For decades, Canada's economic and political identity has been shaped by its proximity to the United States — a gravitational relationship so powerful that alternatives were rarely imagined at the highest levels of governance. Now, as the Trump administration's trade posture strains that continental bond, former central banker Mark Carney is proposing something once considered unthinkable: formal associate membership in the European Union. The proposal reflects not merely a policy idea, but a deeper reckoning with where Canada belongs in a world where old alliances are no longer assumed.