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Comment by gizajob | Hacker News Reader

It certainly does not make sense seeing as Canada is not in Europe.

The Eurovision song contest includes Australia in its member nations. Mindblowing I know, but it's possible for a thing to transcend its name.

Mostly a semantic concern in the name given the shared interests and concerns both have in a number of things including the Arctic. It's more a "North Atlantic" group of nations view both sides seem to be taking, but you know, without the US.

And a fairly serious geographical one.

Portugal is not part of the Benelux. Poland is not part of the Western Union. Ireland is an island. Yet here we are, because we have enough in common that we would rather cooperate than compete.

French Guiana is a fully integrated member of the European Union and is in South America.

Because it’s a fully integrated part of France.

One could argue that it is European by founding and history though.

Founded by Europeans, still mostly populated by people of European ancestry, with laws written by Europeans and based on European ideas.

European isn't just a geographic descriptor :-)

You could argue even more effectively that it was British by founding and a British colony, with a big influence from the French. And we know what happened with Britain and the EU.

Britain, too, is European. They were even a part of the EU at one point ;)

I suppose. America is a much more mixed bag, while Canada at its core is still British, Scottish, and French. Enough cities have a certain sterile and organized appearance more common in Europe than the US. Not sure how else I'd describe it, but maybe Canada is a bit more "monolithic"?

> British, Scottish,

You do realise that British implies Scottish don't you? On which island do you think Scotland is located?

> Canada at its core is still British, Scottish, and French

Have you been to Canada any time in the past few decades? Around half of the population of Toronto, Canada's largest city, is foreign-born. And I promise you it is not predominantly British or French people.

Yes, I'm from here. Toronto is not a reflection of an entire country, and I would not compare Manhattan or a foreign military base as representative of the rest of another country either.

Here are two quotes from Statistics Canada, to provide some food for thought.

"In 2021, more than 8.3 million people, or almost one-quarter (23.0%) of the population, were, or had ever been, a landed immigrant or permanent resident in Canada. [...] Just under 6.4 million people born in Canada had at least one foreign-born parent in 2021, representing 17.6% of the total population" [0]

In other words, as of 2021, about 41% of the population were either foreign-born or had at least one foreign-born parent. In large cities where most people live, it is even higher.

And the future does not look any more British or French, either.

"In 2024, more than two in five newborns (42.3%) in Canada had a foreign-born mother (i.e., a mother who was born outside Canada), a proportion that has nearly doubled in just over a quarter of a century (22.5% in 1997)." [1]

"According to Statistics Canada's recent population projections, immigrants could represent from 29.1% to 34.0% of the total population by 2041." [0]

[0] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221...

[1] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/91f0015m/91f0015m2025004...

20 NATO members share no border with the Atlantic, and 5 are entirely landlocked.

1) what everyone else replied; but also 2) where do you think Europe is? You're probably wrong, cf. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa#/media/Datei:Mitglieder...

There's a big company named after a fruit that doesn't sell any fruit at all.

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