I took this at one of our events, and use it in some of our publicity material. Works nicely.
I get a bit depressed at the lack of interest among Canadians about the EU. Even intelligent, politically motivated, engaged, and travelled Canadians seem to dismiss the EU as a trade bloc, a protectionist entity, an irrelevance at best. The vision behind the EU, the astonishing achievement of overcoming that entropic paradigm (sorry about that), the nation state, to pool sovereignty in a wildly successful experiment to end centuries of conflict... this seems to pass the Canadian observer by. Perhaps we are a victim of our own success: there isn't much that's sexy in incrementally fusing the machinery of state government, and much of our day to day work is definitely not going to set the world on fire (standardising the lights on the back of tractors, anyone?). But step back, look at what we are, look how far we've come (fifty years next March, folks), and tell me that this isn't a model that students of politics, international relations, constitutional law and society shouldn't study very, very closely.
Canadians especially should look long and hard at our experience. Canada calls itself a federation, in some ways it's more of a confederation, less unified than the EU. It's certainly an artificial construct, arguably more artificial than the EU, and it needs to work actively on keeping itself together, above all in the minds of its own citizens. Ironically the only people who talk about the EU as a model for Canada are the Bloc (Quebec separatists) who argue that an independent Quebec could sit within North America a bit like a Member State within the EU. This betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the EU - our experience is essentially anti-nationalist, anti-sovereigntist. In any case, the North American context is totally different and NAFTA is never going to go in the same direction as the EU. NAFTA exists because the three countries involved want to get richer, not because they want to give up the powers that make them sovereign states.
Another reason that Canadians should study the EU more carefully is because
we have traditionally shared some very basic values. Almost by definition, shaped by our historical experiences and our immediate neighbourhoods, we believe in the international rule of law and in multilateral solutions to global problems. We are liberal participative democracies standing for social justice. We are progressive. We can project these values on the world stage, when other partners not a million miles away are undermining them.
When Canadian politics looks to be heading in a more divisive direction, with those currently in power seemingly intent on rejecting Canada's traditional role as a global broker in favour of military projection, those on the centre and left of Canadian politics really need to know who their friends are. Instead of assuming that we're a club of ex-powers looking to resurrect former global influence, keeping our farmers rich while keeping the third world poor, Canadians should look again at the EU.
(edit - I should just emphasise that I'm not laying the blame at the feet of Canadians themselves for their lack of awareness about the EU! There are several factors here: firstly, the fact that the EU is changing so rapidly, it's difficult to keep up even if you're a specialist; secondly, the EU is such a complex beast,
sui generis, exceptionally hard for outsiders to get a handle on; thirdly, there is nothing similar in the Canadian, North American or wider international context to act as a point of reference; fourthly, although Brussels has the largest press corps in the world, there are no Canadian correspondents based there: all Canadian reporting of EU issues comes via London or Paris, and is coloured accordingly; fifthly and crucially, of course the EU could do a much better job of selling itself, to its own citizens as well as outsiders...)
Details: Nikon D70, 18-70mm @ 52mm, f/16, 1/50s, ISO 200. 13 February 2005, Camp Fortune, Quebec.
