Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00shows you where it starts, where it ends. were you really willing to
00:00:04risk that job? yes, at thunderbase favorite festival, wake the
00:00:08of diet. taada, there it
00:00:12of is. stream anytime. cbc
00:00:15news.
00:00:22hi, i'm enhannamansing, the host of cross
00:00:24of country of checkup. we're about to start the
00:00:26of show, and we have lot to talk about, but first here are few
00:00:29of stories. to get you ready for that conversation
00:00:33of
00:00:34of of today. of The
00:00:35of European Parliament gave the Canadian Prime Minister, a Rockstar's
00:00:38welcome, with selfies, a Sydney Crosby jersey and warm
00:00:42words. Opening the door to
00:00:44of deepening our alliance is
00:00:47of huge positive step forward. Despite fresh
00:00:50threats from US president Donald Trump,
00:00:56a I think it's laughable. Mark Carney outlined a plan to pull Canada and the EU closer together, what he calls " alliance for the
00:01:00future, this is about sovereignty,
00:01:04saying he wants closer cooperation on energy, defense,
00:01:08AI and research. The speech also featured few veil
00:01:11digs at the
00:01:12a Trump administration. I'm not proposing a third block in
00:01:16order to become a great power rival, only with better
00:01:23a manners. Curney left Europe with a willingness from allies to
00:01:27deepen ties, but no clarity on what that.
00:01:33of "I
00:01:35a would like to work with you on
00:01:38of opening the door for Canada to
00:01:41of being the first associate member
00:01:44of the European Union. That
00:01:46of form of membership doesn't exist and isn't
00:01:49of defined. The precise
00:01:49of nomenclature
00:01:50of is a for Europe is a question for Europe. The terms they
00:01:54use. The Spanish prime
00:01:55of minister seemed to express his support with this picture posted
00:01:59of online. Brothers have
00:02:04of doubts, including that heckler, chanting USA, Sigbarth Rusa,
00:02:08representing the right-wing populist alternative for Germany Party, told
00:02:11CBC News in a statement that was his way of addressing the geopolitical
00:02:15elephant in the room, adding it was an absurd and unrealistic
00:02:19Neejerk reaction from his Vonderlion to propose associate EU
00:02:23membership
00:02:23of for Canada, but any increased economic
00:02:26of cooperation could help Canada and
00:02:28of the EU, says this former ambassador. and it's a big upgrade for us
00:02:32and I'm alated that they seem
00:02:35to act believe that it's an upgrade for them. Still,
00:02:39Canada's conservatives, meeting in British Columbia have lots of
00:02:43questions. We have no
00:02:45of details, we have no uh understanding what that actually
00:02:48of means. I think it is abysmal that Mark Carney is
00:02:52making such incredible
00:02:55of announcements on foreign soil. The prime minister
00:02:59did say... Earlier today, any proposed deal will be debated
00:03:02of and voted on in Canadian parliament when it's finalized. It's expected
00:03:06of to be discussed further at the Canada EU Summit next
00:03:09a month.
00:03:10of And so
00:03:10of Kate,
00:03:10a the prime minister was also asked about Donald Trump's threat to levy
00:03:14more tariffs if he believes this deal is hostile act.
00:03:19of Mark Carney says any new deal with the EU is about creating opportunity and
00:03:23better future for
00:03:24me Canadians, not a reaction to something else. But he also said Canada is
00:03:27looking for partnerships that are complementary. and reinforce its
00:03:31sovereignty, those are the very concerns, the prime minister cited when he walked
00:03:35away from the deal with the US. All right, thank you, that is Kate McKenna
00:03:39in Ottawa. Is Canada joining the European
00:03:42Union? The
00:03:43a idea of
00:03:44me becoming associate member is being floated, but what exactly is that?
00:03:47Here at the European Parliament, Prime Minister Mark Carney told the EU he wants
00:03:51deeper cooperation. Canada and Europe are
00:03:55each strong. Europe and Canada are stronger
00:03:59together. President
00:04:00of the European Commission
00:04:01a surprised many when she
00:04:03of went a one step further and announced this
00:04:05in a major speech: "I would like to work with you on
00:04:09opening the
00:04:10of door for Canada to being the first
00:04:14of associate member
00:04:15of the European Union. Canada
00:04:19of welcomes this ambition. Polling shows that an overwhelming
00:04:22majority of Canadians support much closer
00:04:26ties with Europe. But it's unclear what
00:04:28a exactly associate..." membership would be, there's no legal
00:04:32a definition, and
00:04:32in it's also unclear what Canada's responsibilities would be if it
00:04:37of joins, will it have to pay taxes to the EU, will
00:04:39of it have to follow the EU's laws? Karney says all the details are being worked
00:04:43out and that Canada's parliament and the
00:04:45of EU
00:04:50of of will have to green light any possible membership. We are looking for of partnerships that are complementary that reinforce our sovereignty, and that's what
00:04:53is on
00:04:54of offer here. So what do we know about what Carney hopes this new alliance will look
00:04:58like? The prime minister has signal. two main things: first, Canada wants more
00:05:02cooperation on trade and key industries, think critical minerals,
00:05:06defense, AI and tech, energy
00:05:08of and
00:05:08in finances, and he's talked about improving what he calls people to people top.
00:05:12is basically making it easier for Canadian and EU citizens to live and
00:05:16work each other's countries. he specifically mentioned European
00:05:20education and research programs, signaling that he'd like to make it easier
00:05:23for students to study abroad. so why would Canada want to join the EU
00:05:27now? a Canada EU alliance would create beacon for
00:05:31other democracies. both have troublesome neighbors. Canada is trying to
00:05:35move away from its relationship with the US, and the EU is facing down
00:05:39Russia, so banding together could help both Canada and the Europe. union
00:05:43to better protect their economies, their laws and their
00:05:46sovereignty. they do not want this police
00:05:49presence, as the world's largest democracy, getting them to the pools
00:05:53is mamoth tas. it's been a
00:05:57year of strikes, train drivers, teachers,
00:06:00lawyers. how difficult has this period been for
00:06:03you? very difficult. i'm sitting in your one
00:06:07stolen vehicle in west africa. you walk into the
00:06:10hospital and what hits you? the chaos, this is our world,
00:06:14this is the
00:06:15national.
00:06:22Canada and Europe should secure our strategic autonomy
00:06:26through deep cooperation, including critical minerals,
00:06:29defense, industrial capacity, AI and compute.
