The United States shares a border to its north with Canada and to its south with Mexico, to wit, with no other information available, one would have a tendency to believe that these two countries, Canada and Mexico, should be able to basically equally benefit from having the most powerful and the richest country in the world as its contiguous neighbor, but clearly, as demonstrated by their respective per capita GDPs, Canada is the far richer country with a GDP per capita of approximately $43,248 as estimated by data.worldback.org as compared to Mexico's rather anemic $9,005. Both countries are gifted with great natural resources, yet, one, clearly is far richer than the other, and, in fact, its living standards are close enough to the United States, that people that visit or live in Canada, equate it to about the same level as America, with some, believing that Canada overall is superior. On the other hand, Mexico, is a country that has had millions of people leave its native land over the last few generations to come to America, just to find gainful employment, which while paying not all the well per American standards, is able to sustain them well enough that it is estimated by npr.org that over $20 billion dollars is sent back to Mexico via remittances each year.
While there are many differences between Canada and Mexico, one of the most significant is seen in their tertiary education levels, in which the Canadian population participation rate in tertiary education exceeds 51%, whereas Mexico's population participation rate in tertiary education barely exceeds 20%. This lack of advanced degrees for Mexico equates to less economic earning power as education is a key component in earning power and knowledge in countries and the lack thereof, has meaningful consequences. In addition, the rule of law is clearly under assault in Mexico and has been under assault in Mexico for generations, in which, corruption as reported by wikipedia.org shows that Canada ranks in the top ten for honesty and integrity, whereas Mexico ranks #123 out of 176 countries signifying its corruptness and lack of integrity. Also, the median wealth in Mexico ranks extremely low, indicating, that the middle class in Mexico is both low in number as well as low in wealth, representing a massive divide between those that are very, very rich, as compared to those that have little or nothing, with little or nothing to look forward to, and little or nothing that will change their circumstances; whereas the median wealth in Canada is quite high, indicating a strong and vibrant middle class.
In short, the structures of Canada are reminiscent of the structures found in America, whereas, the structures in Mexico, serve to remind people, that those that are privileged are treated differently, as well as in order to conduct business in Mexico one must often pay tribute to criminal or quasi-criminal enterprises, or face the consequences. In addition, for generations, one political party ruled Mexico, which was great for those rulers and those that benefited from such, but bad overall for the general public, bad for fair law, and bad for fair business; for, in order for any country, to create wealth, those that make it their policy to exploit others can only make so much money, because non-incentivized workers will not put forth the effort and ingenuity that are needed for real growth and future progress, which is a significant reason why there is such a great divide between these two nations.