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Conservative MP Jamil Jivani is in Washington this week on an independent effort to improve Canada U.S. trade relations — a trip Prime Minister Mark Carney downplayed on Wednesday.
Jivani, a university friend of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, has offered to leverage his network but says the Liberal government is snubbing him.
In a video posted to social media, the Bowmanville-Oshawa North MP said he has “something to offer to help build bridges of communication between our two countries.”
Speaking on his way to the Liberal caucus meeting, Carney said while Jivani was briefed by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, he added his government is in “constant contact with the U.S. administration” and has its own list of “extensive contacts.”
“Minister LeBlanc gave a briefing to Mr. Jivani, who I don’t believe is the trade critic for the Opposition, certainly not the minister of international trade or the prime minister of Canada,” Carney said.
When asked about the briefing, Jivani said Wednesday that he exchanged emails with LeBlanc, but they have yet to speak over the phone or in person.
“We are working on a meeting for next week where I can fully debrief him on my meetings in Washington,” he said.
CBC News has reached out to LeBlanc’s offices to ask when the briefing took place and what topics were discussed, but has yet to receive a response.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister in charge of Canada-U.S. trade, briefed Conservative MP Jamil Jivani who is heading to Washington this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday. Jivani, a longtime friend of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, had previously said he didn’t hear back from Liberals after emailing key players ahead of his U.S. trip.
Jivani says he plans to meet with General Motors representatives and other automotive and manufacturing heavyweights. He will also attend the National Prayer Breakfast in the U.S. capital on Thursday — an annual gathering of thousands of politicians and power brokers.
Canadian politicians across the spectrum have attended the prayer breakfast in previous years. But Jivani is offering his unique experience as a friend of Vance. The pair met at Yale Law School and have maintained a friendship.
“I’m reaching out to everyone I know,” Jivani said Tuesday.
On Friday, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani spoke to CBC’s Kate McKenna about floor-crossers, his longtime friendship with U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance and Pierre Poilievre’s leadership review among other topics.
Jivani shared four emails with CBC News dated from Dec. 14 to Feb. 2 in which he offered to collaborate with the Liberals. He sent the first directly to the prime minister.
“I ask with humility, would you please consider how I might be able to help in a way that is constructive and strategically aligned with the federal government’s efforts?” he wrote, citing the 2017 multi-partisan strategy for negotiations that led to the creation of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
He cc’d LeBlanc and other key MPs in subsequent emails.
While his messages centred on the need for collaboration on the imperiled free trade deal (U.S. President Donald Trump has recently said “America doesn’t need it”) Jivani also criticized the “divisiveness” between Conservatives and Liberals.
“The timing and spectacle of recent floor-crossings appears to many Canadians as an effort from you to demoralize Conservatives and the millions of citizens who vote for us,” he wrote. “This is unfortunate, as it does not need to be this way for Conservatives and Liberals to co-operate where there are shared national objectives.”
Jivani also said that he has had the opportunity to share his insights with Canada’s outgoing ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, but said he believes establishing a line with Carney and LeBlanc is critical to present a united front.
Conservative MP Gérard Deltell told reporters that while he has not met with Jivani to discuss his efforts to connect with U.S. officials, his party is keen to help the Liberal government in its negotiations with the Trump administration.
“We have offered our help … we hope that we’ll have a great collaboration with the government to be sure that Canada, Canadians will be the big winners,” he said.
Leader of the Opposition Pierre Poilievre said he told all Conservative MPs ‘to fight for jobs in your community,’ when asked what advice he gave Jamil Jivani before his trip to Washington. As Jivani’s riding was hit with 1,200 GM layoffs just last week, Poilievre said, ‘he’s going to fight for those autoworkers.’
Carney and Trump have publicly exchanged a few direct and indirect barbs since the prime minister’s speech at the World Economic Forum, where he called out, among other things, the use of “economic integration as weapons” and “tariffs as leverage,” widely seen as an allusion to Trump’s trade policies.
But what that means for the trading relationship between the two countries remains to be seen. In late January, Trump again lashed out on social media, calling Carney “governor” and threatening further tariffs, a move Carney calls a negotiating tactic.
Jivani says he wants to see a stronger sense of urgency around the negotiations. Just last week, GM Canada layoffs hit 1,200 workers at its Oshawa, Ont., plant, located in a neighbouring riding. It’s a move the plant’s union describes as “a decision to cave to Donald Trump.”
“I think I have something to offer to help build bridges between our two countries, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Jivani said in a video posted to social media.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters that GM workers live in Jivani’s riding, and she wants to see him talk more about the challenges they face.
“I haven’t heard once, not only denouncing what GM is doing, but also promoting the interests of the workers at GM that are facing unjustified, and unjustifiable, tariffs by the American administration,” she said.