00:06:33Hiam me and hencing in Vancouver, cross country checkup is
00:06:37live. The whole thing with Canada, Canada has been a terrible trade
00:06:41partner and uh... "if they do that, if I think it's at all
00:06:44hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop
00:06:48trading with Europe. our question for the first hour the program, is Canada
00:06:52more like Europe or the United States, what's it stake for you if Canada
00:06:56builds closer ties to the
00:07:08want to work with people who are interested in working with us and that's what
00:07:11Europe is all. "I think it's great to develop trade relationships with
00:07:15other countries and other parts the world. There's nothing wrong with diversifying trade, but I think that
00:07:19there's a bit of naivite among Canadians that we can
00:07:23replace our dependence on the United States. I think
00:07:26loosening our ties with the United States is a gift, because Trump is not to be
00:07:30trusted. As Canada US trade talks remain a
00:07:34stand still, the prime minister is making the case to forge deeper ties with
00:07:38the EU. The EU chief, Ersela Vonderlion floated making..."
00:07:42Canada, associate member this week. While Carney applauded her
00:07:46enthusiasm, he said he's looking for more economic cooperation
00:07:50and exchange programs for Canadian students. But as Canada looks
00:07:54across the Atlantic, how will this affect the already strained
00:07:58Canada US trade negotiations? As we just heard, Trump is
00:08:01already threatening more tarifs. We want to know what impact
00:08:05Canada's geopolitical shift has on you and your
00:08:09perspective on Canada's place in the world. few minutes
00:08:13we'll hear from experts like Paul Waldy the Glob and Mail Economist Mosha
00:08:16Lander and Stephen Marsh the host the Gloves off
00:08:20podcast. Our question is Canada more like Europe or the United
00:08:24States. What's it stake for you if Canada builds closer ties to the
00:08:27EU? Whether you rely on trade with the US or EU?
00:08:31Dream of studying in Europe or have lived abroad would love to hear your
00:08:43Now in our second hour, two former political rivals are
00:08:47joining forces to fight Alberta separation. Former Premiers
00:08:51Rachel Notley and Jason Kenny will be here together to answer your
00:08:55questions during our ask anything that's coming up in hour to.
00:08:59I mean Hannah Mansing in Vancouver, we are live on CBC radio and
00:09:03CBC News Network. This is Cross Country Checkup.
00:09:06Your voice, Canada's
00:09:25a unique perspective. I feel like lot of callers are going to have perspectives that
00:09:28are very particular to themselves. Liz Newcom
00:09:32was born in the United States, she moved from New York to Montreal in
00:09:352000 and two, and that's where she joins us from
00:09:49um, we were asking as you know callers, if Canada feels
00:09:53more like Europe to them or the United States, having grown up in the
00:09:56states, living now in Montreal, how do you feel about
00:10:00that? uh,
00:10:03Canada for me is definitely more like
00:10:07Europe. uh, for few reasons, uh, there's the
00:10:10healthcare system. which Canadians
00:10:14have collectively agreed to put their
00:10:18taxes in to cover people for basic and and
00:10:21catastrophic uh issues health.
00:10:25issues, there's also the social benefits
00:10:28like maternity leave, so I i feel that that's a lot more
00:10:32European, and then of course we've got our parliamentary
00:10:36system of government, which
00:10:39will
00:10:41it keeps things,
00:10:42I feel more in checks and balances
00:10:45especially compared to what we're seeing in the US right now, sometimes
00:10:49it leads to instability like in the
00:10:53UK where there seems to be... uh having a new prime minister
00:10:57all the time, but it also means that we're
00:11:00not uh kind of stuck with a
00:11:04party or or a certain prime minister, if there's disappointment
00:11:08then things can happen to uh change
00:11:11that. big move for you from the United States to
00:11:15Canada, um, was there a moment where you thought to yourself, okay,
00:11:19like I really feel Canadian right
00:12:35we're speaking live with Liz Newcom in Montreal, we're asking, is Canada more like
00:12:38Europe or the United States, what's it stake for you, if Canada builds
00:12:42closer ties to the
00:12:51is someone who was born in the United States, grew up there. How does it?
00:12:55feel especially in the last few days to see Canadians, many Canadians,
00:12:58celebrating at least the notion of moving closer, connecting more
00:13:02to to Europe and pulling away further from the United
00:13:06States. I'm all for it, I
00:13:10have to say, I still have ties to the US, my family live
00:13:14there, so it's a place that I visit regularly, I
00:13:18have nothing against most Americans
00:13:21or many Americans, they... don't all
00:13:25support what their president is
00:13:27doing, and but I also see
00:13:31that depending a
00:13:35trading partner - who is being that's being
00:13:39led by somebody who's unreliable is not
00:13:43good for Canada, and
00:13:46diversifying our options
00:13:56Liz Newcom, born in the United States, lives in Montreal, and that is where
00:14:00she spoke to us from. Coming up, we're going to speak to Journalist Stephen Marsh
00:14:04about how Canadian identity is changing with shifting global
00:14:08alliances, and of course we'd love to hear from you, our question, is Canada
00:14:12more like Europe or the United States? What's it stake for you if Canada builds
00:14:16closer ties to the
00:14:2524 so the prime minister spoke in front the european parliament
00:14:29on Thursday for more on what his speech told us about what a
00:14:33potentially new relationship with Europe could look like, we've
00:14:36reached Paul Waldy, he's the Europe correspondent for the Global Mail, and
00:14:40we've reached him in Castle Acre, England, about two
00:14:52you from Prime Minister Carney's pitch to the EU? "I think
00:14:56what was interesting was how he very quickly backed off this sort
00:15:00of associate membership that the EU uh
00:15:04president the EU Commission Ersula Vonderline talked about the day
00:15:07before, she sort of invited Canada to be the first associate member the
00:15:11EU. Carney in his speech sort of said, yeah, that's a great ambition, but I think what
00:15:15we're aiming for is closer ties and deeper ties, and I think that's that's
00:15:19part the problem here. I think this whole issue has gotten way out in front of Carney, and I
00:15:23think now he's trying to reel it back in. because of course, how far you go
00:15:27with the EU really involves lot more obligations on the part of
00:15:30Canada, so I think he's going to have to rain this a little bit and focus
00:15:34more on sort of sectoral areas or areas like... minerals,
00:15:38AI, energy, these kinds of things that Canada and EU can work better on
00:15:42rather than some kind of broad, global
00:15:45sweeping kind of associate membership status, so we know we're never going to be
00:15:49member the EU, we don't know what associate
00:15:52member means, I guess we can look at countries like
00:15:56Switzerland or Norway or Iceland to try to figure out is there
00:16:00a model there for us, how are you trying to figure this
00:16:04out? well, I mean that that's the closest thing to associate.
