
He Thought “Canada Should Join the EU” — THEN A German Student Walked Up

Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

195.43

Word count

2,932

Sentence count

81


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I'm sure you've heard Carney's famous middle power speech, very famous.
00:00:02.760 If we weren't, we would actually be coming the 28th member of the EU.
00:00:05.980 Really, we are giving up our sovereignty for that.
00:00:08.580 That's true, but it's not apparently a bad thing.
00:00:11.120 I mean, I don't see the difference between becoming the 28th member of the EU,
00:00:15.220 full membership, and becoming the 51st state.
00:00:17.520 I've heard of something you asked.
00:00:20.680 So, most of it is trade, but we're targeting, we're looking at this membership,
00:00:26.780 which to me seems a little weird.
00:00:29.180 why would we not increase our current trade agreement that we have with the eu why would
00:00:35.180 we not do that instead of becoming a membership which is like a huge process it takes years
00:00:40.720 and the rest of the eu membership has to vote on our entry and it yeah which is going to be really
00:00:48.520 slow so why would we not work on doing a new trade deal which would be much faster now and then not
00:00:58.160 do this partnership and not do this membership where we could possibly give up our own regulation
00:01:03.000 and sovereignty in some areas. So the crux is that you don't think the EU regulations are
00:01:09.760 necessarily an improvement. I don't think they're an improvement over ours. You don't think they're
00:01:13.320 an improvement over Canadian ones. Yeah. And you don't think that it's worth the bureaucratic
00:01:17.300 hurdles to get into the EU. Yes. But that's where I feel like the associate member status would be
00:01:23.220 the best of all of those worlds because you can take advantage of some of those closer EU trade
00:01:27.220 deals in a way that doesn't necessarily require you to be a member or to be or to enforce all of
00:01:34.160 the regulations because you're not a member you're an associate member so you get i think some of the
00:01:38.000 special benefits of working more closely with the eu without the bureaucratic drawbacks of being a
00:01:43.200 full member yeah um there are still some downsides because we will not have voting we will not be a
00:01:50.320 voting member we won't be official we can't be right so we can't actually have a voice not a
00:01:55.760 large voice in exactly what happens what regulations their regulations aren't necessarily
00:02:00.840 all transferred over to you by associate some of them are some of them will be but that's a part
00:02:05.380 of the negotiation thing so i don't think it can be inherently decided that you will be subject to
00:02:10.520 their regulations because i think of those associate members other mysterious ones like
00:02:16.660 they're not all of them are not subject to even a majority of your regulations if i'm not mistaken
00:02:21.380 well in the areas that they partner with and there's the part of like they don't like i don't
00:02:24.660 I don't think Iceland is under full EU regulation and they're just in associate member status and so I think that it would be a good pathway to getting more of those trade relations because I think the EU would be more willing to trade with you were you to be an associate member, right?
00:02:38.120 Like if Canada is an associate member, they're like, the EU might have a stronger partnership and be more willing to do a better trade agreement.
00:02:44.700 Okay. I mean, if we're talking about free trade, though, 99% of the trade between Canada and the EU is already tariff-free, right?
00:02:52.940 So, we would actually, if we wanted more trade, we'd have to actually force it in some way, right?
00:03:00.780 Because it's already, it's flowing through competition, through free market, it's going, right?
00:03:07.720 Does pursuing an associate member status jeopardize that, necessarily? I don't know that it does.
00:03:11.840 No, it will, I don't think it will actually change how much trade we have with him.
00:03:17.480 Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't, right, which is why I'm like, uh, okay, we could say how, hey, we're partnering on, you know, development of military equipment or whatever, and I don't think a membership is necessarily needed for that.
00:03:30.300 I don't think necessarily, but I think it helps, it would help formalize some of that
