Also, being in the EU means meeting a lot of product, drug, food, etc. safety standards.
Just to pick one, to meet electricity standards, Canadian outlets would have to accept Type C Europlug devices and supply them with 230V at 50 Hz. That would mean redoing the entire Canadian electrical grid in a way that would make it incompatible with the American one. I don’t think that’s realistic.
More realistic is some variation of the deal that the EU has with Switzerland. Not in the EU but lots of bilateral deals that mostly make the border disappear for travellers.
That was a threat from last March when Trump was actively threatening to annex Canada and the tariff wars were just starting.
It was an effective threat because the US is very dependent on Canadian electrical generation. And, the grid was never disconnected because Canada makes a lot of money selling electricity to the US.
Also, being in the EU means meeting a lot of product, drug, food, etc. safety standards.
Just to pick one, to meet electricity standards, Canadian outlets would have to accept Type C Europlug devices and supply them with 230V at 50 Hz. That would mean redoing the entire Canadian electrical grid in a way that would make it incompatible with the American one. I don’t think that’s realistic.
More realistic is some variation of the deal that the EU has with Switzerland. Not in the EU but lots of bilateral deals that mostly make the border disappear for travellers.
Ireland is in the EU (and the UK was too) and their sockets don’t accept Type C either.
AFAIK there were a lot of exceptions granted in the early days to make sure the program got started that wouldn’t be granted today.
Also, the plug shape isn’t nearly as big a deal as the voltage and frequency.
Ontario is already talking about cutting off the US grid. Obviously changing voltage, frequency and maybe plugs(although the EU does not have a standard for that) would be a big change.
That was a threat from last March when Trump was actively threatening to annex Canada and the tariff wars were just starting.
It was an effective threat because the US is very dependent on Canadian electrical generation. And, the grid was never disconnected because Canada makes a lot of money selling electricity to the US.