00:16:07status, but I mean that brings benefits and and real costs that I'm not sure all Canadians
00:16:11are quite aware the benefits would be access to the single market, which
00:16:15Norway Switzerland and Iceland have. That's the big market,
00:16:18that's the the free, tarif free access to the one the biggest markets in
00:16:22the world. Uh, the flip side of that is you have to accept every single
00:16:26EU rule and regulation without any say over that, because those countries don't elect members to
00:16:30the European Parliament, they have no bureaucrats in Brussels looking out for their
00:16:34interest, so they are really just have to take whatever rules the EU and they have to
00:16:38contribute to the EU budget, now I don't think that's what Carney or the Canadian
00:16:42officials are really looking at, I think they're looking at something different, that would be
00:16:45along the lines, maybe what they call association arrangements, and these are
00:16:49the kinds of things they have with countries like Turkey, what they had one
00:16:53with Chile, they have one with Ukraine, so they have very broad
00:16:57agreements that can cover lot of different things, it might not be quite as
00:17:00involved as what Norway, Switzerland and Iceland have,
00:17:04so if we're looking for something different, looking for
00:17:08something less than those countries like Norway or
00:17:11Iceland or Switzerland have, is what we're looking for or the prime
00:17:15minister looking for meaningful? it it's hard
00:17:19to say, I
00:17:20mean in some respects we already have that, right? we we signed a
00:17:24trade deal with the European Union back in 2016, it was build
00:17:28at the time,
00:17:28it was the most comprehensive trade deal the world had ever seen it was
00:17:32going to open up tarif free access on goods, it was going to involve services,
00:17:35government procurement, all kinds of... things, it hasn't really done much
00:17:39for trade between both sides and in fact 10 EU member states haven't even
00:17:43ratified it,
00:17:44so they
00:17:44don't even view it as that much
00:17:46of a priority, so I think if you're talking about what we're going to build on from that, it's it's hard
00:17:49to see now, what Carney and I think Vandalar are talking about
00:17:53are more sort of political or more sort of economic arrangements that
00:17:57evolve, things like energy, things like critical minerals, things that kind of go
00:18:01beyond the nuts and bolts of a trade deal, but that's even hard to see how that
00:18:05would work and how you would bolt that onto the... trade deal. What's in all
00:18:09of this for the EU? I think right
00:18:12now, if we look at this realistically, it's all about symbolism. There's very little in
00:18:16it for the EU. Canada is not a major trading partner for the European
00:18:20Union, it's quite a small player in that sense, but I think
00:18:24this allows the EU to project some kind of toughness against Trump,
00:18:28and I think that's also partly Carney's agenda here, he wants to show that he's tough against
00:18:32Trump, so the two them together can talk a big game about forming some kind of
00:18:36closer alliance. think the EU wouldn't mind having access to Canadian
00:18:39critical minerals because they are desperately short of
00:18:42that and they're far too relying on China, so they're looking for new marks for that kind of
00:18:46thing, probably energy as well given the situation with Russia, so there
00:18:49are some pluses here for the EU, but I don't think in the grand schema
00:18:53things, this is top priority for the European Union. As a Canadian
00:18:57journalist who lives in the UK and spends time in Europe, maybe
00:19:01briefly explain to us how, and and it's a diverse group
00:19:05of countries, but how the EU views Mark. Oh,
00:19:09right now, I mean, they they view Mark Carney as a real ally, they view him as somebody who's
00:19:13who's taking the fight to Trump, I think he's, he could go into any, almost
00:19:16any EU country and
00:19:18get very, very warm welcome, warm reception, including here Britain,
00:19:22so yeah, he he's pretty highly
00:19:34earlier this week, CBC spoke to Canadians about how they... feel about
00:19:38building closer ties with the EU, take a listen. I
00:19:42think Canada should still work with United States
00:19:45and we should just realize
00:19:49Trump's not going to be there forever. Great Britain backed out the EU, part of that
00:19:53I think was though that reason that there was too much control. I think
00:19:57it'd be a great way to open gateways to both students over there and
00:20:00students over here to
00:20:01come crossover, learn new things. We were just talking about going on exchange next year and we
00:20:05all like our friends all wanted to go to Europe. will visa free?
00:20:09definitely, i want the warm weather and good food, so i'll be
00:20:12down. few voices from the streets of torondo, few days
00:20:15ago with their reaction to Canada's EU pivot, and of
00:20:19course we'd love to hear your reaction as well, whether you've lived in multiple
00:20:23countries, perhaps you have business that stands to win or lose customers in the
00:20:27US or the EU, give us call. our question, is Canada
00:20:31more like Europe or the United States, what's at stake if Canada builds closer
00:20:35ties to the EU, 8884?
00:20:39416833 or you can text us at 226758
00:20:428924 also lots of online reaction to
00:20:46this program and i want to bring in our producer paris he lees been tracking the online
00:20:50reaction we're
00:21:56let's get to online responses. What do you seeing this hour? Well, we're
00:21:59hearing from folks who are excited about the prospect of closer Canada
00:22:03EU relationship like Lena who left this comment with CBC News
00:22:07on TikTok, I'm a 39-year-old Canadian who moved to Sweden in
00:22:112022. This is monumental. Working for a Swedish
00:22:15company is a dream and the cost of living is crazy cheap compared to
00:22:18Canada. not everyone shares that enthusiasm
00:22:22ian. Sabine Lions in Colona BBC sent us this
00:22:25message via Air Check. She wrote, "My family lives in
00:22:28Europe. Since joining the EU, their lives have been very negatively
00:22:32impacted, from immigration to their green agenda to dictating
00:22:36farming regulations, Europeans are being smothered with ridiculous
00:22:40regulations." Brenda Cavennaught from Calgary also shared her
00:22:44thoughts with us through aircheck. She wrote, "Well, it's great to have strong
00:22:48ties between Canada and the Europe." union, first nations should have
00:22:52rights to be consulted a matter, this important. European heritage
00:22:56is one part of Canadian identity, but we have Canadian citizens who come from all
00:23:00cultures and that is something to be
00:23:09As Canada realigns itself, or at least talks about realigning itself
00:23:13in this new world order, how do we define ourselves to the rest the world?
