Doug Ford wants Danielle Smith to join his fight against Donald Trump, something the Alberta premier has so far refused to do. And that, Ezra Levant argued on Monday's Rebel Roundup livestream, is driving the opinion elite absolutely mad.

Ford has demanded in nearly every media appearance that Smith match his confrontational posture toward the Trump administration — publicly, loudly, and personally. Ezra offered two reasons why.

First, Ford won't tolerate dissent. Second, Ontario sells roughly 1% of its electricity to the U.S. and has no real economic levers to pull. Alberta, however, does with its oil and gas sector, but Premier Smith has declined to use the province's resources as a cudgel against the Americans.

Premier Smith's actual statement on the trade dispute was measured and direct.

"I'm deeply disappointed that Canada and the United States have not been able to reach a trade agreement," she said. "No one benefits from a trade war. Tariffs and counter-tariffs hurt businesses, workers, and families on both sides of the border."

Ezra said Smith's approach was "about as balanced and friendly as possible," but generated "such vicious attacks from the entire opinion elite because she's not joining in the two minutes of hate." 

By any objective measure of success, Smith is Canada's most successful premier in this trade dispute. Alberta's oil, gas, and other key exports have been largely exempted from U.S. tariffs. 

"If success is defined as saving jobs and markets and getting a deal," Ezra said, "Danielle Smith is the most successful premier in Canada."

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In contrast, the Ontario premier's performance looks starkly different, given the province has no new deals or export markets and an increasingly tumultuous relationship with the Trump administration.

Ford "valued mouthing off more than getting a deal," Ezra said, adding the role of a premier does not include duties as a federal trade representative.

Ezra argued that Ford's actual definition of success is different from the stated one.

If Ford can whip up enough anti-Americanism, every economic failure arriving in Ontario can be blamed on Trump rather than on years of bad provincial policy.

"Canada is in a recession. Blame Trump," he said. "That's the play." And the two minutes of hate only works if participation is unanimous: "There can't be someone in the corner saying, 'Well, I actually don't hate the guy so much,'" he continued, drawing a parallel to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

"That's why they hate her. That's why they're calling her a traitor."

Mark Carney, Ezra noted, campaigned and won on the promise of being the Trump whisperer who could get a deal no one else could. That promise has not been kept.

Rebel Roundup airs Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET.