'I really do believe I could help': Conservative MP Jivani on restarting U.S. trade talks

Conservative MP Jamil Jivani says he's ready to lend a hand and do what he can, if Prime Minister Mark Carney says he wants help restarting trade negotiations with the United States.

The MP for Bowmanville-Oshawa North is a longtime friend and former Yale Law School classmate of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, though he says in recent months they haven't talked much — except about their fantasy football team.

Jivani said the naming of a new ambassador following the planned departure of Kirsten Hillman may be a time when the Canadian government is reassessing its U.S. trade strategy — and if so, he would be willing to do whatever he can to improve the situation.

"I really do believe I could help," he said. "I would love to be able to talk to JD about how we can make things better for our economy, but I don't want to get involved in what Mark Carney is up to, unless he tells me that's helpful to him."

Jivani said he's offered help in the past, but doesn't want to "inject himself" into conversations — saying the "Doug Ford commercial debacle" was an example of what happens when there's no co-ordinated strategy in place.

U.S. President Donald Trump called off trade talks after an Ontario ad featuring the voice of Ronald Reagan aired during the Major League Baseball playoffs.

Jivani sat down for a wide-ranging interview with CBC News to discuss a year that has seen him launch campaigns ranging from pushing back on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies to hosting a national tour of universities aimed at putting a spotlight on the challenges facing young men.

In Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's caucus, Jivani has established himself as someone unafraid to speak his mind.

He says he wants to "end Liberal racism," (a term popularized in a 1997 book) claiming policies like DEI exclude non-racialized Canadians from employment opportunities. He was the first in his caucus to call for the end of the temporary foreign worker program — which is now party policy. His recent video criticizing the Liberals' school food program ("government shouldn't be your daddy") has a million views.

On their surface, it's unclear what unites these topics. But Jivani said he's compelled to speak out on subjects he feels need to be reassessed culturally. 

"A lot of it comes down to seeing a lot of people who need a hand up and need to be heard. And my observation is that there are a series of policies and sort of framing around issues that make it difficult for us to actually arrive to solutions," he said.

Jivani says he is unconcerned that some may miss the nuance in his arguments against DEI policies — that race is too narrow a metric to understand the complexity of who people are, or the support they need — and veer into hate speech, racism or white nationalism. 

"I think it's important that we establish boundaries of what we think is acceptable and healthy dialogue," he said. 

"Whether it takes a shape of attacking Indigenous people, Black people, white people, antisemitism, whatever it is, I stand against it and I have no desire to pretend that it's more complicated than that."