Do you realise that has things stand, even Canada’s electricity grid prevents from joining the single market and therefore the EU? Either they would need to get the mother of all opt outs, convert all their appliances and grid to 240v, or all appliances would need to be dual voltage (hiking up the costs for everyone).
And then every single product regulation is currently aligned with the US. Even countries that were closer to EU regulations took a decade to align them, so Canada will probably take at least that.
In the short term it makes more sense to focus on sector by sector free trade and free movement agreements.
Yeah, Canada couldn’t join the EU as a normal member state. It’s not just electricity, everything’s different. Different rules for highways and cars, different food safety rules, different worker safety regulations.
But, what if they started with freer movement of people. What if they made it easier for doctors and nurses to have that degree recognized in the other jurisdiction. And just make it easier for Canadians to work in Europe and Europeans to work in Canada without the current visa approval process.
Changing up the entire electrical system might be the project of a lifetime. OTOH, the EU made that recent ruling that every charger / chargeable had to be USB-C. Even though the electrical systems are different, USB-C is the same for everyone (well, ignoring that’s a mess of a spec with thousands of weird variations). So, the various parties could work together on future specs involving USB-C and whatever comes after that.
That’s the way the EU itself was formed as well. It started as “European Economic Community” or “European Common Market”. It was then transformed to “European Community” and finally to “European Union”. Those Agreements go stepwise this is what could happen here
I hate “Noo, it’s gonna take us soo long, so we shouldn’t do it!” Yes, it’s gonna take time so maybe just start? The best time to begin a long process was yesterday, the second best is now. Nobody says “things have to be perfect tomorrow” but not starting overall is not gonna change anything.
Instead of asking “how long is it going to take?”, we should rather just ask “is it a desirable outcome?” and if yes, just start.
Do you realise that has things stand, even Canada’s electricity grid prevents from joining the single market and therefore the EU? Either they would need to get the mother of all opt outs, convert all their appliances and grid to 240v, or all appliances would need to be dual voltage (hiking up the costs for everyone).
And then every single product regulation is currently aligned with the US. Even countries that were closer to EU regulations took a decade to align them, so Canada will probably take at least that.
In the short term it makes more sense to focus on sector by sector free trade and free movement agreements.
Yeah, Canada couldn’t join the EU as a normal member state. It’s not just electricity, everything’s different. Different rules for highways and cars, different food safety rules, different worker safety regulations.
But, what if they started with freer movement of people. What if they made it easier for doctors and nurses to have that degree recognized in the other jurisdiction. And just make it easier for Canadians to work in Europe and Europeans to work in Canada without the current visa approval process.
Changing up the entire electrical system might be the project of a lifetime. OTOH, the EU made that recent ruling that every charger / chargeable had to be USB-C. Even though the electrical systems are different, USB-C is the same for everyone (well, ignoring that’s a mess of a spec with thousands of weird variations). So, the various parties could work together on future specs involving USB-C and whatever comes after that.
Great ideas!
That’s the way the EU itself was formed as well. It started as “European Economic Community” or “European Common Market”. It was then transformed to “European Community” and finally to “European Union”. Those Agreements go stepwise this is what could happen here
I hate “Noo, it’s gonna take us soo long, so we shouldn’t do it!” Yes, it’s gonna take time so maybe just start? The best time to begin a long process was yesterday, the second best is now. Nobody says “things have to be perfect tomorrow” but not starting overall is not gonna change anything.
Instead of asking “how long is it going to take?”, we should rather just ask “is it a desirable outcome?” and if yes, just start.
Which is why I said focus on the baby steps that are actually doable now.