Canadians Supportive of Closer Europe Ties Amid US Tension
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s effort to formalize a deeper relationship with Europe is broadly supported by Canadians, who have grown increasingly disillusioned with the US as their government faces hostility from President Donald Trump.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed on Wednesday that Canada become the first associate member of the European Union, an arrangement that has yet to be defined.
Carney has pursued closer ties with Europe since becoming prime minister last year as part of his agenda to diversify Canada’s trading relationships away from the US and deepen other alliances. That agenda is broadly supported by Canadians, even as some businesses grow anxious about the lack of trade resolution with the US.
A recent Abacus Data survey found 80% of Canadians support closer integration with the EU on issues such as foreign policy, defense and economic opportunities, up six percentage points since February. Support for full EU membership is weaker, with 49% of saying they’re in favor of it.
More than half of respondents said Canada has more in common with countries in the EU than the US, while only 16% said the opposite.
David Coletto, CEO of Abacus, said the desire to deepen ties with Europe is driven by both push and pull factors.
“I think Canadians have come to the conclusion that we need to look for other partners and other relationships given that ours with the United States has, for some, completely ruptured and may never go back to the way it was,” Coletto said, adding that Canadians also feel an affinity toward Europe.
“If there’s any other part of the world where they’ll feel comfortable with a deeper relationship, I think it’s in Europe.”
Meanwhile, the reaction to potentially formalizing a relationship with the EU has been less well-received by the Conservative Party, which is the main federal opposition party in Canada.
“I do have concerns about any kind of a formal” relationship, or “something that’s closer to a membership of the European Union,” said Ginny Roth, who was the director of communications for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s leadership campaign. “And the reason for that primarily is that Europe is not doing so hot on the whole.”
Roth said Europe’s poor management of immigration policy has led to populist uprisings across the bloc, while regulatory overreach has slowed down business and growth.
Poilievre has criticized Carney for addressing the European Parliament prior to the Canadian Parliament this fall, and has rejected the idea of Canada becoming an outright member of the EU.
“We will NEVER be the 51st US state. And we will NEVER be the 28th EU state,” Poilievre wrote in a post on social media earlier this week.
“Conservatives are clear: we support the decades-old free trade and NATO defense alliance with Europe,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “But no EU taxes, no EU laws, and no EU open-border immigration policies should be imposed on Canadians. Canada must be independent and sovereign.”
The euro-area economy grew at the strongest pace in more than a year in the second quarter, expanding by 0.4% from the previous three months.
Coletto said opposition to closer ties with the EU is concentrated among Conservative supporters, although he noted that even a majority of them have a positive impression of Europe and would be open to a deeper relationship.
“There is a lot of skepticism, maybe some outright opposition to the idea of the EU and what it stands for, that makes it not very appealing,” he said. “But I think it’s still a niche view within the country and in large parts of the Conservative coalition, because even among many Conservatives, they recognize that Canada can’t go it alone and we’re only so big.”
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