Thread

EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

693 points · 905 comments · hackernj

noir_lord · 1789555669 · focus · HN ↗
Good, if the middle power democracies don't align/work together they are going to get torn apart in the struggle between the US and China.
1. 0xpgm · 1789556090 · focus · HN ↗
  One thing that is common about middle democracies is that prioritize a bureaucratic elite structure over an entrepreneurship culture, while both the US and China embrace entreprenuership wholeheartedly.
  If they changed that they'd perhaps become world powers themselves.
  1. pyrale · 1789556652 · focus · HN ↗
    > One thing that is common about middle democracies is that prioritize a bureaucratic elite structure over an entrepreneurship culture
    No, that's just the 2010s propaganda fed to you by people who assert that not letting them do whatever they want is "bureaucratic". These very same people are completely fine lobbying legislature for more moat when they benefit from it.
    The difference between "middle democracies" or whatever that means and the US is just that politics aren't corrupted enough yet that they can buy whatever they want.
    AlexandrB · 1789566481 · focus · HN ↗
    You clearly don't pay attention to Canadian politics. Canada basically let McKinsey run their immigration policy[1][2] for 10 years and has now appointed the former CEO of McKinsey[3] to a business development role in government. I wouldn't say that Canada is just a satellite office of McKinsey, but it's getting closer.
    Canada is corrupt as hell, just no one cares so it doesn't make international news.
    Edit:
    Oh yeah, forgot about the SNC-Lavalin debacle, where the ruling government tried to make the legal problems of their corporate buddies go away[4] by sneaking a new "slap on the wrist" law into an annual budget bill and then pressuring the prosecutor to apply it.
    [1] <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mckinsey-immigration-consulting-contracts-trudeau-1.6703626" rel="nofollow">https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mckinsey-immigration-consul...
    [2] <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/shadow-government/" rel="nofollow">https://thewalrus.ca/shadow-government/
    [3] <a href="https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/08/31/prime-minister-carney-announces-appointments-new-chair-board-and-ceo" rel="nofollow">https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/08/31/prime-...
    [4] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNC-Lavalin_affair" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNC-Lavalin_affair
    pyrale · 1789567346 · focus · HN ↗
    > Canada is corrupt as hell, just no one cares so it doesn't make international news.
    So is Europe. It's just not at the point the US reached, yet.
    llm_nerd · 1789568289 · focus · HN ↗
    It's pretty clear the echo chamber you emerge from (protip - move to the US. I am 100% serious), but this is comical.
    When your examples of Canada being "corrupt as hell" is such chickenshit nonsense, it betrays that you're just a partisan zealot that has literally zero sense of scale or reason.
    McKinsey, a massive consulting firm, had a whole $32M contract? Holy shit, basically the deep state!
    The SNC thing was embarrassing, but it was over its behaviour overseas (Libya, to be precise), and the government was concerned about a massive, major Canadian firm being crippled by domestic hand wringing.
    When that is what you have to offer up for Canada being "corrupt as hell", in comparison to criminal shitholes like the US (which you think is much better, and again you should move there), wow. Back to shitty subreddits where your tiny group of laughable farces have your discussions about how dire things are.

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