Canada can learn some hard lessons from Brexit as it pivots to the EU - National Post

Prime Minister Mark Carney smiles as he listens to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivering a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France on September 16, 2026. Photo by JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN /AFP via Getty ImagesArticle contentEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union on Wednesday revealed that the European Union is opening the door for Canada to become its first associate member.

That news came just days after Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke of forging a “unique alliance” with the bloc. To separate the geopolitical symbolism of the EU’s invitation from the economic constraints that would limit any attempt to make Europe a substitute for the United States, National Post spoke with Anand Menon, professor of European politics and foreign affairs at King’s College London and director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative, about the lessons Canada might take from the United Kingdom’s Brexit experience.

Menon has spent years looking at the U.K.’s relationship with the EU, Brexit’s political economy, and the trade-off between sovereignty and market access — the same issues raised by von der Leyen’s associate-member overture to Canada.

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This Q&A has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Anand Menon: Bear in mind, the vast majority of Canada’s trade is still with the United States and will be, because that’s the key lesson, isn’t it? That geography is the major determinant of trade patterns, and you trade a lot more with countries that are close to you. I think that the untruth sold by Brexiters about trade was the argument that Asia’s growing a lot faster than Europe, so if we become free of the European Union, we can trade more with the part of the world that’s growing very fast.

Now, that’s true to a point, but it’s always going to be the case that we will trade a lot more with Europe than we will with Asia, and fundamentally, however much we do Brexit, we’re not going to reappear in Asia. So however fast Asia is growing, we’re not in it.

So you can do trade deals. One of the reasons why the European Union is willing to make all these very nice positive noises towards Canada, without being too cynical about it, is because Canada is bloody miles away. You’re not going to get livestock wandering over the border between Canada and the European Union. So, in a sense, it’s far easier to do this sort of thing with a country that’s miles away because you do far less trade with them, and the risks are far less.

Well, without being facetious about it, I’m not going to start eating fresh unfrozen seafood from Canada, because it’s going to be on a boat for a few days. It’s that constraint of geography again. You’re not going to do just-in-time automotive supply chains with Canada in the same way you will do it with partners that are across the short straits between Dover and Calais, because time matters when it comes to trade.

There are economic studies out there that show there’s a very strong geographical bias even when it comes to trade on eBay, which is partly because of language, partly because of time. If you want to buy something online, you want it to arrive quickly.