President Donald Trump insults Canada, hits the country with tariffs and torments its population with fantasies of annexation. The onslaught has led some to suggest that Canada should join the European Union. Most likely intend it as a joke. The idea, after all, seems rather radical – in addition to being unrealistic and downright crazy.

But it invites a simple question: Why not?

The obstacles to Canadian EU membership would be considerable, to be sure, but by no means insurmountable. The EU has overcome bigger difficulties on its journey so far.

The potential gains, by contrast, would be immense.

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Europe is currently lacking one thing above all else: a clear idea of what the Union should be, now and in the future. An in-depth discussion about what a Canadian accession would require and the consequences it would have would automatically force the development of such an idea – a vision of an EU that can assert itself in a world where the law of the jungle increasingly prevails. An EU that can offer its inhabitants security and prosperity. An EU that Europeans could be proud of.