FROM THE OUTSIDE

“Fair weather friends” or “friends in good times” could describe Canada’s relationship with Mexico.

But that would be unfair.

Canada has been and is a friend of Mexico but has been a much closer friend of the United States for much longer. Like Mexico, Canada’s economy is intimately tied to the U.S., and its interests are centered on preserving that relationship.

It is worth remembering, to start, that Canada was born out of the U.S. War of Independence when British loyalist subjects who did not wish to live in the newly created United States emigrated north along what is today the border. Even now, over half of Canada’s population is concentrated within a 200-mile-wide strip along that border.

They have been, or at least consider themselves, part of the family, even if they are sometimes seen as the “poor cousin.” They are perfectly comfortable with that, though it sometimes annoys them to be mistaken for Americans.

The truth is that they have accompanied the United States in many of its ventures or helped them when necessary. There is a deep relationship between the two countries.

While Canadians often hold views that differ from those of Americans, they usually align or seek common ground. For that reason, their trade disputes remain just that: trade disputes. According to accounts from the 1980s, the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had entire floors occupied by lawyers dedicated to the trade agreement between the two countries.

At the start of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations, Canadians had serious reservations about including Mexico in what had been a bilateral agreement. Later, however, they sought to take advantage of a de facto alliance in trade disputes with the U.S.

The renegotiation of NAFTA initiated by Donald Trump at the start of his first term in 2016 included a moment when it seemed Canada might be excluded. However, according to some Canadians, Mexico’s intervention saved the deal.

After that, however, the relationship with Canada wasn’t given much attention. During the previous administration, little care was given to Mexico’s relations with many countries, though there was some emphasis on Latin America’s “Pink Tide” countries.

But not on the main trade partners and allies.

Nevertheless, it’s uncomfortable to see Canadians seek to avoid the fallout and dissociate themselves from Mexico—at least in the eyes of the newly re-elected President Trump—by emphasizing the essentially different nature of the borders: the 3,000 kilometers of the border with Mexico are a scene of drug and human smuggling, while the 6,000 kilometers of the border with Canada have far fewer problems, at least by comparison.