Not that long ago, seismic change was in the air. And it began with kisses. 

A symbolic one to the Bad Orange Man from Syrupean Prime Minister Mark Carney, telling the United States to kiss off.

And one from Ursula von der Leyen, Shelob of the labyrinthine European cave complex, welcoming the Syrupeans to her cozy lair.

...State of the Union in Strasbourg. Mark Carney in the room. She calls him dear Mark, says the relationship should go as high as it can, and asks to open that door. Chamber stands. They close the distance. Cheek kisses. Loud applause. The clip looks like a wedding toast. The legal text does not exist.

This is not accession. No vote in Ottawa to join Brussels. It is a political offer on top of CETA: manufacturing, defence industry, Arctic, minerals, AI. Reuters and others noted the squeeze both sides feel from Washington and from a harder world. Politico also reported EU capitals were not briefed and that a real associate status could trip over treaties, steel, cars, and food rules.

A kiss travels faster than a treaty. The question is which one they meant.

So many kisses, so many promises.

A summit planned for the end of October to tie up the loose ends on this brave new rosy, BAD ORANGE MAN-FREE world.

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But EU member flies living on the cave wall suddenly buzzed down to the banquet table and interrupted the self-congratulatory toasts in the most annoying fashion, furious at not being consulted prior to the 'Welcome Canada' announcement. They had objections to the entire ad hoc scheme.

...As she hadn't bothered to tell any of the other member states what she and the twee Canadian had cooked up, naturally some leaders of those states were kind of hacked off at the idea, which was 'proposed' as basically a done deal.

Well, they're still fighting over what to call the Canadians, believe it or not. 'Associate' already has a myriad of other meanings with the EU itself, and those objecting think it will be confusing.

Unsurprisingly, the Germans are being the pissiest. Opponents of the scheme are entirely unwilling to do it first and work it out later.

In the weeks between the announcement and the looming summit, movement in the opposing ranks has increased the foreboding many Canadians felt about the surprise announcement and taken some of the spring out of Carney's step. He stumbles answering questions, as if he didn't expect anyone to ask any.

France, Germany and other key EU countries are pushing back against Canada's joining the EU as Associate Member. These are our biggest allies.

Mark Carney promotes it as:

> Give young Canadians opportunities to study, work and travel.

> More opportunities for Canadian businesses.

> Canadian researchers will have more depth of opportunities.

And somehow being tied to the EU will make Canada " a more independent, more sovereign nation". How?!

The reality is that Canadian youth and businesses already have access to all these relationships and opportunities with the EU. 

So what is this really about??

Yesterday, giddy at the thought of adding another vassal state to control and destroy, the unelected empress of Europe announced her arrival in Montreal, wreathing her post in flowery globalist code-speak.

...And we want to take our unique partnership even further.

With an Alliance for the Future, we will stand together and respond  to a world of growing rivalries.

Montréal, we’re about to write a new chapter in our shared history.

Oh, it looked to be the start of a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

The first cracks happened early on the Canadian side. What the Europeans were demanding for Syrupean acquiescence somehow leaked...

...and horrified Canadians did a VURT DA FURK?! double-take. That turned into outrage as they learned more of the underhanded national sellout from their selected, then elected, twee leader.

Including that Prime Minister Carney had been ignoring the warnings of his own ministers about the tariffs the entire time. Now this 'deal' with the EU would accept a twice-as-harsh tariff on Canadian steel as the one he turned down from the US.

...The EU's carbon tariff hits Canadian steel, iron and aluminum, the same metals already hit by U.S. tariffs. And even though, with great fanfare, the Prime Minister is forging ahead with some kind of "associate membership" for Canada in the EU, an exemption is "not currently possible." In other words, he sat on that detail for 10 months, until an access to information request forced it out days before he hosts the Canada-EU Summit.

So the plan is: turn down the August terms that were agreed then disagreed to in three days with the U.S., tell workers Europe is the answer, and quietly know Europe is putting up its own border charge. According to the @CBCNews  report, that charge is close to $900M a year in exposure in Newfoundland and Labrador, $792M in Quebec, and adds up to $150 more per tonne of steel by 2034.

And recall that he weakened the carbon price in his Alberta deal while knowing that, with it, he made an EU exemption even harder to get.

What kind of diversification is it if you're trading one tariff wall for two and hoping nobody reads the memo?

Then, late yesterday evening, the malcontents left behind in Europe dropped the bombshell.

Oh, holy schamoly MOLY.

TO BE CONTINUED...(Part Deux at 2:40 this afternoon)...