This Conservative MP is 'best friends' with Trump running mate J.D. Vance
CBC
Two men from disparate backgrounds who say they forged a friendship while feeling like outsiders at an elite American institution could help chart the future of the Canada-U.S. relationship.
Those men are Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance — who was picked by former president Trump as his running mate on Monday — and Jamil Jivani, the Conservative MP who was elected to Parliament in a byelection earlier this year.
If their respective parties win power this year and next, the long personal history between these two political neophytes could be an asset for Canada, some politics-watchers say.
Canada's Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman told CBC's Power & Politics she is "very happy" to see Trump pick Vance, someone she said is well-known at the embassy for "supporting the Canada-U.S. relationship."
Some European diplomats, meanwhile, are fearful of Vance, an avowed isolationist who's campaigned against more aid for Ukraine.
A second Trump term — which, according to most polls, is the likely scenario — could be a turbulent one for Canada, with talk of a renewed trade war and a sustained push to make allies spend a lot more on defence or risk losing U.S. military support.
Canada is highly dependent on U.S. trade. It's also a long-time laggard on defence spending.
Under a Conservative government, Jivani could be Canada's conduit to the Oval Office.
Anthony Koch, a former spokesperson for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, said it doesn't hurt that one of Poilevre's high-profile recruits is close personal friends with a possible vice-president who's familiar with Canada and its people.
"But at the end of the day, national interest will trump personal interest," Koch told CBC News.
"I suspect both Jamil and J.D. are primarily concerned with serving their constituents more so than being chummy-chummy with the other side. But, yeah, it's cool, we'll see."
Vance — a self-described "hillbilly" who grew up in a white working-class Ohio family with roots in neighbouring Kentucky's coal country — and Jivani, the Black son of a single mother from a Toronto suburb, were classmates at Yale Law School.
It was there that the two became, according to Jivani, "best friends."
"We attended a wine-and-cheese reception. I didn't know so many different kinds of cheese existed. And I had never tasted wine before. Needless to say, I felt out of place. Across the room stood a fellow student who seemed equally unfamiliar with wine and cheese," Jivani wrote of Vance in a November 2020 National Post op-ed.
