Carney hosts EU leaders as Trump pushes Canada toward Europe, but membership label faces resistance

TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Mark Carney called Canada “the most European of non-European countries” early in U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war. Now, he’s hosting European leaders to pursue an unprecedented alliance, but the proposed EU “associate member” designation faces resistance even as the EU’s top official champions it.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa will join Carney in Montreal on Thursday for a two-day summit aimed at deepening trade, defense and economic ties as Canada and Europe seek to reduce their dependence on Washington in a changing world order.

European Union officials who briefed reporters ahead of the summit said the proposed partnership could bring Canada closer to the bloc than any previous arrangement with a non-European country. But its structure and even its name remain unsettled, with some member states questioning the “associate member” designation proposed last month by von der Leyen.

Arriving in Montreal, von der Leyen showed no sign of abandoning the proposal, posting on social media that Europe wanted to bring Canada closer than ever before “as Associate Member of the EU.”

Anand Sundar, a special adviser at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said France and Germany are among the countries unhappy with the designation and that it may not survive the summit.

Carney said Tuesday the summit would launch further negotiations over the next year.

“It doesn’t matter about specific names or nomenclature,” Carney said. “What matters is the difference that it will make to lives of Canadians, young Canadians in terms of opportunities to study, work and travel, our Canadian businesses in terms of new opportunities, Canadian researchers in terms of depths of opportunity, and Canada as a whole becoming a more independent, more sovereign nation, so we can live our lives as we choose.”

Carney has ruled out formally joining the EU, which would require Canada to align its laws and regulations with the bloc’s. Canadian officials said Canada would not assume the EU’s membership-related budget obligations, although it could contribute to specific programs. Carney has said any enhanced partnership would face a vote in Canada’s Parliament.

The summit puts Carney’s vision for a new global order to the test. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, he warned that the U.S.-led international order was breaking down and urged middle powers to unite against economic coercion.

Trump has suggested Canada’s proposed EU arrangement could be a “hostile act” and threatened tariffs on Europe if he considered it unfriendly. Asked Wednesday about possible retaliation, a senior Canadian government official told reporters the closer relationship was not directed against the United States but reflected longstanding shared interests.

The summit is expected to launch an “Alliance for the Future,” a framework for closer cooperation on trade, defense, critical minerals, technology and research. Von der Leyen said the alliance would help Canada and Europe respond together to a world of growing rivalries.

The proposed relationship could include regular meetings between Canadian ministers and European commissioners and expanded opportunities for students through the EU’s Erasmus+ program, which supports international study and educational exchanges.

European commissioners and Canadian Cabinet ministers will hold sector-specific meetings, beginning with a business forum Thursday before formal leaders’ talks Friday. Officials hope to develop the broader partnership for possible endorsement in 2027.

Tobias Gehrke, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the disagreement over terminology was unlikely to derail closer cooperation.

“There is no magic shortcut to rapidly reducing Europe’s and Canada’s reliance on the U.S. economy and military — not least since Washington might retaliate,” Gehrke said. “But the political window is now wide open to take a much bigger step than was previously conceivable.”

Canada has long looked to Europe to reduce its dependence on its much larger southern neighbor.

“It was the idea of not being alone with the Americans that drove it,” said Robert Bothwell, a University of Toronto historian.

Carney has deep personal ties to Europe. The former Bank of Canada governor led the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. He chose Paris and London for his first foreign trip as prime minister rather than Washington, a break with tradition. He said the countries reflected Canada’s founding Indigenous, French and British peoples.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Trump’s policies are accelerating Canada’s efforts to strengthen ties beyond the United States.

“The policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration are clearly pushing both Canada and the EU to imagine a world without strong U.S. leadership and to act accordingly,” Béland said.

Ottawa is reviewing plans to buy 72 additional American-made F-35 fighter jets and considering Sweden’s Saab Gripen as an alternative. Canada has committed to an initial 16 F-35s.

Canada is the only non-European country participating in the EU’s 150-billion-euro ($167-billion) SAFE defense procurement program, allowing Canadian companies to take part in joint European military purchases.

But deeper defense cooperation faces obstacles. Sundar said France is pushing for strict “Made in Europe” rules that could limit Canadian companies’ access to future EU defense spending, while Germany favors broader participation by countries outside the bloc. He said negotiations over the EU’s next seven-year budget could matter more to Canada than anything announced in Montreal.

The two sides already have a sweeping free trade agreement, known as CETA, that eliminated most tariffs. Most provisions have been in force since 2017, although some EU member states have yet to ratify it.

The United States accounted for 71.7% of Canada’s merchandise exports in 2025. Carney wants to double exports to other countries over the next decade.

Canada and the EU are pursuing closer cooperation on digital trade and critical minerals, including possible European Investment Bank financing. Canadian officials said Wednesday they were exploring ways to stabilize mineral prices and encourage investment.

Gehrke said Europe’s growing trade confrontation with China is driving demand for Canadian critical minerals. Canada has the resources and mining expertise Europe needs, while Europe offers industrial demand, technology and capital.