00:03:34.740 relationship because I think on one hand that, I mean, I'm sure you've heard Carney's famous
00:03:40.860 middle powers speech, very famous.
00:03:43.400 It was a big speech, yes.
00:03:45.000 Very famous, big speech, but that along that similar-ish line of thinking that some sort
00:03:50.080 of more, not strict, more defined collaboration as opposed to just a deal, but like an official
00:03:56.780 associate member titleship could prove useful as canada's place in the global order right because
00:04:02.760 canada isn't the biggest country in the world and at the moment they are kind of caught between
00:04:07.340 china u.s and european trade yeah and there is benefits of course to not being aligned
00:04:12.780 specifically with one of them but there's also downsides to that and so i don't know that it's
00:04:16.840 necessarily a strict upgrade or a downgrade just a different geopolitical position to be more
00:04:22.440 aligned with one of those three competing markets and yeah powers and is that necessarily good to be
00:04:28.780 a member closer of the eu because i don't think that necessarily distances you from china at this
00:04:34.380 moment but i think it would distance you from the u.s but i don't know if that's a goal of
00:04:38.640 this sort of alignment that might be a plus as opposed to yeah well i i think
00:04:43.060 one of the reasons that we're doing this is to kind of screw over the united states
00:04:48.580 right it's like we're okay we're upset with him trade negotiations we're like okay we're gonna go
00:04:55.540 and do this we're gonna join another group i mean if we were joining in full membership which is not
00:05:02.160 what we're talking about but if we were we would actually be coming be becoming the 28th member
00:05:06.320 of the eu which is really we are giving up our sovereignty for that i mean that's true but it's
00:05:11.920 not inherently a bad thing i mean i don't see the difference between becoming the 28th member of the
00:05:17.340 full membership and becoming the 51st state but do you think alberta should be a province in canada
00:05:22.580 or should they be their own state i think they should be a province well they're giving up their
00:05:27.240 sovereignty to be part of the canadian project so if you're not preserving sovereignty shouldn't
00:05:31.720 alberta be its own country shouldn't quebec be its own country well because there has to be some
00:05:36.860 sort of compromise between sovereignty and creating a political union that's useful i understand that
00:05:41.280 And part of the reason that Quebec and Alberta want to separate is because they see the large majority of like the English speaking country or the rest of the country not not representing their views because they're minorities.
00:05:55.440 And they they're like, OK, we're not our views aren't represented, which in a good country, in like a country that is democratic, our views will be represented.
00:06:04.960 Right. And that's why they want to leave.
00:06:06.720 They feel their views aren't represented.
00:06:08.840 And I feel like if we joined the EU, certainly with full membership,
00:06:12.520 we would not have the exact same views on everything, right?
00:06:17.300 And we would have to give up a lot of our sovereignty
00:06:21.280 and submit to the votes of the other 27 states,
00:06:25.560 which may not always be in our favor.
00:06:28.160 That's true, but I mean, Quebec's in the same spot.
00:06:30.720 So would you argue for Quebec's sovereignty then?
00:06:32.920 Do you think Quebec should be a part of Canada then?
00:06:35.200 I think we should actually work to hear out their concerns, one of which is immigration.
00:06:43.880 I think we should hear their concerns and actually help them and let them stay in Canada if they want to.
00:06:51.840 Like, they have the choice.
00:06:53.820 Like, any part of Canada has the choice to be in Canada.
00:06:56.280 Do you think that the most ideal path forward would be negotiating with the Quebecois or the Albertans
00:07:04.500 and to find a reasonable path that keeps you together is the most reasonable outcome?
00:07:09.720 So therefore I would say that I think the most reasonable path forward to the EU
00:07:14.120 would be for Canada working out some sort of relationship with the EU
00:07:17.140 in which they feel they are accurately represented,
00:07:19.820 in which they feel they are taking enough value out of the EU thing
00:07:23.220 to be worth being a part of it
00:07:25.200 which I would say sounds exactly like
00:07:27.360 the associate member deal