00:23:16Stephen Marsh is a journalist and host the Gloves off pod. cast
00:23:20which explores Canadian sovereignty and foreign policy and
00:23:58do you think about the EU and Canada building more of
00:24:00relationship? I think it's
00:24:04great. thanks for having me on. first of all, um, I'm really
00:24:08excited, I think it's great. um, I'm Dutch Canadian, so
00:24:11I've lived 23 years in Canada, moved back to the
00:24:15Netherlands a few years ago, and
00:24:19um, I'm having lived in both countries
00:24:23and enjoyed Canada's nature, I just hope that there is an opportunity for more
00:24:27exchange between Europeans and Canadians.
00:24:31Um, for Canada, I think it's great, diversifying your business is
00:24:34always makes business sense, so for people not
00:24:38to put your eggs in one
00:24:40basket, um, divide it
00:24:44between Europe and Canada, I think is is a good
00:24:46idea. What is it about?
00:24:50the Netherlands that you think connects to
00:24:53Canada
00:24:56uh, deeply?
00:25:00um, you know, it's really the sacrifice that the Canadians made here
00:25:03during um, during
00:25:05the second world war, and in the rest of Europe, the commemoration
00:25:09the first world war, I don't know if you've ever been to Vimy
00:25:12Ridge, I have, I have, yeah, done the
00:25:16trail from Pashendill in in Belgium down to
00:25:20ridge you come across all the Canadian graveyards and
00:25:24it's amazing to see how the local communities are maintaining them
00:25:28prestinely, the crosses are white, the grass is cut, and this is
00:25:31all done voluntarily. um, you Canadians are being
00:25:35remembered every year, um, even now, the liberation
00:25:39the Netherlands, we commemorate, I hang out my Canadian
00:25:43flag, when they come by, always being
00:25:46welcomed very warmly, um,
00:25:50very generously, that's interesting, you know, yes, I
00:25:54have been there and it is very moving, but I sometimes wonder when I watch coverage
00:25:58from afar on television, if this is something which
00:26:01people... perform the the
00:26:04historical uh connections on certain days let's say
00:26:08and
00:26:09and and you know do they deeply understand it and you're saying they
00:26:12deeply understand it so so that's very interesting what about the challenges if if
00:26:16Canada
00:26:17you know truly wants to move closer to Europe and let's talk specifically about the
00:26:21Netherlands what what's a challenge that Canada and the Netherlands
00:26:25will have to deal with
00:26:29um there's obviously an ocean between us.
00:26:35um um, think i think we have a number of similar
00:26:39challenges um amongst ourselves, so if you look at
00:26:43the how the provinces operate differently and the territory within
00:26:46Canada with different tax systems and different infrastructure, i
00:26:50think we see similar problems in Europe that really kind of confine us
00:26:54to what we can do and how we can expand, so really
00:26:58crossing crossing those bridges
00:27:00and ' "building those bridges is going to be a
00:27:04challenge,
00:27:05um, European Union is very
00:27:09known for being very bureaucratic, it may be difficult in terms of
00:27:13trade relations to improve things, it might take some time,
00:27:17but I think this is just beginning, this is associate membership,
00:27:21so things like student exchange can be very interesting,
00:27:24investing each other's economies and then just take it from there and see how it
00:27:28goes. one last thing, um, as somebody who definitely..."
00:27:32has foot each country and identifies, i
00:27:36feel like as as being a citizen of of both
00:27:39countries. what's a moment, what are the moments beyond the the
00:27:43history of the Canadian armed forces in
00:27:47in uh in the netherlands? beyond that, what are the
00:27:50moments or moment where you feel your Canadian pride
00:27:54stirring? you know
00:27:58when Mark Carney spoke and davos, his speech, that was
00:28:02heart. that was when I was really proud, the most recent time I was really proud to be
00:28:06Canadian and really proud that he's representing Canada
00:28:10in such an eloquent way and showing such great
00:28:13leadership, these are the leaders that we need in in the
00:28:16world, leaders with integrity, people who know what they're doing,
00:28:20people are knowledgeable, but people who also listen to their advisors and the
00:28:24experts, um that made me feel really
00:28:35country checkup. I'm mean Hannah Mansing. We're live in Vancouver and we're
00:28:38looking forward to hearing from you about how you feel about
00:28:42this this move towards at least you know being described as
00:28:46move towards and we'll kind of analyze how much we've actually moved
00:28:50towards Europe uh and maybe away from the United States and
00:28:54what you have at stake as Canada Shifts
00:29:16United States stalled last month, uh, you wrote that this is reshaping
00:29:20our national identity. tell us more about that?
00:29:23well, I think it it was a sort of drastic moment for Canada,
00:29:27because I mean, not only did we refuse American
00:29:31advances, which was... in itself um, but also I
00:29:34think what was kind of most interesting about it is rather than doing what
00:29:38everybody else was doing, we actually said, no, we know
00:29:42better, we're not, we're not going to do a jurisdictional sweep and figure out what what,
00:29:46what everyone in Europe is doing, we know better than everyone else, and we're not going to
00:29:50do this, and that I think is a moment of true independence for the
00:29:53country, and then when you watch the speech that the prime minister gave to the
00:29:57EU? Well, I mean, that speech was very
00:30:01confusing, because it was just... very unclear what it all, what it all means. I
00:30:05mean, the terms of associate membership and so on are are pretty vague, and I
00:30:09really think the devils in the details with this sort of thing, but I mean, I
00:30:12having more connections with Europe obviously gives us more sovereignty by giving
00:30:16us access to the resources that the EU has
00:30:20uh, particularly with financial instruments in tech, which I think are
00:30:23actually probably going to be the defining aspects of this
00:30:27relationship, along with the uh defense uh bank along
00:30:31with the the defense. spending that we're going to do with each other, as reports
00:30:34surfaced about whatever Canada is doing with the EU, the
00:30:38opposition leader Pierre Poliev tweeted, we will never be the 51st
00:30:42US state, and we will never be the 28th EU
00:30:45state. The prime minister of course, says we're not seeking membership, that
00:30:49seems to be pretty clear, though whether we are seeking
00:30:53something different is not so clear. Um, how do we draw the line,
00:30:57Stephen, between building alliances and protecting our sovereignty? -
00:31:01we're not giving up any of our... soverenty to Europe, I mean, that would, I think that would
00:31:05be totally unacceptable to the Canadian people, and and rightly
00:31:08so, um, but I, I think that's kind of obvious, also they
00:31:12wouldn't want us on those terms. lots of ways to
00:31:15do about this, the the finnish prime minister actually, alexander stub, he wrote his
00:31:19dissertation in the 1990s at the London School of Economics on what he called
00:31:23flexible integration with the EU, and we're going to have something like that, we're going to
00:31:27have, access to Erasmus Plus possibly, and few other things
00:31:31like this, but it's really, the deal with cohere is actually a
00:31:35sign I think of where the most exciting possibilities of this lie, which
00:31:38are you know technological um fusions and and and
00:31:42particularly financial instrument fusions, which are you
00:31:45know the really the hardest part for us escape
00:31:49the of us higem is is in tech, and europe can
00:31:53absolutely provide a way for us escape that, that's that's definitely worth
00:31:57pursuing. okay, let's quickly uh uh do a
00:32:00glossery, uh, cohere, guess an AI company, right? company,
00:32:04and erasmus plus, i'm afraid i don't know what that is. erasmus plus is their
00:32:08exchange stud is is there exchange program for universities and the university
00:32:11exchange program? mean i think that would just be wonderful for us. to belong to, but then of
00:32:15course I have kids around that age and it would be, incredibly beneficial for
00:32:19them.
