Sweden’s PM jokes about Canada joining the EU, says it’s a ‘very welcoming club’

Ulf Kristersson, Sweden's prime minister, during a Bloomberg Television interview at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson joked there may be a place for Canada in the European Union to join “like-minded” nations as “the most Nordic country in the world outside the Nordics.”

“European Union is obviously a matter of geography, you can hear that from the name,” Kristersson told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos when asked for his opinion on comments by other world leaders that Canada should join the EU.

“But it is also a matter of values, and a matter of what countries would you like to integrate together with in different aspects,” he added, laughing. “So, it’s not for me to say, but the European Union is a very welcoming club for (the) like-minded.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb made headlines last month when he commented on the possibility of Canada joining the EU. Asked by Kapelos about those comments during an interview on CTV Question Period at the time, Stubb said he wasn’t the one who raised the idea, but that he hopes Canada and the EU can “be as close as possible.”

“I would embrace you, because I think you guys are great, and you would slot into the system like nothing before,” Stubb said of the hypothetical scenario.

This week, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans to enter into negotiations to buy the GlobalEye, a Swedish surveillance platform with Bombardier planes.

Kristersson told Kapelos the manufacturer Saab’s ability to pitch Canada on using Canadian components is “very important,” and called the potential of purchasing GlobalEye “a joint effort between Canada and Sweden.”

“I think both companies are extremely happy with this with this deep co-operation, and now we see very, very good potential for increasing it,” he said. “We are extremely like-minded in so many ways, so I think we have so many good reasons to co-operate even more.”

Asked what he thinks it says about the current state of the relationship between Canada and Sweden, Kristerson said countries with “very similar views and values” need to work together in “a turbulent world.”

“Something we joke in Sweden, (we) said that Canada is the most Nordic country in the world outside the Nordics, and I don’t know if you agree with that, but for us it’s really a way of saying that we appreciate Canada because we think we have so many common denominators,” he also said.

GlobalEye a ‘big opportunity’ to increase exports: Fuhr

In an interview with CTV Question Period airing Sunday, Canada’s Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr said one of Canada’s goals is to increase defence exports, and the negotiations around the GlobalEye system is a “pretty big export opportunity.”

“In fact, we may, we’ll see, be exporting finished GlobalEye aircraft out of Canada to our allies before we’re ready to take the capability ourselves,” Fuhr said, categorizing it as a “great position to be in.”

“It’s a right decision across a wide range of things,” Fuhr also said about the GlobalEye negotiations. “There was an identified capability that was needed. It does that. And we have a defence industrial strategy that wants to build more here in Canada, support Canadian businesses, support (small- to medium-sized enterprises), so we’re doing all those things in this particular procurement.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, however, was critical of the announcement, asked this week during a press conference on Parliament Hill whether he is worried about losing ground with the progressive conservative flank of his party to Carney when it comes to defence commitments.

“What we’ve seen as a lot of illusions from Mark Carney, a lot of spending on bureaucracy, on procurement, and on consultants,” Poilievre said. “A lot of big corporations will get very rich. The problem is that the money is not reaching the equipment in the hands of the soldiers.”

“We 100 per cent support more military spending, but we want to turn that spending into better equipment and better results for our soldiers, not more expensive bureaucracy, more confusing procurement, and more profits for multinational defence contractors,” he added.

Canada, meanwhile, is still considering a bid from the Swedish manufacturer Saab to purchase its Gripen fighter jets, as the review into the purchase of the rival American-made F-35s remains ongoing.

Despite the self-imposed deadline set by former defence minister Bill Blair to wrap up that review by the end of last summer, the prime minister has yet to make a decision, and Fuhr did not have an updated timeline.

You can watch Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Canada’s Secretary of State Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr’s full interviews on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.