Mark Slapinski

00:00:00.000 The mainstream media is backed to doing what it normally does,

00:00:02.920 having a complete meltdown over everything the conservatives do.

00:00:06.360 Today's target is Jamil Giovanni,

00:00:08.580 an MP accused of the heinous crime of going to the United States

00:00:11.520 in order to improve trade relations.

00:00:13.620 Let's watch this liberal breakdown together

00:00:15.420 and stick around to the end for some thoughts.

00:00:17.440 I have extensive contacts with the U.S. administration,

00:00:20.480 constant contacts with the U.S. administration.

00:00:23.000 Minister LeBlanc gave a briefing to Mr. Giovanni,

00:00:27.480 who I don't believe is the trade critic for the opposition,

00:00:30.780 certainly not the Minister of International Trade.

00:00:32.680 Mr. Carney had promised that he would get us a deal by last July.

00:00:36.820 My message to him today is conservatives are here to work with the prime minister

00:00:42.080 and with the government to get to knock down these unjust tariffs

00:00:46.760 and fight for our workers, fight for their jobs,

00:00:49.740 and fight for our economic independence.

00:00:53.180 Reaction there to conservative MP Jamil Giovanni's trip to Washington this week

00:00:56.960 where he says he's meeting with stakeholders about the Canada-U.S. relationship.

00:01:00.960 The Ontario MP is a longtime close friend of U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance,

00:01:04.820 having met him while they were both students at Yale Law School.

00:01:07.960 As you heard there, Prime Minister Carney says

00:01:09.480 Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc

00:01:11.760 did brief the conservative MP before his departure.

00:01:14.680 Giovanni says he believes he can help the liberals on the trade front,

00:01:17.660 insisting it's not a partisan issue.

00:01:19.120 Husna and trade with the United States is so important to the Canadian economy

00:01:24.720 and to our future as an independent, self-reliant nation

00:01:28.340 that conservatives and liberals don't need to fight over this at all.

00:01:32.320 In fact, we need to work together.

00:01:34.420 The leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Polyev, has said as much.

00:01:38.100 He has offered help from conservatives to the liberal government on this issue,

00:01:41.820 and I'm acting on that.

00:01:46.300 CTV News has asked Giovanni's team about who exactly he will be meeting with this week,

00:01:50.680 and we have not yet received a response.

00:01:52.940 Our front bench is here to talk about all of that.

00:01:55.100 Sharon Carr is a CTV News political analyst. 0.96

00:01:57.340 She's former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Finance Minister Bill Morineau.

00:02:01.140 Next to her, that's Jamie Ellerton.

00:02:02.760 He's the principal at Canactus

00:02:04.100 and worked for Minister Jason Kenney during the Harper government.

00:02:07.040 Sebastian Scamps, he was former Director of Media Relations

00:02:09.960 to Conservative leader Pierre Polyev.

00:02:12.300 And here with me in studio, Laura D'Angelo is with Enterprise Canada

00:02:15.520 and previously worked in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office.

00:02:18.400 Hi, everybody.

00:02:19.460 Happy Wednesday.

00:02:20.620 Good to see you.

00:02:21.560 So, Laura, everybody sounds there like,

00:02:24.020 hey, no biggie, this is okay.

00:02:26.240 You know what I mean?

00:02:27.340 What do you make of Mr. Giovanni kind of heading there on what appears to be,

00:02:30.860 you know, yes, briefed by Minister LeBlanc,

00:02:33.400 doesn't appear to be, like, sent by the Conservative Party.

00:02:37.100 So, what do you think's up here?

00:02:38.460 Doesn't appear he was sent by anyone but himself.

00:02:42.300 This is not without risk.

00:02:44.820 We know that Donald Trump looks for cracks in governments

00:02:48.620 and countries and political movements in other parts of the world

00:02:52.460 and then uses them to exploit, exploits them to get what he wants.