00:32:32the liberals, capital L liberals want Canada to be more
00:32:35European, conservatives, capital C, want us to remain American in
00:32:39spirit, and if that is the case, uh, is
00:32:43that danger to... Canada trying to forge a
00:32:46unified identity, amid that political divide. Well,
00:32:50actually, I mean, what I what I wrote in the piece in the globe was that that's what it used to
00:32:54be, right? Like that, what used to be is the kind of this debate between
00:32:58liberals who wanted a more European state and wanted us to not necessarily to
00:33:02look towards Europe, but wanted us to be more like a European state, and conservatives who
00:33:06wanted us to integrate more with the United States and wanted us to be more American,
00:33:10but the truth the matter is that the America that we could integrate
00:33:13with is gone. Right, I mean, when you hear Stephen Harper talk about this,
00:33:17he's he's very clear about this, not just Harper, like many, many
00:33:20conservatives, um, and so that's that's a that's a real
00:33:24identity crisis for the Conservative Party for sure, um,
00:33:28but I think also for us, I think it represents a bit of a transition,
00:33:31because I think we, I used to think of us anyway as
00:33:35somewhere, you know, just in between Europe and America, and that
00:33:39was kind or maybe even just between the UK and
00:33:43and and America, but "now that's that's all over and
00:33:47I think we - our destiny, it seems to me is to
00:33:51both be more sovereign to ourselves, like more, like sovereignty
00:33:54obviously matters more now than it ever has to all Canadians, but
00:33:58also the dream of a cosmopolitan Canadian, the dream of
00:34:02a of a Canadian as a citizen the world, which is part
00:34:06of our multicultural reality, which is what we live, I think
00:34:09that's the identity we're moving towards and I,
00:34:12I, I think it's unique, I don't think
00:34:13it is something" that you can compare to other countries, i i think it's
00:34:17something that we alone possess and find it
00:34:21very new and find it very
00:34:32stephen marsh, journalist and host the gloves off podcast. he's in
00:34:36Toronto. in our next hour we have very special ask anything with Rachel
00:34:40Knotle and Jason Kenny together, the Alberta referendum
00:34:44coming up next month. two former Alberta premiers, one NDP, the
00:34:47other Conservative, will join us to answer your questions, so that is
00:34:51in our two. I hope you stay tuned for that. Right now, we're focusing
00:34:55on Canada's place in the world. Is Canada more like Europe or the United
00:34:59States? What's a stake for you? If Canada builds closer ties to the
00:35:03EU, 888-416-8333 or you can
00:35:07text us
00:35:0722675-8-89-24.
00:35:11So for lot of people it is just very personal and it has to... do with their family
00:35:15history, for some people it has to do with business. Romana
00:35:19Chibagu and her family own claba hair and
00:35:23beauty supplies, which is based in London Ontario, though we've reached her today
00:35:27in Rigina. How are you? hi, how are you today?
00:35:31good, good,
00:35:36States, strain though it is, is so important to your
00:35:39business? sure, so we've been in business business for
00:35:43almost 30 years, we started in 1997 and
00:35:46uh throughout that time we've we've grown as a brick and mortar business
00:35:50of uh black hair and beauty supply products so wigs,
00:35:54extensions uh hair preparations of all types and skin
00:35:57preparations. um at one point we had six stores across southwestern
00:36:01Ontario um and as e-commerce emerged uh we went in
00:36:05that direction and we still have some sp brick and mortar stores in London
00:36:07Ontario. you buy most of your inventory from the United States
00:36:11and uh Canada's counter tariffs have have hit
00:36:15bottom line, how much are these added costs affecting your
00:36:19business? absolutely, so it's a real operational risk
00:36:23for us,
00:36:25so um, if you
00:36:26know anything about black hair, that the macca black hair care is in america in
00:36:30cities like Atlanta, cities like Chicago um and New
00:36:33York, and so the supply pipeline pretty much goes right through America
00:36:37in so far as our suppliers, manufacturers and distributors
00:36:40and so a 50% increase is
00:36:44major concern for us because we have a small market in terms the
00:36:48black population, we don't just serve the black population, we serve many others, we we are
00:36:52essentially our goal is to ensure that folks can uh
00:36:55be the be the best version themselves. um
00:36:58but we we def niche market is our the black population in Canada
00:37:02and uh the 50% increase um it impacts
00:37:06our our ability to be able to pay our staff um it
00:37:09impacts we we do large shipments imagine out
00:37:12$10000 shipment that's now $150,00 this is very
00:37:16concerning for us um in terms of our sustainability and we're a
00:37:19multi-generational business so we're actually looking at the next
00:37:23generation which is me um and and my sister uh
00:37:26taking over so we wanted
00:37:28we want to be able to to continue another 30 years and
00:37:31so you probably heard Donald Trump reacting to Canada and
00:37:35the EU uh
00:37:37their talks right
00:37:38and and he kind of dismissed it as laughable and even said that he might
00:37:42punish Europe at least uh if if he felt that
00:37:45Canada and and the European Union were trying to hurt the
00:37:49United States um I assume all of that must have made you a little bit
00:37:53nervous um I'm I am concerned about
00:37:57the... of this policy
00:37:58we absolutely see that there could be opportunities not necessarily to partner within
00:38:02Europe, I think within our industry, we're looking at Asia and Africa, particularly
00:38:06where we see R&D innovation in places in Africa for example, there's a lot of
00:38:10like sustainable fibers that are used for lot the
00:38:14products that that we um that we distribute
00:38:16and and that's really interesting to us, but ultimately when we're talking about
00:38:20legacy quality brands that have been around for generations, we're talking about the
00:38:24American market um and so we definitely... do not want to
00:38:28entrench or exasperate um the situation, make
00:38:38we're certainly hoping that this can be handled delicately by our
00:38:40government. Romano, thank you very much for speaking with
00:38:43us. no problem, thank you, Ian. Romana Chibagu and her
00:38:47family run Kaylaba hair and beauty supplies. the
00:38:51business is in London, Ontario, though she spoke to us this afternoon from
00:38:55regina. our question, is Canada more like Europe or the United States, what's
00:38:59it stake for you if Canada bills closer ties with the
00:39:16ourselves from the United States might be the wrong move.
