The dance between mayors and premiers has always been a difficult one.

If you imagine those two people brought together at a ball, the dance would be more a delicate minuet than a hip-banging hip hop. Slower. Short steps. More cautious, with a bit of flirting from each, occasional handholding but few commitments--especially with the eagle-eyed parents (read, media) watching every move.

Every mayor and every premier are different. Both can be warm/cold, friendly/stand-offish, generous/stingy, open/closed, smart/not so smart OK, sometimes pretty dumb.

Sometimes relationships just don't click. You meet someone, you dislike them for whatever reason. Stuff happens. Politics happens.

But have a relationship they must. In the political system in place in Canada, provinces control municipalities with a ruthless capacity for punishment. And premiers run their province.

The recent example of the mayor of Whitby, Ontario, a small city east of Toronto, Elizabeth Roy, indulging in a public spat with Premier Doug Ford, is absolutely fascinating.

The mayor wanted a commitment from the province to build a new, and badly needed, hospital in Whitby. She tried the usual politicking and lobbying, but to no avail. The province did not include the hospital's planning grant in its budgets.

So, the mayor turned to the public. She initiated an email campaign from her local constituents to the premier. The city hosted a webpage which residents could fill out with their own stories about healthcare, and which were then sent to the premier and the four local MPPs, who were all government members.

Nearly 5,000 people responded to the campaign.

At one point, the mayor upped the ante by offering people who engaged in the campaign a chance to win prizes.

Premier Ford responded with asperity. As the Toronto Star reported, "Folks, that is wrong," the premier told reporters. "You can't be doing that. Elected officials cannot be pulling these games," he said, adding that he wasn't going "to be bullied by that mayor out (there)", and the province would decide the Durham hospital site.

A premier piqued.

Then, miraculously, the other day, the premier casually announced that the province was going to build a new hospital in Whitby. The Health Minister later confirmed the details.

The mayor was not at the event.

A happy ending to a very interesting lobbying campaign that the mayor orchestrated.

Who will ever know how much public pressure pushed the premier to approve the new hospital. But the evidence suggests it made a difference.

The dance continues across Canada as mayors and premiers nervously conduct their minuet. Sometimes a waltz. Occasionally a slow dance. Never a tango.

The orchestra plays on.