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Outright joining the EU is a horrible idea. I'm happy with "associate member" status and closer ties. But joining? No thank you. EU membership comes with agreeing to things like:
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Adopting European state aid rules: We wouldn't be able to freely create crown corporations to respond to market failures. The creation of Hydro Quebec would have been extremely dependent on arcane rules and the whims of some European committee or court to approve an exception etc. Pas maîtres chez nous at all.
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Adopting the European stability and growth pact: We wouldn't be able to freely decide how much to run deficits to invest in our economies. Trudeaunomics is out.
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A commitment to join the euro: our exports now depend on what's good for the entire european economy, with decisions being made by the ECB in the service of big european banks.
The Grexit saga showed extremely clearly the ugly side of European integration. At the core it is a neoliberal zombie, with a legal mandate to force 1990s economic dogmatism on every situation. And as Wolfgang Schauble famously said "Elections cannot be allowed to change economic policy".
Canada can and should be friends, very close friends, with the EU. But we should not join. Love the Dycks, they're a lovely family, happy to be friends, best friends even, we don't need to also marry into them.
It's actually remarkably similar to the bottom line of Carney's governance. To be congratulated for his moves stabilizing Canada's relationships in the world and for adopting a multilateralist diversifying foreign policy. To be carefully scrutinized when integrating the canadian economy. To be ruthlessly criticized for forcing through archaic neoliberal dogma when they do a firesale of our public assets.