Sundar said the shifting international order presents Europe with an opportunity to become a more influential global power.

“Trump’s predatory behavior is allowing the EU to position itself as an alternative geopolitical anchor,” he said.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, looks on as President of the European Council Antonio Costa gives remarks at a roundtable with business leaders during the Canada-EU Summit in Montreal, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Mark Carney, centre, gives remarks alongside, President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, left, and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at a roundtable with business leaders during the Canada-EU Summit, in Montreal, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney gives remarks during a roundtable meeting with business leaders during the Canada-EU Summit in Montreal, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, right, gives remarks alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney at a roundtable with business leaders during the Canada-EU Summit in Montreal, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, gives remarks ahead of the EU-Canada summit, in Montreal, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, gives remarks ahead of the EU-Canada summit, in Montreal, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, gives remarks ahead of the EU-Canada summit, in Montreal, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Mark Carney, centre, flanked by Aiden Gomez, left, co-founder and CEO of Cohere and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, right, announces an investment of up to $1.6 billion in Canadian AI company Cohere, in Montreal on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Christinne Muschi /The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, not shown, participate in a joint news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is escalating a criminal investigation over an Alaska Senate candidate who shares a name with the Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, issuing a raft of new grand jury subpoenas, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Subpoenas seeking grand jury testimony or documents, along with records preservation demands, were issued after The New York Times reported that Democratic candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan Jr. as part an alleged effort to confuse voters in the hotly contested race.

More subpoenas were expected to be sent Thursday, according to a person briefed on the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing probe. Neither the recipients of the subpoenas nor the number of them were immediately clear.

The Justice Department for months has been looking into allegations that Dan J. Sullivan Jr. entered the race to siphon votes from the incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.

The potential targets of the Justice Department’s investigation are unclear, but President Donald Trump earlier this week called for the criminal prosecution of Peltola and her campaign.

The new subpoenas were confirmed by a person briefed on the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing probe.

Attorney General Todd Blanche in a Fox News interview on Wednesday said he wouldn’t discuss any criminal investigations, but accused Democrats of “cheating.”

“They are trying to take votes away from the incumbent, not by running an election, not by running on issues but by putting up a person with the same name,” Blanche said.

The race is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber. Trump had previously directed his Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race should Democrat Mary Peltola defeat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign. “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.

Separately, Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into Peltola, saying the newspaper's reporting “reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes.”

“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy added, noting that the reporting “substantially supports” earlier findings by the state’s elections board into the matter.

Trump on Thursday cast doubt on whether Peltola would be seated in the Senate even if she won the election. “Well, you’re going to have to see what happens," the president told reporters on his way to a rally in South Carolina. "It’s hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run.”

Later, as he rallied for GOP Sen. Darline Graham, Trump said he felt Peltola “actually should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted."

Peltola’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a message Thursday seeking comment on Dunleavy’s order. But during a campaign stop in Soldotna, Peltola, a former congresswoman, suggested the Times’ report was a “distraction” from issues such as Sen. Sullivan’s support of the war in Iran.

“This is just another distraction. It’s another diversion,” she said in a video posted online. “This is all stuff to sell newspapers. This is all stuff to get subscriptions.”

And the situation in Alaska isn't that unusual. Political parties often support extra candidates on ballots to try to pull votes from their rivals. If state courts allow it, legal experts say, the federal government has no role challenging the results.

In Ohio’s Senate race, Republicans have been tied to an effort to boost a socialist on the ballot who would pull votes from the Democratic candidate challenging Sen. Jon Husted.

On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance didn’t go as far as Trump did in calling for Peltola to be prosecuted but said he supported a probe into possible election fraud.

“I mean, she is a person who, for months now, has pretended that she has had nothing to do with the fact that they have put a fraudulent person, a person explicitly designed to confuse Alaska voters, on the ballot,” Vance told reporters ahead of a campaign trip to Texas. “She is trying to steal a Senate seat from the voters of Alaska, and it’s disgraceful.”

Earlier this year, a top state elections official ruled Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg, ineligible for the primary ballot, concluding that his declaration of candidacy was filed “with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run. Alaskan voters will see “Dan S. Sullivan” identified as a “registered Republican” and “incumbent” on their ballots, while “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” will not have a party affiliation.

The New York Times reported that interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit showed Peltola’s team aimed to coax candidates into the race, with the aim of splitting support for the GOP senator.

Asked about the reporting on Wednesday, Trump told journalists, “I think they should be prosecuted.” He earlier had posted on social media that “Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done.”

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP. AP writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Vice President JD Vance speaks to the media before boarding Air Force Two for Texas, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Evan Vucci/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - This combination photo shows Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, left, in Palmer, Alaska, Aug. 17, 2026, and a candidate in Alaska's Senate race, Dan Sullivan, right, in Petersburg, Alaska, July 3, 2026. (AP Photos/Mark Thiessen/Becky Bohrer, File)

FILE - Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks in the Oval Office of the White House during an event with President Donald Trump, Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Mary Peltola, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate seat in Alaska, addresses supporters at an election watch party on Aug. 18, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)