In the long arc of postwar multilateralism, the European Union and Canada find themselves at a familiar crossroads: the desire to deepen cooperation constrained by the gravitational pull of a dominant power. The Trump administration, preferring bilateral leverage over collective arrangements, has signaled that closer EU-Canada coordination may carry a tariff-shaped price. Both Brussels and Ottawa, mid-stride in building joint economic initiatives, must now decide how much ambition the current geopolitical climate can bear.