Vice President JD Vance has been advised against visiting Canada by one of his closest friends, a Canadian politician.
Jamil Jivani, 37, who befriended Vance while they were both students together at Yale Law School and who is now a Conservative MP, had extended an open invitation to the American to visit his Ontario constituency.
However, he has now decided it is not a “constructive” moment to host his old friend, given the strength of anti-Trump sentiment in the country just now in reaction to President Donald Trump’s threat of annexing Canada as America’s 51 state and his imposition of 25 percent tariffs on its exports.
Vice President JD Vance has faced a cold reception at a number of countries he has visited since November (AFP/Getty)
“Right now we have strong political disagreements, and that’s kind of how it is,” Jivani told Politico.
“They need to probably reconsider some of their rhetoric and their policy before coming to Canada. Our country should deserve more respect before being able to welcome them.”
Jivani had dinner with Vance in Arlington, Virginia, in December during the presidential transition period and attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., in January. His comments illustrate just how quickly the mood has shifted in response to the Trump administration’s rhetoric towards its northern neighbor.
The Canadian’s suburban district of Bowmanville-Oshawa North houses a GM plant where the Chevrolet Silverado is manufactured and whose employees are anxious about the future of the auto industry as a result of Trump’s disruptive trade war.
Jamil Jivani said his country ‘deserves more respect’ (Robert T Bell)
For his part, the VP and his advisers will be wary of inviting a repeat of the chilly reception he and his wife Usha Vance received when they flew out to Greenland in late March. A number of scheduled events were canceled and the couple were reduced to having only a brief lunch on an American military base because of an evident lack of local enthusiasm for their trip.
Trump’s comments on Canada have turned the country’s politics upside down in recent months, allowing newly-elected Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal Party to win this week’s general election when, at one stage, the party had looked down and out, blamed for high inflation under Justin Trudeau as Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre simply waited in the wings for his opportunity to snatch power.
Jivani’s friendship with Vance was used against him during April’s campaign and may have counted against his party, an experience he described as “frustrating.”
“They created commercials about me and JD being friends,” he said. “They doctored pictures of us and dropped them in mailboxes in my riding. The misrepresentation of who I am, what I believe in, the misrepresentation of my commitment to this country, that stuff, was very, very frustrating.”
Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney was recently elected on an anti-Trump platform (AFP via Getty Images)
Asked about the current state of his friendship with the vice president, he said: “We haven’t talked in a while. He’s busy, I’m busy. It’s just the nature of the work that we do.
“Certainly, the way they’ve talked about Canada has been a problem for me personally. I’m a proud Canadian. I’m focused on my community, and we’ll see what happens next.”
On the prospect of their bond lasting into the future, Jivani said: “We were friends before politics, we will be friends after politics.
“This is a guy that I played fantasy football with for the last 15 years. He’s now the vice president and that’s a unique situation.
“It’s just the nature of having a friend in a situation like this. I kind of just acknowledge that we’re in different places, we have different priorities.
“He does his thing, I do my thing. And when this is all over, I’m sure we’ll talk again.”