00:39:19why? well, Canada and the United States share a
00:39:23massive border trade from an environmental perspective makes more...
00:39:27sense within North America uh Trump's going to be gone in two
00:39:31years right, so the the entire
00:39:33everything changes then, so we have more of
00:39:37relationship with the United States than Europe, identify
00:39:40more with Americans and have lot of friends down there, done a lot of
00:39:44extensive traveling down there, and as an
00:39:48English speaking Canadian, even though I have a French
00:39:52name, the the you know Canada
00:39:55and and the United States. shares so much media and film and
00:39:59television and and there's much more of influence
00:40:03in our you know society from the United States than there is
00:40:07from Europe. So as you saw, whether it was
00:40:11clip on the news or on your phone or however, you got the information, our
00:40:15prime minister at the EU, being greeted so warmly and
00:40:19being met with a standing ovation, how did you
00:40:21feel? Absolutely prideful to be a Canadian
00:40:25to to know that, we're... we're so respected in the global
00:40:29community
00:40:30like that, but you know, we we haven't lost that respect
00:40:34from the United States, we've only lost it from a fringe minority group
00:40:38that managed to get a president in the white house for few
00:40:40years and that dynamic changes in two
00:40:44years. how about the idea of
00:40:48of making these moves towards Europe, just to kind of thumb our
00:40:52nose at the United States? if that is, I mean, it
00:40:55feels like tip for tat from from the perspective of just a
00:40:59regular carpenter canadian on the ground right? yeah, and so how do you
00:41:03feel about that? well, it it costs more money for my uh clients
00:41:07to build houses and uh buy stuff uh you know at
00:41:11uh at the project stores to you know finish their builds.
00:41:15yeah okay Andreay thank you very much for calling i
00:41:21watching the online reaction. let's bring her in again. hey Paris hey we
00:41:25were talking about your time in Ireland you were... student and I just
00:41:28wonder what nine months, I guess you were there in 2022,
00:41:32um, how did it shape your perspective as a student?
00:41:36yeah, I think it really um, anyone who has the privilege or ability to...
00:41:40do a semester or year abroad, i think they should take that opportunity. it
00:41:43really broadens your perspective.
00:41:47certainly lot the issues that i maybe had
00:41:51trouble with reconciling in Canada, i realized they had the same issues in
00:41:54Europe, um, maybe for different reasons, but it it
00:41:58really uh, yeah, it really broaden my perspective lot.
00:42:02all right, let's get to the uh online reaction and maybe start with something
00:42:05on our tiktok account. yeah, cbc news got this uh,
00:42:10comment on TikTok, the viewer wrote, join the EU, we haven't
00:42:13removed internal trade barriers, we haven't reconciled labor mobility
00:42:17rules between provinces, CETA remains
00:42:20unratified. It's time for Carney to focus on fixing Canada's
00:42:24problems rather than hoping and relying on other nations to do so for
00:42:28him. Stacyson in Hag
00:42:31Sascatuan sent us this message on CBC.ca/aircheck, she
00:42:35wrote: in Sascatuwan, I think we have seen too much influence from our
00:42:39Albertan. who are themselves far too americanized in their
00:42:42thinking. At this point in time, people in Alberta and Sascatuwan are more
00:42:46similar to Americans than Europeans, but I think it would
00:42:49be far better if the latter were true. I support Prime Minister Carney's efforts to
00:42:53bring us closer to Europe and move us away from the US. Dennis
00:42:57Freesen from Calgary shared his thoughts online. Also, he wrote, "For me
00:43:00personally, I see only gains for Canada in closer relationship with the
00:43:04EU. I have lived and worked in Canada, Europe, and the US.
00:43:08The US is at the bottom of..." the list by a big
00:43:17listening or watching Cross Country Checkup on CBC
00:43:20News Network and CBC Radio. This program is live, and so let me
00:43:24share with you some news which is breaking right now from British
00:43:28Columbia. The leader the provincial opposition party, the
00:43:31Conservatives, Carrie Lyn Finley has
00:43:34resigned, as you've probably heard over the last couple of weeks, actually
00:43:38more than a couple of weeks. many of her MLA's have left the party, the
00:43:42most recent to leave the party, announced that today, there was a lot of
00:43:46question about her status within her own party, carry
00:43:50linley status within her own party a caucus meeting last
00:43:53week, uh CBC News had learned that she had been asked
00:43:57to step down, and so she has done that, breaking news, the
00:44:01opposition leader in BC stepping down, and one the potential impacts of
00:44:05that is what the provincial NDP government will do in terms of
00:44:09calling an election. "there been a lot of rumors swirling around in this province that
00:44:13that might be imminent, though usually parties don't
00:44:16call an election while the opposition is without a leader.
00:44:20all right, let's get back to our topic of this hour, which is about
00:44:24Canada's move towards Europe and away from the United States,
00:44:28and how you feel about that, and what's it stake for you if Canada were
00:44:31indeed to build closer ties to the EU.
00:44:35Gregory Fitzgerald is calling us from Siri, British Columbia, just outside
00:44:38Vancouver, hi Gregory."
00:44:43very well. how do you feel about Canada uh and
00:44:47and our relationship to the United States and Europe? I think it's
00:44:51wonderful, absolutely wonderful, and the more ties, the
00:44:54better. And you by wonderful, you mean moving away from the states
00:44:58and moving towards Europe? No, we, the states is going
00:45:02through. A hard time within
00:45:06itself, so we can still trade with other countries.
