At a moment when trade has become a weapon and alliances a form of self-defense, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood before the European Parliament in Strasbourg to propose something that does not yet exist: an 'associate membership' in the European Union. The offer reflects a deeper reckoning — that smaller democracies, squeezed between great powers and economic coercion, may need to invent new forms of solidarity to preserve their sovereignty. Washington's swift and threatening response only underscored the stakes of the question Carney was asking: in a fracturing world order, with who