Re: Jamil Jivani Canada’s JD Vance
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2026 6:51 am
This country is in for a very rocky 18 months or two years. If the Conservatives allow themselves to be know as the party that wouldn’t stand up to Trump, or to secessionists — or as the party that sided with either — it will spend another generation, possibly two, out of power.
Don’t kid yourself: there are significant sections of the party base, and of the conservative intelligentsia, who are indulgent of, if not favourable to, both — annexation and separation.
That number is likely to grow, not fall, as the pressure on Canada, and the party, grows: as Trump gets crazier, and his secessionist helpmates more brazen, those who are now counselling meet appeasement may grow more desperate, and more ambitious.
That’s partly why you see Conservative elder statesmen like Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney speaking out. Yes, they want to help their country. But they’re also trying to drag their party back to sanity.
One early clue to whether anyone is listening will be how they deal with Jivani. At the moment, the signs are not encouraging. If they can’t even bring themselves to deal with Jivani, who holds no party office, it’s scarcely likely they’ll deal seriously with Trump. And for the same reason: Jivani speaks for many in the party. They know it.
And he knows it. Jivani has thrown down the gauntlet to the party establishment. At the moment, it seems no one is willing to pick it up.