00:45:10around the world, this is why I'm so proud of our prime minister for
00:45:14stepping back from the discussions on the trades
00:45:18with the
00:45:18US,
00:45:23we this country is so unique in in
00:45:26itself from being
00:45:30multicultural excuse my voice, I have serious
00:45:33disability, no problem, we
00:45:36we we
00:45:37we were not we're not like Europe, we're not like any other. country in the world, we're
00:45:41unique in our own way, and that's what makes
00:45:45Canada so great around the world, everybody wants
00:45:49to be here, it's because like you just said,
00:45:52carry linley just stepped down, the people have a
00:45:56voice and things get done, this is the
00:46:00greatness about our country, and the more trade we
00:46:04have in Europe and as well other
00:46:07places if it works out, Saudi Arabia. if it works out,
00:46:11china if it works out a good
00:46:13way, like mark carne
00:46:17said, nobody tells us, who to trade with
00:46:20or who to do business with,
00:46:23so i i think you know we're like ourselves, we we
00:46:27Canada is just too unique, it's like we can't be compared to any other
00:46:31country in the world, gregory,
00:46:40Canada trades heavily already with the European Union, by the way, last year
00:46:44we bought $92 billion
00:46:46dollars in goods from the EU and sold 39 billion, that's
00:46:50according to Statistics Canada. with US tariffs looming
00:46:54pivoting to Europe may sound tempting, but is it realistic? whenever it comes
00:46:58economic issues like this, we turn to people like
00:47:02Mosha Lander, senior lecturer in the department of economics at Concordia
00:47:05University in Montreal, and he is in Montreal this afternoon. Hi
00:47:13are losing access to the United States market because the
00:47:17punishing tariffs, do you think expanding access to the
00:47:20EU can help or? fact in a substantial way
00:47:24offset those losses? it never hurts to have lot of
00:47:28trading partners, so even if everything we're going swimmingly with the
00:47:32US, we should still be pursuing other opportunities for other trade partners,
00:47:36whether in Europe, and Asia or anywhere else. uh, the more that you
00:47:39have, that's the diversity, that's the shock absorber that's needed, so that
00:47:43if something happens with any one partner, we have alternatives, i
00:47:47have zero interest in uh or zero problem with
00:47:51Canada trying to make this pit. but where my problem lies is that the prime
00:47:55minister in his recent speeches is kind of presenting it as an either or where
00:47:59he says that the world order is broken that we're going to have to move away from
00:48:02the the relationship with the US, that's not the solution, the solution is
00:48:06figure out solution on how to continue free trade with US
00:48:10while pursuing free trade with Europe uh and that's the first best
00:48:13solution. 10 EU countries still haven't ratified
00:48:17Canada's existing trade deal largely to protect their
00:48:20farmers from our... cultural exports, do you expect the
00:48:24EU will demand changes on how we protect farmers, and of
00:48:28course I'm thinking about supply management? yeah, and that's why it
00:48:32hasn't passed those 10 parliaments yet. uh, don't forget that CETA was
00:48:36negotiated uh 10 years ago, so
00:48:39they had a problem back then, uh, and for all the talk in Canada about
00:48:43how Trump makes issue with Canada supply management problem, it's
00:48:46important to recognize that both presidents Obama and Biden expressed their
00:48:50own concerns with the policy, every federal leader in the election last year said
00:48:54that this was no-go area, they were not going to talk about it, they weren't going to
00:48:58compromise it uh, and I think the fact that we're willing to say that this is
00:49:02some line in the sand that we won't cross, is going to be the thing that continues to impeed our
00:49:05ability to make deals with countries uh, we we've talked in the
00:49:09past about how Canada sometimes uh gives up leverage in these
00:49:13negotiations by hurting itself. This is one of those areas where I I think that we
00:49:17do need to have a conversation about what exactly is it that Canada is getting from
00:49:21this policy
00:49:21of supply management.
00:49:22and what does it cost in Canada
00:49:24and in particular the Canadian consumer,
00:49:26how much better off would we be, how much less would our cost of living and
00:49:29affordability issues be, if we were to have the conversation about maybe moving beyond
00:49:33this. as Mark Carney was in Europe to speak to
00:49:37the the European parliament, Donald Trump said that if he
00:49:41considers this Canada EU deal or whatever is
00:49:45going on there as hostile act, he would slap tariffs
00:49:49on the EU or maybe even stop trading with Europe, all
00:49:52together, what's the actual economic risk
00:49:55here? their risk to the
00:49:59US is if Canada finds that there are producers in Europe that can
00:50:03supply us with products uh more productively, less
00:50:06expensively, then of course we're going to move towards Europe, but that doesn't mean that
00:50:10we're going to move the entirety of our supply chain to Europe, it doesn't mean that all of
00:50:14sudden we're going to be importing from Europe
00:50:17$365 billion a year like we are currently from the US
00:50:21uh so if he stand up for those businesses that stand to lose
00:50:25uh, why exactly are we buying from the US and not from Europe? if it's
00:50:28because there are tariffs on Europe that make them uh less
00:50:32efficient, but in the absence of those tariffs they would be uh the
00:50:36efficient producer, that's actually a good thing for Canada,
00:50:39and I can understand why Trump would want to try and stick up for his US producers, but I don't think
00:50:43that's the motivation here, I think it's just purely that if Canada is trying to stand up to
00:50:47Trump by saying we're going to look to find uh trade partners that maybe do want
00:50:51to do business with us, aren't going to try and use it as a weapon uh, I
00:50:55think that's where his problem lies, and when Mark Carney has spoken about that
00:50:59trade is not a zero sum game, and that we have
00:51:01to be a little more respectful the
00:51:02of way that we deal with countries in the world, uh, in that part he's dead on
00:51:06correct, and Trump really is missing the mark here again, where he just
00:51:10doesn't understand how trade works. Let me finish by asking a version of
00:51:14our show question to you and you can answer it as economist or
00:51:18outside of your work as economist is Canada more like Europe or
00:51:22the... United States, you know, I seem to recall that
00:51:25there was a poll and I,
00:51:26I might be wrong with my facts, but I i think
00:51:28it was like the globan mail at the turn the century, ask Canadians, what makes Canadians
00:51:32Canadians uh, and I seem to recall among that top 10 list were things like Tim
00:51:36Hortons and Hockey and our weather and all the stuff that you would expect, but
00:51:39the number one answer was, what makes Canadians Canadians is we're not
00:51:43Americans, so I think part of our identity is in
00:51:47just saying that while we look a like talk like share common culture,
00:51:50history, values and things like that, 'don't you confuse us with Americans and
00:51:54whether that's a point of pride or whether that's big brother, little brother uh envy sort
00:51:58of thing. I lot of Canadians will say that when they travel, they travel with that Canadian
00:52:02flag uh, because otherwise we might be'. used for something that we don't want to be
00:52:06associated with, and that's at the best of times, so uh,
00:52:09you know, I i think that we like to think of ourselves as more
00:52:12European than American, but it's often funny that when we see Europeans try and
00:52:16analyze Canada, they say, you're a lot more like the US than you might care to
00:52:20admit uh, and that's where we get a little bit bent out of shape that, what do you mean, but it
00:52:24it's hard not to be uh a little more American than would like to admit
00:52:27given uh the amount of television and music and culture and arts that we're
00:52:31exposed to uh at some point that filters over into our language.
