Poilievre clarifies his position as Jivani visits Washington

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MP Jamil Jivani ‘speaks for himself, and I speak for the party’: Poilievre

MP Jamil Jivani says Canadian officials having an 'anti-American hissy fit' over trade with the U.S.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he doesn’t agree with comments made by one of his MPs, who categorized Canada’s reaction to the ongoing trade war with the United States as an “anti-America hissy fit.”

Earlier this month, Conservative MP — and longtime friend of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance — Jamil Jivani travelled to Washington, D.C., for a solo diplomatic mission to meet with senior U.S. officials, calling the conversations “productive.”

As the visit continued and Jivani took to social media to provide updates on the meetings he said he was having — including signalling he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump — questions were raised back in Ottawa about the impact this solo mission could have, and the opposition MP’s intentions.

Then, in an interview with the U.S.-based, far-right news organization Breitbart, which aired earlier this week, Jivani said: “We are shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue this anti-America hissy fit, and this is the reason I’m trying to talk into our government.”

Canada and the United States have been in the throes of a trade war for more than a year, after Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian imports. While the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement is already up for review this year, new reporting from Bloomberg indicated Trump is mulling walking away from the deal entirely.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, meanwhile, ran in last year’s election on the promise of being the best person to deal with Trump, and has focused his foreign policy on insulating Canada’s economy from the United States. Canadians have also made a shift, for example by avoiding travel to the U.S., which has seen a significant drop in the last year.

• READ MORE: Travel to the U.S. down 40 per cent over last year: Flight Centre
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When asked by reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday whether he agrees with Jivani’s assessment, Poilievre said: “No.”

“Canadians are legitimately upset by the unjustifiable tariffs and comments that the president has made,” Poilievre said. “And you know, as the prime minister has said, nobody can control Donald Trump, as (former prime minister) Mr. (Stephen) Harper said, we have to focus not on how the president’s words and deeds make us feel, but on what we can do to adapt.”

Poilievre also said he’s spoken with Jivani since the MP’s trip to Washington, and that his message afterward was that Canada needs to focus on what it can do at home to increase its leverage in negotiations.

When asked whether he’s concerned that Jivani’s trip could muddle the message coming from Canada, or that he’s speaking out of turn on this issue, Poilievre responded: “He speaks for himself, and I speak for the party.”

The Conservative leader added that Jivani’s riding of Bowmanville—Oshawa North is “disproportionally impacted by the dispute” with the United States.

“I think that it’s necessary for all MPs to use all the connections and work that they can in order to overturn the tariffs and protect Canadian jobs,” he said. “I encourage all MPs to fight the tariffs and stand up for Canada.”

With files from CTV News’ Rachel Aiello