00:07:29.320 that they're trying to reach is that deal where
00:07:31.180 Canada feels properly represented and included
00:07:33.420 in the EU in the same way
00:07:35.220 that you would ideally want Alberta
00:07:37.260 to feel properly represented and included
00:07:39.120 in gaining the benefit of being part
00:07:41.320 of the Union. Well, I would
00:07:43.320 argue it's not the exact same. Not the exact same.
00:07:45.300 Because Alberta has a vote and
00:07:47.240 we would not have a vote in the EU.
00:07:49.200 Yeah. So it's not like full
00:07:51.220 representation. But then
00:07:53.000 And so you would prefer full EU membership over associate membership?
00:07:56.560 No, I wouldn't. I don't think we should be members in that, period.
00:07:59.540 I don't think that's beneficial to us because, again, there's regulations.
00:08:04.280 Their regulations are more stringent than ours,
00:08:06.620 and we would have to submit to them in the areas that we want to collaborate in.
00:08:10.760 In some ways, but I don't think the regulations are that dissimilar in a lot of fields.
00:08:15.360 Okay.
00:08:15.760 And like, I mean, in food, food regulation, Canada...
00:08:19.940 agriculture falls somewhere between the u.s and europe it's not entirely either one but i would
00:08:27.260 argue that you could look at the differences between the healthiness of the populations in
00:08:32.340 europe and the u.s and the food issues that go on and that i don't think assenting to eu food
00:08:37.720 regulations would be a necessarily bad thing because canada has a lot of productive agricultural
00:08:42.340 some productive agricultural and a decent amount that and yeah i think and being able to export
00:08:48.240 that to europe would be even more valuable than exporting it to the u.s as europe is a larger
00:08:53.340 population the eu market is bigger than the u.s so that might be able to increase the amount and
00:08:58.880 the higher quality food on its own is good as well as a bigger market to trade it into
00:09:02.660 um i think as far as so well we do know that agriculture is not on the table as far as this
00:09:10.020 right um but i think there are we need to reform our our agricultural like yeah there are things
00:09:17.840 that we can do now to make our food better right like one of the things they don't do in europe
00:09:23.300 which is spraying round up on our wheat and we do that in canada to a huge extent um i think
00:09:28.380 there's things that we could do now that we don't need the eu for um yeah but like if we were to
00:09:34.580 become part of the eu the regulations that we agree to yeah we would have them in the beginning
00:09:38.660 but it's possible those regulations could change and we wouldn't have a voice in that and we would
00:09:42.820 either have to leave or become full members to actually have a say in them that's true to actually
00:09:48.880 have a say in them yeah but that's i mean that's why i think the associate member is that like you
00:09:51.960 don't have to buy buy all the regulations and that's a trade you that's part of the deal is
00:09:56.760 that you know you can get away without a lot of the regulations and get some of the benefits
00:10:00.680 but like in terms of i don't know what other centers were a part of this deal i don't know
00:10:06.740 AI as like
00:10:09.300 part of the deal
00:10:11.260 but I don't know about data centers
00:10:12.480 internet privacy laws
00:10:15.540 Europe is famous for its GDPR
00:10:17.280 protections that Canada
00:10:19.400 does not have to the same extent
00:10:21.060 and it's like I also don't think that
00:10:23.300 assenting to those regulations is necessarily
00:10:25.160 a bad thing I think higher data privacy is a good thing
00:10:27.480 and I think that
00:10:28.960 part of the problem is that
00:10:31.520 the bureaucratic hurl to updating all those
00:10:33.300 regulations is tough but that
00:10:35.180 joining the eu would be an impetus to all of a sudden have to take a look at the regulations
00:10:40.400 in canada and have to update them all in a short ish time for like those agricultural
00:10:44.780 reforms you were talking about like i think those are great ideas and that's sort of i doubt that
00:10:49.440 they would i don't think that they would happen but if you join the eu and had to write a new
00:10:53.640 law all of a sudden increasing the strictness of your agricultural regulations then you would all
00:11:00.680 of a sudden have a reason to take a look at your agricultural laws yeah and you would have an
