Freelance

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney had been invited by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, to address the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Von der Leyen had invited Canada to become the first ever associate member of the EU.

Carney gave a remarkable speech today.

September 17, 2026, Strasbourg, France

President Metsola, President von der Leyen, honourable members of the European Parliament, distinguished colleagues.

Thank you for granting me the honour of addressing you all at the beginning of this decisive session.

Today, I will speak to you about how our response to the current geopolitical rupture should incorporate a new dimension.

But before that, I’d like to speak about something older.

Something that dates back to long before the relationship between the European Union and Canada.

Because the depth of our ties cannot be measured by trade, nor are they enshrined in our treaties.

Our ties are deeply rooted to our lands.

In the heart of Germany, above Weimar, there is a wooded ridge called Ettersberg. For decades, Goethe walked, thought, and wrote there. 

An oak on that ridge came to bear his name, a living monument to the highest ideals of European culture. 

As the 20^th century turned dark, that same oak became trapped behind the barbed wire of Buchenwald, a silent witness to humanity’s deepest moral failure.

Goethe understood that ideals must be fought for, that values do not defend themselves. Indeed, at the end of Faust, the old man’s last vision is of a free people on free ground.

Nur der verdient sich Freiheit wie das Leben, der täglich sie erobern muß. “Freedom and life must be earned every single day.”

Every day. Not once in 1945, or 1956, or 1989.  Every day, including this one.

Freedom was won thanks to the heroism of the European resistance during the war.

It was cultivated by the founders of the European Coal and Steel Community in the aftermath of the war.

  It was fostered by the creation of the European Community.

It was preserved through the establishment of the European Union.

And it grew through its expansion following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The values embodied by the Goethe oak have also endured, in part, because the ideals that flourished beneath its branches crossed the Atlantic.

In 1917, amidst the devastation of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a young Canadian Lieutenant named Leslie Miller gathered a handful of acorns from the shattered European landscape. He carried them home and planted them in Canadian soil in Milliken, Ontario, where they grew into a majestic forest. 

A century later, a profound circle of renewal was completed. Grafts from Leslie Miller’s Canadian oaks were repatriated to France and replanted on the same Vimy ridge where they had been born.

This is the essence of the Canada-European Union partnership. Seeds, values, ideas, trade, people, and progress carried back and forth across the Atlantic for centuries.

We are not fair-weather allies. We do not pursue zero-sum deals. Our commitment to the rule of law, and our unyielding defence of human dignity, individual freedom, and democracy share the same deep roots, the same unwavering dedication.

We hold common values, for which we have always fought, and in whose defence we must always remain vigilant.

We believe that a strong economy is not an end in itself, but the means to a just society.  We are committed stewards of our natural heritage. We believe that our prosperity grows when it is shared. 

This is a sharing of choice, not coincidence.

In his writings, Goethe borrowed a word from the chemists of his day: Wahlverwandtschaften. The elective affinity of different elements that combine because of their inherent attraction.

Canada and Europe are not bound by geography, even though our Danish friends know that we do share a 3,000 km border in the Arctic. We are bound by an affinity – elective, chosen, and renewed, and stronger for being so.

Today, our societies are being shaken by new storms: the upheaval caused by climate change, the erosion of democratic norms, the weaponisation of trade. 

The multilateral institutions on which we relied have been weakened.

Sovereignty and openness are now difficult to reconcile. Economic integration is now being weaponised, and tariffs are being used as a means of pressure. Financial mechanisms are being used for coercive purposes. Supply chains have become vulnerabilities to exploit. 

Technology is transforming the nature of warfare, the structure of economies, and the ability of states to govern.

Technology platforms increasingly seek to act as sovereign powers. They want to dictate the rules of regulation – and even circumvent them. They want to control our data, spread misinformation, and steal our children’s childhoods.

This combination is a ferocious storm. A single tree will come down in it. A forest will not.

That’s because beneath the forest floor, the roots of an oak intertwine with those of its neighbours, exchanging nutrients, adding strength to strength, creating a resilient, self-sustaining ecosystem.

Together, Canada and the European Union can anchor our ground to hold our values while forming a protective canopy under which our citizens can thrive.

This is about sovereignty. Our ability to live as we wish. It is about the freedoms we must fight for, every day. 

Sovereignty requires resilience – the ability to withstand shocks. 

Sovereignty goes beyond being able to feed, fuel, and defend ourselves. It now requires secure access to AI, semiconductors, critical minerals, payment systems, clean energy technologies, vaccines, and space-based communications.

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