Doug Ford wants Alberta and Saskatchewan to get in the trench with him as he attempts to rally support for his trade war with the United States.

On this week's Buffalo Roundtable, Sheila Gunn Reid, Lise Merle and Cory Morgan shared their thoughts on the Ontario premier's battle plan.

Ford's latest pointed message directed at premiers Danielle Smith and Scott Moe suggested that if they're not fighting Trump the way Ontario is fighting Trump, they're not pulling their weight. "It can't always be Ontario," Ford said. "It has to be a Team Canada approach."

Sheila wasn't buying the notion.

"He's blaming Alberta and Saskatchewan for not being antagonistic enough," she said, "and insinuating that if you don't fight, then you're not a good guy."

She noted that Danielle Smith's approach, which involved speaking directly with Republicans immediately after Trump's election, differentiated herself from the rest. As a result, Alberta was largely spared from the worst of the trade war fallout.

"A lot of Trump's foreign policy is: does he like you or not?" she said. "Maybe make yourself a little bit more likable."

Cory Morgan pointed to the deeper irony at play.

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"Ontario has been a net recipient of equalization lately," he said. "He should be a little more grateful for us carrying his rotund ass for as long as we have — and then to threaten the very industries that are buttering his toast." 

Sheila added that Ford's own industries are kept alive by billions in federal subsidies, with EV plants producing cars nobody wants, protected by tariffs on Chinese EVs that resulted in retaliatory canola tariffs paid by Western farmers.

"Now he wants Western oil and gas jobs sacrificed on this mess," she said. "This is why there are Western separatists."

"This is a Chihuahua chirping at a pitbull," Cory said. "You don't have the leverage to make threats."

The panel also reacted to Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew saying he is "open to entertaining" the idea of a pipeline from Alberta through Manitoba to Ontario.

Morgan pointed out that under the Constitution, Kinew doesn't actually have the authority to entertain or refuse the idea, since interprovincial pipelines are federal jurisdiction.

"Thanks to the precedent set by our weak prime minister giving extortion fees to B.C.," Morgan said, "you embolden somebody like Wab Kinew to say, 'Yeah, how are you going to grease our hands?'"

The Buffalo Roundtable airs Wednesdays at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET.