“Canadians are united that nobody is going to tell us what language to speak,” Carney continued, nodding to reports that the White House had sought to interfere with the French language spoken in Quebec. “No one is going to dictate our culture, or with whom we can strike agreements.”
Von der Leyen’s proposal to make Canada the EU’s first “associate member” left capitals scrambling and seemed to take even Ottawa by surprise.
Carney name-checked the term in his speech on Thursday, praising von der Leyen for “opening the door to Canada becoming the EU’s first associate member,” and adding that he welcomes the ambition.
Pressed by reporters on whether he preferred calling the new EU-Canada relationship an “Alliance for the Future” or “associate membership,” he shrugged off the distinction.
“President von der Leyen used both terms, alliance for the future and associate membership. The nomenclature is a question for Europe; what terms they use,” he said. “What matters is the substance. What are we actually building together.”