Mexico proves Canada could spend far less on military

The year 2025 marked Canada’s radical militarist turn. But, for a Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement ally it was a year of de-militarization.

Canada spent five times more on its military than Mexico. In the 2025 fiscal year Mexico budgeted $12 billion Canadian (152 billion pesos) for its military. Canada budgeted $63 billion. Yet Canada’s GDP is only 1.2 greater than Mexico’s.

While Canadian leaders claimed the threat of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia demanded greater military spending, Mexican officials viewed things differently. In 2025 the country of 130 million cut military spending by 40%. Canada increased it by a third.

In June Mark Carney announced that Canada would immediately reach NATO’s 2% of GDP spending target. To achieve the arbitrary target, they added $9 billion to a 2025-26 military budget already set to increase by $4 billion (reclassifying some spending also helped attain the 2% of GDP target). Canada’s $13 billion boost to the war budget in 2025 surpassed Mexico’s total military spending! Each Canadian spent 15 times more than each Mexican on the military — $1,500 vs. $100!

Even though Donald Trump pushed for Canada to increase military spending, some on the left cite the US president’s annexation and trade threats to justify greater militarization. But Mexico faces a far greater threat from the only country that would plausibly invade either of the two nations. In the mid 1800s the US took half of Mexico — California, Texas, Arizona, etc. — and that country has dispatched its troops into Mexico on multiple occasions since. Recently, top US politicians have talked about invading Mexico.

Alongside the defend Canada from Trump narrative, it’s common to claim we must increase military spending to ensure access to the US market. Yet Mexico is more dependent on trade with the US than Canada is. It ships a higher proportion of its exports and GDP to the US.

Despite greater economic dependence, Mexico’s foreign policy is far less pro-US or imperialistic than Canada’s. They are not offering significant support to Israel’s genocide in Gaza or leading the Core Group dictating Haitian affairs or fuelling the proxy war in Ukraine. Mexico didn’t send troops to bomb Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Yugoslavia.

That country is not part of imperialistic alliances/groups such as NATO, G7, NORAD and Five Eyes. Mexico isn’t part of the Anglosphere.

The Canadian “defence” sector has tied its ship to our southern neighbour’s massive military industrial complex. Canadian arms firms are largely branch plants of US companies and the Canadian forces assist their US counterparts through naval missions, special forces deployments, peacekeeping missions, chemical weapons testing, wars and much more. That’s why the US pushes Canada to devote greater public resources to its military. Washington doesn’t push Mexico to spend more on its military because that country doesn’t act as an extension of the US empire in the same way.

The Canada/Mexico military spending dichotomy ought to be widely discussed. It may be the single most powerful statistic to undermine the radical militarism sweeping Canadian political and economic life. If Canada spent a similar amount on the military it would free up $50 billion a year to build social and coop housing. Or for free university education. Or daycare and water on reserves. Or for all of the above.

Peace-minded Canadians should be demanding politicians and the media compare Canada’s military spending to our CUSMA partner.

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