With its U.S. alliance under pressure, could Canada join the EU? [Video]

Relations between Canada and the U.S. are coming under serious pressure — and that has some commentators offering an unlikely — though not impossible — solution.

What if Canada joined the European Union?

Even before U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Canadians with “economic force” if they did not want to become a “51st state,” Stanley Pignal, a columnist with The Economist, floated the idea of the country switching teams.

“As it turns out,” he wrote, “both Europe and Canada may be in the market for upgraded alliances.”

Pignal’s column in early January was followed by a small flurry of online excitement: A former spokesperson for the Canadian Embassy in Paris endorsed the idea, as did one head of Britain’s pro-EU movement. Even a former German foreign minister seemed to jump on board.

“Joke, rant, real proposal? It’s hard to tell,” read one columnin the Montreal daily La Presse. “[But] with an American president now outright hostile …