There is no such thing specifically as an associate membership in the EU.

But what Carney described, "What we are looking and will begin discussion for, is a unique alliance with the European Union, between Canada and the European Union.” sounds an awful lot like what Norway or Iceland has. You could call that associated members.

I also find the language interesting. "We’re not looking to become a member of the European Union."

That could be 100% true, while the WSJ article is also true. Those are not mutually exclusive. There is not associated membership today. Membership in the EU today is only as a full member. He's a man who intentionally picks his words. I wouldn't discount the WSJ article yet.

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We have the EU, CANZUK, or BRICS.

Take your pick.

A real international union in the Americas would be unlikely, at least in our lifetimes. There's a lot of maturity and a lot of bad blood that needs to be addressed before we could ever properly unify. That doesn't mean we can't make reasonable alliances and economic deals in the near term and start the long process of building one, but realistically, it might take a century before an economic bloc like the EU could form on this side of the Atlantic.