00:02:55.700 And so, an MP going down on his own with relationships that we all know about

00:03:02.040 to try to talk on Canada's behalf without knowing what's happening behind the scenes

00:03:08.240 really is not without risk here

00:03:11.200 and is something that Canadians should actually be concerned by.

00:03:14.080 There does have to be a coordinated effort around this.

00:03:17.140 It's interesting because, and to be fair to Mr. Giovanni, Jamie,

00:03:21.520 for a while now he's been saying, hey, I'm offering to do this.

00:03:25.700 He spoke to my colleague Jeremy Chiron at the Conservative Convention over the weekend

00:03:28.640 and said, like, I've reached out to the Prime Minister's office.

00:03:30.580 I've made overtures.

00:03:32.080 I do have this relationship I could leverage.

00:03:34.340 I am willing to do so.

00:03:35.580 I haven't heard back.

00:03:37.320 He obviously did hear from Minister LeBlanc.

00:03:40.460 What do you think about kind of going in on your own?

00:03:44.300 It's probably a bit unique.

00:03:45.520 I think a lot of people, understandably, have some skepticism as to whether or not

00:03:49.480 this is Jamil Giovanni being a team player or if this is just a Jamil Giovanni comp stunt.

00:03:54.380 I think when you look at the reality of that relationship, MPs go abroad, down to the U.S. all the time,

00:04:00.800 and normally it doesn't make news.

00:04:01.980 The only reason this one really is is because of his known, quote,

00:04:05.740 quite close personal relationship with Vice President J.D. Vance.

00:04:09.720 And so when you kind of look at how this story broke yesterday

00:04:12.340 and to where all the parties are now in their messaging today,

00:04:16.240 the general consensus seems to be like, ah, why not?

00:04:19.200 Like, we'll see where this goes.

00:04:21.020 But I think everyone's going to wait and see.

00:04:22.820 And I think for Jamil Giovanni, here's a guy who has really kind of made a name for himself

00:04:28.600 as someone with very strong opinions.

00:04:31.360 He likes to engage in the culture war debates.

00:04:33.940 And it's kind of really built his career on that.

00:04:35.600 And he kind of almost reminds me of AOC when she first was elected to Congress,

00:04:39.160 did really well in the socials, had a clear following in a constituency outside of her own actual district.

00:04:44.700 But her ability to get things done in Congress and actually work with the levels of power to actually enact change 1.00

00:04:49.780 and feel like you're accomplishing something beyond posting to social media took her a while.

00:04:53.560 And so I think part of what you're seeing here is the maturation of Jamil Giovanni, what comes out of that.

00:04:57.640 Sometimes these meetings are literally just photo ops and essentially some dinner reservations on the side.

00:05:02.340 At other times, they're substantive.

00:05:03.940 And so I think we'll need to see what the proof is and the receipts.

00:05:05.840 But given that line of communication, we also know that with diplomatic channels,

00:05:09.740 sometimes they're both artificial and unofficial channels.

00:05:12.620 And if this helps give the Canadian government access that they're otherwise shut out of in that orbit,

00:05:18.300 I think it's probably potentially a net positive for Canada.

00:05:22.080 Yeah. I mean, I guess overall, you hope that he would meet with his friend, his old friend, J.D. Vance,

00:05:28.480 the vice president of the United States, and that there would be something positive that emerges from that meeting.

00:05:33.220 I know there's some commentary out there that that meeting did take place.

00:05:36.440 We don't, like we said off the top, we reached out to his team.

00:05:39.580 Hopefully we get a message back kind of confirming or establishing what meetings were taken.

00:05:44.720 Sharon, your thoughts on the trip in general and the potential out of it?

00:05:49.120 You know, I want to, I really want to say that this was done in some sort of good faith

00:05:53.580 to try to come to some agreement between our two countries.

00:05:56.500 But this is clearly nothing but a PR stunt.

00:05:59.520 This is purely for the cameras.

00:06:01.120 It's purely for the exposure.

00:06:02.580 And it's purely a tactic that Jamil Javani is using.

00:06:05.800 He does not speak for the government.

