In a world where old alliances are straining under the weight of great-power rivalry and domestic nationalism, Canada and the European Union are reaching toward one another — not out of ideology, but out of a shared experience of vulnerability. Prime Minister Mark Carney's embrace of EU associate membership before the European Parliament signals a quiet but consequential shift: two democratic partners, each feeling the pressure of American unpredictability and Chinese assertiveness, are asking whether cooperation can substitute for the certainties that once seemed permanent. The idea has no le