00:52:35uh and the way that we behave, and of course for all the Canadians that are proud the
00:52:39you that appears in uh some of our words like
00:52:42labor, uh,
00:52:44you know, there's another generation that's coming along that says, I don't have time for this
00:52:47silliness, uh, if the easiest way to do
00:52:49it is to spell it without the you like the Americans do, or to spell words that
00:52:53should end in I, se as I z e, or even
00:52:57pronounce the z is z. you, I think with each passing
00:53:00generation uh, that idea of don't you confuse us with Americans is weakening
00:53:04a little bit.
00:53:20you very much for speaking with us, and mosha lander, senior lecturer in the
00:53:24department of economics at Concordia University in Montreal. Coming up,
00:53:28we'll speak to an expert on Canada, US trade about how closer
00:53:31ties with the US could affect our Kuzma negotiations.
00:53:35Our number here on Cross Country Checkup
00:53:37888-416-8333 or you can text us
00:53:40226758-8924.
00:53:45Pete Mazy is in Chetwin British Columbia. Hi
00:53:47Pete. Hello. You lived in the
00:53:51UK? Do you think Canada is closer to the United States or
00:53:54Europe? Well, I'm British by birth and I was in the
00:53:57British Army, but I'm also Canadian, right? So
00:54:00I got half of my family. I've lived all over Europe and
00:54:04worked. been to Germany, Austria, all those places, we've got way more in common
00:54:08with the states, like we got hockey, baseball,
00:54:11football, uh, my great grandparents came up from
00:54:15Utah, my girlfriend's great grandparents came up from North
00:54:18Dakota, uh, the first Asians people don't recognize
00:54:22the medicine line, hope you remember that, the black,
00:54:26black foot for confederacy doesn't recognize the border, the
00:54:30Mohawks don't recognize the border, we've out in the west we've
00:54:34got rod. those and just got so much in common, my
00:54:38sisters used to live in
00:54:40uh uh
00:54:42the the lower mainland and we used to go across the border all the time, they never even used to
00:54:46ask us for passports, so it's interesting, so you were in
00:54:49the you were in the British army, you said yeah, so I mean there
00:54:53is lot of alignment obviously between the Canadian armed forces
00:54:57and go ahead, well we have our historical
00:55:00ties to England right, obviously who's a queen and all that stuff.
00:55:05like my neighbors are from Newfindland and you can hear it in their
00:55:08accents, like you can hear the Irish and the and the
00:55:11west country English in their accents and and some the you know some the
00:55:15stuff they eat and that so we do have lot of ties to England,
00:55:19but I don't know we don't have much in common with
00:55:22Spain, the main point of mine is we do have lot
00:55:26more in common with the United States and in the
00:55:29west at least I can say because that's my only experience
00:55:32is the furthest. i've been is a
00:55:36manitoba so we've got to you do have
00:55:40lot more in common with them, you can go back and forth across the border, you don't
00:55:44really notice a lot of differences, but one of
00:55:48my worries is getting closer to the EU is the EU
00:55:51isn't doing very well, Germany has bailed out so many
00:55:55countries in the EU over the years that even Germans, German
00:55:59Germany's economy isn't doing very well and even the country itself, like I
00:56:02was in Germany when I was in the military. "and they wasn't even
00:56:06cigarette butt or a piece of gum on the sidewalk, it was spotless and now
00:56:10I've heard from friends that it's changed lot, it's
00:56:14and you know countries like Sweden join the EU, they've got
00:56:18their crime rates gone through the roof, there's a I don't mind having a
00:56:22trade uh deal with the EU, but I don't any kind of
00:56:26close closer
00:56:50there. The debate we're having in the first hour, and actually we're
00:56:52going to spill over a little bit into the second hour the program, is about Canada's
00:56:56move towards Europe, away from the United States and what's at stake for
00:57:00you as a Canadian, as the prime minister
00:57:04contemplates, what? whatever it is that he's contemplating because there's lot that we
00:57:08don't yet
00:57:18again and Paris, what do you have for us online?
00:57:22well, it's remarkable to me how many people have written with their perspectives having lived in both
00:57:26Canada and Europe. Nicholas Hoffman and Dorville Quebec
00:57:30sentence this message through our aircheck form. He wrote, having lived half my life in
00:57:34Europe, and the other half in Canada, I believe Canada has similar values
00:57:38to Europe, such as helping each other out. Politically, our liberal and open-minded
00:57:42views are not that different from those the Europeans. The fact that the world
00:57:46order has changed is a good. reminder not to put all Canadian eggs in one
00:57:49basket. Jeff from Calgary also left us this message on
00:57:53aircheck. He says after traveling through both the US and
00:57:57Europe, I can say with full confidence that western Canada, especially the
00:58:00prairies is more similar in terms of
00:58:02core values, culture and economy to parts the United States then it is to
00:58:06Europe. It really is apples to oranges. And Matthew Barber and
00:58:10Edmonton shared his thoughts online. To he wrote, while there is room for
00:58:14closer relationship with Europe, there is no way that we could achieve this. of open
00:58:17access with Europe that European countries enjoy with each other, we can't even
00:58:21achieve that level of cooperation between the provinces within Canada
00:59:23okay, back to the online stuff, we'll talk to you next hour, and as we
00:59:27get ready to sign off from CBC News Network, I want to promote what's
00:59:31going to happen in about 15 minutes on this program. we are going to continue our
00:59:35conversation about Canada, Europe and the United States until about
00:59:39quarter after the next hour, and then we have two
00:59:42former Alberta Premiers who were once fierce partisan
00:59:46rivals. Rachel Notley who represented the NDP and then
00:59:50succeeded by Jason Kenny, a long-time conservative,
00:59:54uh, former premiers now, and they're going to be here to answer your
00:59:57questions about Alberta separatism, so
01:00:01great to have both them on the program, great for you to have an opportunity to
01:00:05talk to them, same number
01:00:15is Cross Country Checkup, I mean Hannah Mansingh in Vancouver, is Canada more
01:00:18like Europe or the United States, what's at stake if Canada builds
01:00:22closer ties to the
01:01:01going on right now with the prime minister, speaking?