The relationship between Mexico and Canada in 2024 could be described in a word: “terrible,” says Graeme C. Clark, Canada’s then-ambassador to Mexico.
The year started with Ottawa, under pressure to reduce record-high Mexican asylum claims, reimposing visa restrictions on Mexican visitors. By year’s end, with U.S President-elect Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs, some Canadian politicians called publicly for a U.S.-Canada bilateral trade deal – cutting Mexico out.
Both Canada and Mexico recognize that their strained relationship needs a reset. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trip to Mexico to meet President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo on Thursday in a rare bilateral state visit provides such an opportunity. But it’s about more than overcoming a year of diplomatic difficulties.
Why We Wrote This
Canada and Mexico left their relationship untended for decades in favor of ties with the United States. But as the Trump administration throws diplomatic elbows, America’s two neighbors see a chance to renew connections with each other.
The reflex among Canadians and Mexicans, when talking about North America, is to automatically think of the United States first, dismissing the farther neighbor as a distant afterthought. But with the U.S. now testing the bonds and boundaries with its immediate neighbors, Canada and Mexico see an opportunity to consider the other not as a second-rate partner but as an economic and cultural complement to each other.
No one expects major bilateral deals. Canada and Mexico remain far more integrated with – and dependent on – the U.S. than on each other. But “the mere fact of the visit taking place is in itself significant,” says Mr. Clark. “The visit is the message.”
A functional but not close relationship
While the U.S. and Mexico established diplomatic relations in 1822, Canada and Mexico did not do so until 1944 (though Canada did not have diplomatic relations independent of the British Empire before 1926). And it wasn’t until 50 years later, when the first North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 1994, that the relationship could be described as anything more than mutual indifference.
Even since then, it’s primarily been built around trade, says Alejandro Diaz Bautista, a professor of economic studies at the College of the Northern Border in Tijuana, Mexico. Today, Mexico is Canada’s third-largest trading partner for merchandise, after China and the U.S. It was only a minor partner prior to NAFTA.
“The lack of deep historical ties, linguistic and geographical differences,” Dr. Bautista says, “have contributed to a functional but not necessarily close relationship” in the past.
The relationship has been tested in times of strain, such as after 9/11. Late last year, when Mr. Trump threatened tariffs because of the migrants and drugs that cross into the U.S. from both borders, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, called comparing Canada to Mexico “the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard.” He loudly pushed for a bilateral deal with the U.S. to stave off the threat of tariffs.
That came as no surprise to Laura Macdonald, who specializes in Latin American and North American politics at Carleton University in Ottawa. “I think that’s a long-standing tradition in Canada of not understanding Mexico and of viewing Mexico as a threat to our friendly relationship with the United States and favoring bilateral action,” she says. “It’s kind of an instinct on the part of many Canadian elites that they don’t understand Mexico. … And they just don’t want to have to deal with Mexico’s issues.”
Ms. Sheinbaum shot back with her own dig at Canada, though, saying Canada “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has.”
Mr. Carney had already put a reset into motion, inviting Ms. Sheinbaum to the Group of Seven industrialized nations summit that he hosted in Alberta in June. It’s perhaps telling that her main incentive in accepting the invitation was to meet with Mr. Trump. That meeting never happened, though, because the U.S. president left the G7 early.
Many observers see potential in the relationship between Mr. Carney and Ms. Sheinbaum. As a former central banker and a scientist, respectively, both are far more technocratic than their predecessors.
Growing cultural ties
Perhaps more important are the bonds being formed on the ground.
The number of Mexicans traveling abroad for English-language training grew by 35% between 2016 and 2020, according to ICEF Monitor, a market research firm focused on international student recruitment. Per the Canadian government, by the end of 2024, nearly 15,000 Mexicans held study permits for Canada, representing 70% growth over five years.
Courtesy of Romina Zamorano Reyes
When Romina Zamorano Reyes, a high schooler in the southern Mexican state of Veracruz, traveled to Canada last summer to study English, she was in many ways following family tradition. Her mother and cousin studied in the same program in Toronto when they were students.
But Canada had an added pull this summer. “We all agreed the U.S. was less attractive,” given the treatment of foreigners under the Trump administration, she says of her classmates at Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto.
During her summer abroad, she was surprised by some of the cultural commonalities shared by Mexicans and Canadians. “People in Canada are really friendly, really polite,” in contrast to her experience when she visited the U.S., she says. “They open doors for you, say ‘Thank you’ and ‘You’re welcome.’ In Mexico, we focus on manners a lot, too. You always say, ‘Gracias, perdón, buenos días.’”
Such cultural ties help change perceptions, some of which are stuck in the past, says Mr. Clark. “Canadians think of Mexico as a beach destination, as a source of gangs and bad actors. And they don’t realize that this is a sophisticated and important commercial partner for us, and potentially a strategic partner for us to deal with a difficult interlocutor in Washington. And the same way, Mexicans don’t really have a good grasp of what Canada represents.”
Cultural ties between Canada and Mexico are deepening – and have the potential to grow – in no small part due to the nature of their economies and environments, says Shauna Hemingway, special adviser for the Business Council of Canada in Mexico, and a former Canadian diplomat.
“Integration is very strong with the United States, but [Mexico and Canada] are complementary,” she says, pointing to strong agrifood industries that are producing products at different times of year; weather patterns that bring wildfires to Mexico and Canada in different seasons, allowing their firefighters to assist with each other’s emergencies; and a supply-demand matchup in the natural gas sector.
“Our countries have come to resemble each other in ways we didn’t years ago,” says Ms. Hemingway, pointing to migration as an example. Both Mexico and Canada are now destination countries, not just used for transit to the U.S. “We have a lot more to talk about in terms of our similarities.”
