While Carney has for months sought to move Ottawa closer to Brussels and Paris as part of his middle powers alliance against the U.S. under President Donald Trump, the pivot has taken on renewed urgency amid the Canada-U.S. trade war, which has seen each side slap reciprocal tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods.
“Canada has understood that the U.S. has changed its paradigm and wants a way into the EU — the front door is Saint-Pierre and Miquelon,” said Stéphane Lenormand, an independent lawmaker who represents the archipelago in the French parliament.
Saint-Pierre and Miquelon was among the many territories and sovereign states of North America that Trump covered with the U.S. flag in a Truth Social post last week, eliciting widespread condemnation in Europe. Though the trip was planned before the post went live, it reinforced the need for new partnerships “based on sovereignty, open systems, and democratic control,” said a person close to Macron, who was granted anonymity to discuss the trip’s planning.
Carney said over the weekend he was looking to build a “unique alliance” with the EU after the publication of a Wall Street Journal report suggesting he had floated making Canada an “associate member” of the bloc — a novel status rather than an existing category of membership. The Canadian PM’s office similarly boasted of the “unique partnership” shared by France and Canada in its statement announcing the trip.
There are still wrinkles to iron out in that partnership, however — including one in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon itself.
Fishers on both sides of the France-Canada maritime border have squabbled for decades over access to lucrative Atlantic halibut in the overlapping waters between Newfoundland and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. A 2024 agreement limits French fishers to catching 3% of the allowable halibut quota set by the Canadian government after complaints from industry representatives, who accused France of aggressively targeting halibut outside their territorial waters.