15th Biennial Conference of the European Community Studies Association - Canada “Canada and Europe carrying the torch?”, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, May 14 – 16, 2026. Recent events are shaking the foundations of the post-Second World War liberal international order. Long-standing alliances and relations between nations are being redefined. Threats of land annexation and announcements of sweeping tariffs by the United States government, and questioning the collective

Frédéric Mérand, Université de Montréal frederic.merand@umontreal.ca May 1, 2025 Although not everyone thinks it possible or even desirable to turn Canada into the 28th member of the European Union, all the esteemed colleagues who contributed to this debate, as well as a majority of Canadians, seem to agree that America’s domestic and international drift forces us to get much closer to the EU. In this rejoinder, I return to the case for EU membership before sketching out a

Lyubov Zhyznomirska, Saint Mary’s University lyubov.zhyznomirska@smu.ca April 14, 2025 Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America, has thrown countries, big and small, into economic uncertainty and turmoil with his rollercoaster politics of tariffs in retaliation against – what now feels like – whatever he is upset about on a given day. Since Trump’s election, Canada’s governing elites have become concerned about the US administration’s openness to undermi

Maria Popova, McGill University maria.popova@mcgill.ca April 9, 2025 Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 jolted the EU into a new enlargement wave now known as the “geopolitical enlargement”. Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, as well as the Western Balkans are inching closer to accession as the EU seeks unity and strength to contain Russian expansionism. In contrast to Russia’s long history of aggression in Eastern Europe, the Trump Administration’s threa

Willem Maas, Glendon College, York University maas@yorku.ca April 6, 2025 The idea of Canada strengthening ties to the EU as a counterweight to American influence has circulated since the 1960s (Canada is the EU's oldest formal relationship with any industrialized country), and dysfunction in the United States makes it more attractive. Other contributors to this forum focus on the barriers to full membership, but Canada could conceivably become the EU’s sixth most populous

Johannes Müller Gómez, McGill University & Université de Montréal johannes.mullergomez@mail.mcgill.ca April 4. 2025 The new U.S. administration has put Canada and its economic and political system under significant pressure. With its southern neighbor and closest partner no longer as reliable, Canada must deepen its relationships with other allies, and the European Union seems like a natural option. While strengthening ties with the EU is certainly the right direction, app

Andrea Wagner, MacEwan University wagnera27@macewan.ca April 3, 2025 While Prime Minister Mark Carney referred to Canada as “the most European of the non-European countries,” the reality remains that Canada is not part of Europe. A hypothetical EU membership for Canada would be perceived as a slap in the face to many European nations—most notably Ukraine—that have been patiently and diligently waiting for accession. Granting membership to a non-European country like Canada

Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, University of Victoria ebrunetj@uvic.ca April 2, 2025 In this short essay, in response to the question raised by my esteemed colleague Frédéric Mérand of the University of Montreal – “How Canada could get much closer to Europe?”[1] – I argue that there are so many opportunities for Canada to seek a closer association to the European Union that Canada should not focus on full membership, and that none of the existing membership or partnership arrangem