<P> Canada's Brian Mulroney ran on a similar platform to Reagan, and also favored closer trade ties with the United States . This led to the Canada - United States Free Trade Agreement in January 1989 . </P> <P> The End of the Cold War and the beginning of the era of sustained economic expansion coincided during the 1990s . On January 1, 1994 Canada, Mexico and the United States signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, creating the world's largest free trade area . Quebec held a referendum in 1995 for national sovereignty in which 51% voted no to 49% yes . In 2000, Vicente Fox became the first non-PRI candidate to win the Mexican presidency in over 70 years . </P> <P> The optimism of the 1990s was shattered by the 9 / 11 attacks of 2001 on the United States, which prompted military intervention in Afghanistan, which Canada also participated in . Canada and Mexico did not support the United States's later move to invade Iraq . </P> <P> In 2006 the drug war in Mexico evolved into an actual military conflict with each year more deadly and hopeless than the last . </P>

Who was populating the north american continent when colonists arrived