Carney courts Europe as Trump’s trade war pushes Canada towards EU

File photo: President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, right, gives remarks alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney at a roundtable with business leaders during the Canada-EU Summit in Montreal, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026 Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and European commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday pressed for a closer alliance between Canada and the European Union, pitching it as a way to protect their economic sovereignty amid US president Donald Trump’s trade war and mounting pressure on traditional allies.The proposed partnership could make Canada the EU’s first “associate member”, bringing it closer to the bloc without formal membership. The two leaders also backed a broader “Alliance for the Future”, envisaged as a framework for cooperation on trade, defence, critical minerals, technology and research.“When trade becomes a tool of economic pressure, it is families that pay the price, from the supermarket shelf to the cost of a new car,” von der Leyen said in Montreal. “We are seeing in real time our sovereignty being attacked.”Von der Leyen warned that economic ties once seen as a source of stability were increasingly being used as instrumen...