00:06:07.120 He does not represent the government.

00:06:08.660 He is not part of any negotiating team.

00:06:11.020 And we know that he has this relationship.

00:06:13.600 It's no secret that he has this relationship.

00:06:15.420 But he has not proven himself to be someone who is willing to put aside politics

00:06:20.700 to do what is best for the country.

00:06:22.920 So politics is always going to come first.

00:06:24.840 He is a member of the opposition party.

00:06:27.080 So whatever helps him is purely for a PR stunt here.

00:06:31.840 Now, I think that there is merit in having relationships with counterparts in the government,

00:06:38.360 but not when it's at the risk of politicizing it so that it backfires in some way, shape, or form.

00:06:44.760 So this was not sanctioned by the government.

00:06:46.560 This is purely a PR stunt.

00:06:49.760 Yeah, it's interesting because I am old enough to remember, Sebastian,

00:06:52.760 you know, the first round of NAFTA negotiations, where there were, you know,

00:06:56.360 premiers and members of parliament, all sorts of different people from different backgrounds

00:06:59.880 who were making an effort to present the Team Canada case.

00:07:03.920 But at the time, it also was coordinated.

00:07:06.220 So I sort of see both sides of this coin.

00:07:08.260 You know, I'm not sure why the government has decided not to lean on the relationship that

00:07:13.720 he has or try and exploit it to the, and I don't mean that in a negative way, but try

00:07:17.120 to leverage it to some use.

00:07:19.120 At the same time, it is interesting that one would go there when the stakes are so high

00:07:24.600 without the backing of so-called Team Canada.

00:07:27.200 Uh-oh, I think you're on mute.

00:07:33.320 Oh.

00:07:33.980 Whatever it is you're saying.

00:07:35.220 Oh, there you are.

00:07:35.980 We missed the first part.

00:07:37.080 Please repeat.

00:07:43.420 No, we still don't have you.

00:07:44.820 I'm so sorry.

00:07:45.620 I don't know what's going on.

00:07:47.360 Hopefully.

00:07:48.000 Okay, hear me now.

00:07:49.180 Okay, now we have you.

00:07:50.300 My apologies.

00:07:50.940 Okay.

00:07:51.160 Come back.

00:07:51.720 We're going to re-rack and start the whole thing again.

00:07:53.900 Yeah, I was just going to say, I just wanted to say, or reject the premise really Sharon

00:07:59.880 had laid out.

00:08:01.120 I think Mr. Giovanni explained in a five-minute long video about why it is that he is going

00:08:08.040 down to the states and, you know, how it is that he wants to kind of inflict some positive

00:08:15.060 change in that relationship.

00:08:18.000 We all know that politics are a relationship sport.

00:08:22.760 They are based on who you know, how well you know them.

00:08:26.380 And so it is a pretty good card to have in your deck to have been the roommate of the

00:08:31.880 now vice president, who is by, in our understanding, involved intimately in a lot of President

00:08:38.140 Trump's decision making.

00:08:40.560 I'll also point out, of course, that Mr. Giovanni represents a community that has been badly

00:08:46.160 affected by the shortcomings of the prime minister in being able to secure a deal.

00:08:51.860 We just saw GM, the Oshawa plant there, announce hundreds of workers that they plan to lay off.

00:08:59.340 I think this is a kind of, his response is one to be patriotic, is one to advocate for

00:09:06.000 those workers.

00:09:07.280 Yes, he is not a member of the governing party, but that does not mean that he is not obviously

00:09:12.660 concerned about his constituents and the impact of the lack of action on this very important file

00:09:19.240 by the federal government and how that's affecting his community.

00:09:24.820 What do you make?

00:09:25.960 Split the difference for us, Laura.

00:09:27.560 Where do you fall?

00:09:29.220 This is a PR stunt to me.

00:09:31.360 I hear Seb, his, you know, Jamil Giovanni's riding has been hit brutally hard by job loss,

00:09:37.760 largely as a result of the trade war, which falls squarely on Donald Trump's shoulders.

