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His trip to Washington put country over party, but Mark Carney’s Liberal government refused the help on offer from Jamil Jivani
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani is photographed in his office in Ottawa on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. Photo by Hyungcheol Park for Postmedia
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Liberals in this country are going out of their way to undermine a man who only wanted to help the country in trade talks with Trump.
First, they said Conservative MP Jamil Jivani wasn’t qualified to go to Washington. Then he was, according to Liberals, a Nazi sympathizer for going to Washington. And then he was too ugly to help.
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Now, they’re twisting his very accurate words to mean something he didn’t say.
As the saying goes, the flak is always the heaviest over the target — meaning, Jivani’s efforts must be getting to the Liberals if they are attacking him this much for doing something that they should have embraced as being in the national interest.
In the latest episode of the Full Comment Podcast, Jivani relates how last fall, after trade talks between Ottawa and Washington fell apart, he made offers to do what he could to help. He was willing to use his well-publicized personal friendship with American Vice President J.D. Vance to see if he could assist in getting talks back on track.
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Vance and Jivani have a common bond
“We met 15 years ago at our law school orientation, and we became good friends very quickly,” Jivani said.
The two very different men had somethings in common. Both came from working class backgrounds, neither had ever been to an institution like Yale Law School before, and both were at times uncomfortable in this new environment.
“I had never seen wine that cost more than nine dollars or cheese that didn’t come in a plastic wrapper before. It was just a different cultural experience. And so, you know, we became friends, and we went through a lot of formative experiences together,” Jivani said.
He said he hadn’t tried to use his friendship with Vance earlier out of respect for his friend and out of respect for the Mark Carney government which had to find their way with the Trump administration. As things turned sour last fall though, he began to make efforts to reach out to key Liberals with an offer to help build relationships.
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Politics is about relationships
Any good politician will tell you, success in politics is about relationships and using those relationships, personal and otherwise, to move an agenda forward.
The Liberals weren’t interested in help from this upstart Conservative, though. They didn’t respond to his private offers of help and when he went public with the same offer of assistance, with the backing of his leader Pierre Poilievre, he was still ignored.
“There have not been substantive conversations between our government and the U.S. government since the end of October,” Jivani said.
While saying he respects the “unique responsibilities” of the prime minister, he felt enough time had passed without substantial talks that he should do what he could to help.
“If you have a Member of Parliament who has a direct line to the White House, should that Member of Parliament sit back and watch his own community lose jobs?” the Bowmanville-Oshawa North MP asked.
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“Is that what my voters showed up on election day for? I don’t think so, I think they want action.”
With that, Jivani went to Washington where he met and dined with his old friend Vance and walked through the Oval Office and had a brief chat with Donald Trump himself. He also held meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Trump’s point person on trade talks with Canada.
Liberals showed him the back of the hand
Carney smirked and laughed when asked about Jivani’s trip and called it a publicity stunt. Industry Minister Melanie Joly falsely claimed that Jivani was in Washington rather than helping GM workers in Oshawa.
Liberal MP John-Paul Danko compared Jivani to Unity Mitford, a 1930s British socialite and groupie of Adolf Hitler. Liberal strategist and talking head David Herle said on a widely touted political podcast that Jivani wasn’t attractive enough to be successful in politics.
That’s a lot of protesting from the Liberal side of the aisle about a trip they claim was ineffective.
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Now, the Liberals are trying to twist Jivani’s words spoken on an American radio show.
Appearing on Breitbart News on Sirius XM on Saturday, Jivani said his focus is on saving Canadian jobs and that means acting in a serious manner.
“We share the largest border in the world. We have to work together. But for Canada in particular, three-quarters of our exports go through the United States. We are shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue this anti-America … hissy fit,” he said.
Those words are now being twisted into Jivani attacking Canada via a foreign media outlet, being disloyal to this country, and more.
Time to end Canada’s national hissy fit
It’s pretty clear that a large part of our country, including much of our political class, are in an “anti-America … hissy fit.” We just had a Liberal MP call Jivani a Nazi sympathizer for meeting all the same people Carney met in Washington.
We have Canadians calling for cancelling a defence contract to buy the F-35s and give our fighter pilots an inferior aircraft because they don’t like Trump. More Canadians now see China, a country that kidnaps our citizens and oppresses their own, as a more reliable partner than the United States.
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I’d say a large part of the country is in the middle of a hissy fit.
Left to right, Leader of the Official Opposition of Canada Pierre Poilievre, Prime Minister Mark Carney andGovernor General of Canada, Mary Simon join hands whileattending a vigil for the victims of a mass shooting, in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. Photo by Christinne Muschi /THE CANADIAN PRESS
Jamil Jivani’s trip to Washington is something the Carney government should have embraced, instead they mocked it. We have people celebrating unity as leaders hold hands at the Tumbler Ridge memorial, but when unity is offered on the most important file for the nation’s economy, the Carney Liberals show the back of the hand.
In going to Washington, Jivani put country over party and that should be celebrated. In rejecting his offer of help, Carney put party before country and that is something voters should remember.
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