00:11:04.200 impetus to be like hey we can make these stricter let's look at our food and see the best ways we
00:11:08.140 can make these laws work for us yeah because i know there's no reason for them to change those
00:11:12.120 laws there's no impetus to go take a look at all those regulations yeah i mean i think there could
00:11:15.980 be they're like if canadians were really given like the wake-up call to be like okay we need
00:11:21.460 to start voting for better regulations and better agriculture or cleaner food then we would i think
00:11:28.780 we would but people most people just don't really care they kind of joining the eu that kind of
00:11:33.080 wake-up call that they need? Whether people are for or against it, that prospect of, hey,
00:11:38.360 we're going to look at joining the EU now, does that wake people up and be like, hey,
00:11:42.220 we need to get out there and vote to have our voices heard?
00:11:46.080 Well, I hope that if they do get to...
00:11:49.240 Because even if they disagree, even if you vote against joining the EU, does that get
00:11:52.680 people out in a way that you look at those EU regulations and go, hey, maybe we don't
00:11:57.500 want to join the EU, but we do like those regulations?
00:11:59.360 maybe that might be a bit of a fuel
00:12:01.320 which would be a good thing, I think
00:12:03.120 but most people
00:12:05.720 right now are like
00:12:07.400 most people that I've talked to have been like
00:12:09.160 oh hey yeah, let's join the EU, this will be great
00:12:11.340 but we don't
00:12:13.460 the terms
00:12:15.500 of the contract have not been set out in full
00:12:17.400 and
00:12:18.380 we just, we don't know what it's
00:12:21.620 going to be like, we know that we're going to probably
00:12:23.460 lose some sort of regulation sovereignty
00:12:25.420 in some areas
00:12:26.380 with no vote to say what those are
00:12:29.240 except that we can negotiate
00:12:31.940 maybe
00:12:32.380 we can't negotiate away the rules that they currently have
00:12:36.280 we can just
00:12:38.040 negotiate where we collaborate
00:12:39.500 well yeah to an extent
00:12:41.860 you can negotiate which rules do and do not apply to you
00:12:44.100 as an associate member
00:12:45.700 which you're not changing the EU's laws
00:12:47.580 but you're changing
00:12:48.420 how they actually affect you
00:12:51.100 so like that's where it feels like
00:12:53.680 at least to me it feels like being an associate
00:12:56.000 member of the EU
00:12:57.160 is better than being a full member
00:12:59.700 in Canada's current position.
00:13:01.260 It might be better than being a full member,
00:13:03.240 but I don't think it's...
00:13:04.280 I don't think...
00:13:05.140 I don't think it's better than being on our own necessarily.
00:13:08.820 I think we can absolutely
00:13:10.920 have a better trade deal with them,
00:13:13.260 but again, are we going to force trade?
00:13:16.480 Right?
00:13:17.540 So...
00:13:18.260 Yeah, I think it very much depends on the terms of the deal.
00:13:23.020 That's cool.
00:13:25.120 Wait, did you see, like,
00:13:26.940 Is there any sort of negotiation that could be made under the associate member very blurry banner that you think would be beneficial?
00:13:35.480 I don't think it should be called membership period.
00:13:39.760 I think it should be just like a new CETA.
00:13:41.440 Like association or like something?
00:13:42.400 A new CETA, a new trade deal where we're not, like, where they have to trade with us and we have to trade with them.
00:13:49.800 Like, I don't think it should be membership period.
00:13:52.840 Okay, you don't necessarily think that integrating any regulatory or anything is just not worth it.
00:13:57.540 Yeah, I don't think it's worth it.
00:13:59.160 I think government in general tends to get bigger and grow and reach out and take more stuff.
00:14:05.780 That's just the nature of bureaucracy.
00:14:08.280 And I don't want to have us controlled by that.
00:14:12.120 I just, like, specifically with the EU.
00:14:14.960 Huh, okay.
00:14:15.880 Yeah.
00:14:16.200 That's fair.
00:14:17.080 Yeah.
00:14:17.360 Interesting indeed.
00:14:18.420 Thank you.
00:14:19.240 Yeah.
00:14:19.460 I feel much smarter about this now.
00:14:21.540 much appreciated yeah all right awesome what's your name i'm garrett nice to meet you garrett
00:14:25.720 i'm sarah are you from ontario i yeah oh yeah oh cool cool i'm from the southern u.s okay my views
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