00:09:42.180 Jamil Giovanni also hasn't been out talking about that.

00:09:44.680 That's not something we hear from him all that often.

00:09:47.280 We don't hear him advocating for those workers or pushing really hard on the companies that

00:09:51.580 did those layoffs.

00:09:52.420 What we hear is that he's going down to the U.S. on an unsanctioned trip without knowing

00:09:57.620 enough about what's happening to advocate for Canada without proper briefing and proper

00:10:02.460 support to ensure that we can actually move that forward.

00:10:05.220 Jamie, last word to you.

00:10:06.000 I would say two things are true sort of at the same time.

00:10:08.460 There isn't the support.

00:10:09.420 Like, there isn't the sort of Team Canada backing.

00:10:12.420 At the same time, I would say it's fair to say that the Conservatives have gone very hard

00:10:15.940 on the government for the types of arrangements that they made with those companies that ended

00:10:20.780 up turning around and going to the United States.

00:10:23.400 So I take your point that, like, there are other approaches you could take.

00:10:26.020 But I would say it's not totally fair to say that the Conservatives haven't, you know,

00:10:29.980 talked about those job losses.

00:10:32.040 Yeah, I think I would encourage my liberal panels here today to be more magnanimous like the

00:10:36.300 prime minister and, like, see what he does, see what he says, and see what he comes back

00:10:39.780 with.

00:10:40.380 I think if you are going to change and genuinely offer to help, you need to really sustain that

00:10:44.840 over weeks and months.

00:10:45.980 And if this is, like, the opening of a negotiation, great.

00:10:49.720 We all know President Trump makes his own decisions.

00:10:51.740 Yes, he's got people in his ear.

00:10:53.860 But frankly, I think overstating J.D.

00:10:55.980 Vance's power in trade negotiations is also somewhat delusional.

00:10:59.600 And so I think the prime minister's response here to be magnanimous, let him go down, see what

00:11:03.800 it opens, and see what avenues it creates could possibly quite be a net benefit for Canada

00:11:08.100 without overstating the significance of how instrumental this could potentially be either.

00:11:13.640 It's so funny watching liberal heads explode over this meeting.

00:11:16.880 It's almost as if the liberal media just invents reasons to criticize Conservatives.

00:11:21.960 Actually, that's exactly what they do.

00:11:24.200 But to be fair, Giovanni is really in no position to negotiate anything.

00:11:28.140 He's not the prime minister, and he's not even the leader of the opposition.

00:11:31.380 In my opinion, this is really just a publicity stunt on Giovanni's part.

00:11:35.440 The fact that he thinks he can go to the United States and make a deal on behalf of Canada,

00:11:39.300 that's laughable.

00:11:40.480 The fact of the matter is that Donald Trump doesn't appear to be too interested in making

00:11:43.340 a trade deal with Canada.

00:11:45.140 If solving this trade dispute was as easy as picking up a phone and calling Trump,

00:11:49.220 I'm pretty sure Carney would have done it by now.

00:11:50.980 I'm no fan of Carney, but it is in his political best interest to get a deal with Trump.

00:11:55.480 After all, that's why he was elected.

00:11:57.280 I'm also not convinced Trump is acting in good faith.

00:11:59.380 Trump has been quoted as saying that he would only drop tariffs if Canada became the 51st

00:12:04.340 state.

00:12:04.860 Still, it's fun to watch liberal heads explode over something that's really not a big deal.

00:12:09.660 There's really no downside to Giovanni going down to the United States and at least trying

00:12:13.560 to work something out.

00:12:14.920 I'm not holding my breath that something will happen, but at least he's trying.

00:12:18.100 But anyway, what do you think about this trip?

00:12:19.920 And what do you think about the whole trade dispute with the United States?

00:12:22.780 Let me know in the comment section.

00:12:24.320 Thanks for tuning in.

00:12:25.500 I love you all.

00:12:26.520 Talk to you tomorrow, patriots.

CTV Has MELTDOWN Over Conservative MP

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