Bodil
Ron DyckCanadians think Canada should join the EU: poll https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/economics/2026/04/06/canada-in-the-european-union-poll-suggests-broad-openness-to-the-idea/
Dieter Komendera
Chris Alemany@dyckron bring it on!
@chris Schengen zone Canada would be a great Canada, I think. Even without full EU membership!
Chris Simpson@chris @dyckron it's not such a crazy idea if you put Greenland in the middle (which should probably join too).
@chris_e_simpson @chris given the current state of affairs... Not so crazy indeed!
ElwoodCity@dyckron @chris_e_simpson @chris
Plus, that Canada-Denmark Land border, and that you can you can almost see France from Nfld on a clear day....
Em 
leastaction@dyckron I think Canada needs to grow up and become an independent country. And especially not get involved in other people's wars.
FTR many Canadians, including of course FN people, are not of European ascent.
FTR many Canadians, including of course FN people, are not of European ascent.
@leastaction yes, the supranational nature of the EU would be challenging in a treaty context
Terry
Veza85UE@terryaki @dyckron The EU is a community of laws. We're bound by a legal order. Who can and cannot join is spelt out clearly in our 🇪🇺 Treaties. tldr: only "European states" can join. But that's not what's interesting to me. I'm fascinated why EU citizens would *want* that. What is it about our Union that's so casually sure, come on in for countries on other continents (tho not for others on our own--in general, not about you)?
AppleWoi
lopta@lopta nah, ya gotta be *this tall* on the #NeoliberalParadise scale, I think 😆 (being silly)
Ray McCarthy@dyckron
Donegal in Ireland is maybe closer to Newfoundland than to Greece.
Check a globe. Canada isn't as far away as it looks. Greenland used to be in the EU and Iceland might join.
Vikings probably visited.
maya_b 🇨🇦we seriously need to bring back globes. so many people have no idea how things are related because of projection maps
@maya_b @raymaccarthy the time has come to fix it! Whatever navigational purpose the Mercator projection had is surely long deprecated
Chris Moorehead 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇬🇱@dyckron @maya_b @raymaccarthy The Mercator projection is still the best for local navigation at the city or street level, because a straight line in Mercator corresponds to a straight line in reality (which is why it’s always been used for maritime navigation). Google Maps uses it, as do the other navigation apps. It’s only at the global level that it’s a monstrosity. But so is the Gall-Peters projection. (BTW, I did teach wayfinding and navigation at OCAD for 13 years.)
Darth Hideout 🏳️🌈@cjmoorehead @dyckron @maya_b @raymaccarthy
All that is exacerbated by the fact that everyone consumes maps on 2-d screens these days.
@darth_hideout @dyckron @maya_b @raymaccarthy Yup. There’s no way of accurately depicting a 3-D reality onto a 2-D surface. Every projection is a compromise of some sort.
Large Format Projectionist@cjmoorehead @dyckron @maya_b @raymaccarthy
I thought the digital purveyors all switched to a spherical representation once you zoomed out? Notice I didn’t name whatever that representation is, I’ve no idea.
@BenHM3 @dyckron @maya_b @raymaccarthy I believe you are correct…again, because, at a global level, the Mercator projection is an abomination. The Gall-Peters projection displays size correctly, but the shapes of countries are wrong. There’s an entire series of what are known as “compromise” projections, that land somewhere in between accurate size and accurate shape. National Geographic uses one — the absurdly named “Winkel-Tripel” projection. Initially, I thought it was something made up by the xkcd guy.
dragonfrog@cjmoorehead @dyckron @maya_b @raymaccarthy
For city navigation all projections are effectively the same IMO - no city covers enough of the globe for the differences between the distortion this projection produces and the distortion that other one produces to make much difference.
In my sprawling prairie city a fair number of "15 foot" lots are actually 14 foot 8 inches wide because two links in a surveying chain were twisted together - a 2% difference from one lot to the next.
@cjmoorehead @dyckron @maya_b @raymaccarthy ... Meanwhile from the south to the north edge of the city is 17 miles - over which distance two north-south lines that start 1 mile apart, get closer together by 12 yards - a 1% difference over 17 miles.
If a 2% difference from one lot to the next is good enough for city planning, a 1% difference over the whole 17 mile span of the city doesn't make much difference to how a map should be printed.
@dragonfrog @dyckron @maya_b @raymaccarthy Indeed. In theory, every city should have its own unique projection, but it really doesn’t make much difference to navigation at that level of detail.
Fish Id Wardrobe ⁂@dyckron it's a weird idea, but i'm not sure it's a BAD idea
Saxicola ✅ 🏴🇪🇺@dyckron
So should the UK.
So should the UK.
Giflian@giflian that's quite likely true. My aspirational view is, it would sure be cool to be in the Schengen zone. Full EU membership, not likely. Sort of a "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately" sort of vibe.
John Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️@dyckron eh, maybe in some ways. The EU so far has been a strong force of economic neoliberalism, making sure that US dominated capital can move around Europe and get back to the US smoothly, keeping the members from protectionism, adjusting their spending or currency for locally-owned economic growth. It's a US colonial project.
But a lot of the rest is decent. Maybe Canada can be a part if it's reformed, like it seems destined to.
@johnefrancis just look at Deutsche Bank, right? Funny you should mention the ol' neoliberal-mode. I just said in reply to a suggestion there should be an "Earth" Union instead, "nah, ya gotta be *this tall* on the #NeoliberalParadise scale, I think"