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Conservative MP Jamil Jivani arrives on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in May, 2025.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was like Oprah handing out free cars when he named his shadow cabinet last May. More than half of the Conservative caucus got a role; it’s possible that the guy who vacuums the rugs in MPs’ offices was accidentally named shadow minister for small business for a brief moment during the flurry of appointments. But notably absent from the 74-person shadow cabinet was the MP for Bowmanville-Oshawa North Jamil Jivani.
In theory, and on paper, Mr. Jivani should be a great asset both to his party, and to the country. He has an impressive story (he was raised by a single mother, went to Yale Law School, and survived cancer). He is charismatic, speaks passionately, and connects well with young people (Mr. Jivani has been hosting a “Restore the North” tour at universities across the country). And most importantly to Canada at this moment, he is a close personal friend of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance (Mr. Jivani gave the Bible reading at his wedding).
So Mr. Jivani should be front and centre in the Conservative caucus. He should have a shadow cabinet role. He should be part of the Prime Minister’s regular trade delegations to the U.S. But Mr. Jivani keeps being left out. Why?
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani briefed by LeBlanc ahead of Washington trade trip, Carney says
The answer is that Mr. Jivani has a habit of, well, how do I put this delicately – blowing things up. After he was let go from his talk radio gig in 2022, he sued his former employer, Bell Media, alleging he was fired for not adhering to an ideological stereotype (in response, Bell said he invited guests on his show who spread false information and exhibited a “resistant and combative attitude” when challenged by management). He was appointed as an adviser to Ontario Premier Doug Ford in 2019, but resigned in 2022 after calling the education minister “incompetent” (he also ripped into Mr. Ford during an interview on the night of the 2025 federal election).
And most recently, he went on an independent trip to the U.S. to talk trade – which, on its own, is defensible – but he squandered that opportunity by using the media he earned to blame Canada for our trade tension with the U.S.
On Saturday, Mr. Jivani went on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News show, an off-shoot of the right-wing news organization in the U.S., to talk about his trip. Notably, he did not once mention U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, and instead blamed “the lack of progress on a trade agreement” for job losses in his riding. Mr. Jivani said Canadians are “shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue this anti-America … hissy fit,” and also said he believed Canada’s new trade agreement with China was “100 per cent” a mistake.
“I think the only reason why this [deal] was even possible is because so much anti-American resentment has been ginned up among Liberals in Canada,” Mr. Jivani said. “So it made China look better.” I trust that if Mr. Jivani thinks really hard, he might be able to conceive of just one more reason why Canadians might have come around to the necessary evil of a new deal with China.
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The message Mr. Jivani delivered to American listeners was quite different from the story he sold Canadians before and after his trip, which is that he was putting partisanship aside and advocating for his country’s interests. Mr. Jivani told Postmedia’s Brian Lilley that he has “not been pointing fingers at the Prime Minister” (yet told Breitbart that it was a “red flag” that Mexico had made more progress on a deal than Canada, and that “the ball is in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s court”). He also told Mr. Lilley that when Canadians see the results his efforts will bring, he “will earn every bit of trust that I think I deserve” (though Canadians will have to calm down from their “hissy fit” first).
A Canadian MP who was actually advocating for Canada’s interests would have used the chance to speak directly to American Trump supporters to at least mention the harm and counterproductivity of their own President’s tariffs. A Canadian MP advocating for his own interests, by contrast – one in pursuit of attention, notoriety, support from a certain demographic – would blame Canada when talking about our trade troubles with the U.S., and talk about “the liberals in my country” having “a total freak out.” Mr. Jivani’s freelancing is bad for the Conservatives, bad for the country, but great for building the Jamil Jivani brand. Mr. Jivani hasn’t blown things up in the Conservative caucus yet, but anyone paying attention is starting to see sparks.
