Even I couldn't ferret out of Ezra Levant the specifics of what was concluded in a 120-minute meeting he had with Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper this past weekend.

Not even when I played the Jewish hand -- that being while Ezra and Stephen used to co-host Christmas/ Hanukkah parties together, I co-hosted the first B'nai Brith/Knights of Columbus Christmas/Hanukkah party -- would Ezra give the bottom line to the discussions.

And there wasn't a word in any newspaper the two had even met.

There was the juicy rumour Levant is being urged to carry the Alliance flag against Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark in Calgary Centre come the next federal election.

This would see a youthful, vibrant Levant (he'd be 33) going up against a 65-year-old shopworn politician.

So you know what the outcome of that would be.

The faultline is Clark won't be running in Calgary Centre -- or anywhere else -- come the election expected in three years' time.

Yet Harper does want to "harness" Levant's considerable "political energies" and not let them sit idle until a seat opens up for him.

A lot of people are under the misguided impression -- or perhaps it's simply a disruptive impression they want to float --that Levant and Harper are at odds with each other.

That's because of the ruckus that occurred when Levant dallied for a day -- and it was only one day -- before giving up his nomination to run in the May 13 byelection in Calgary Southwest to the newly-elected Alliance leader.

Levant's foes -- and the foes of the Alliance -- have been trying to make a mountain out of a molehill of this. Their aim: Destabilize the Alliance and its leader.

The ploy won't work.

Let's recall that just a handful of months ago, on Dec. 19, some four months before Harper crushed opponent Stockwell Day in the leadership race, Harper personally endorsed Levant's candidacy at a rally at the Calgary Jewish Community Centre.

Neither knew what would soon unfold.

What they hoped would unfold was that Liberal leader Jean Chretien (I'm finding it increasingly harder to refer to him as prime minister, aren't you?) would call a prompt byelection for Calgary Southwest and Levant would walk to a quick victory over the lacklustre candidates the oldline parties put up.

Weeks later, after Harper won the Alliance leadership, another seat would open up for him.

But the wily Chretien, I'm told, didn't want to see two fresh "principled" conservative faces staring at he and his jaded team across the Commons floor.

Hence the Grit strategists set up the scenario in which they hoped the always-aggressive Levant would balk at having spent close to $200,000 and exhausting months building his candidacy only to give it over to Harper.

They hoped the Alliance would tear itself apart once again.

Their hopes were dashed -- as were similar hopes by Clark's dwindling Tories -- to see a fiasco erupt.

What they forgot was Levant, for all his personal ambition, is a dedicated loyalist to the conservative cause.

He was intensely loyal to Preston Manning as leader.

He was just as loyal to Stockwell Day as leader.

He will be a bulwark of support to Harper, too.

In the background to the current scene, Harper knows full well that but for Levant's canny campaign last year to oust the sitting Calgary Southwest constituency association board, a joint "conservative" candidate would be running under the Alliance/PC banner in this byelection -- and not only would that "joint" candidate have been part and parcel of the plan to sell out the Alliance to Clark's Tories, but Harper wouldn't have been given a look-in after he became leader.

Indeed, it would be Clark who would be in the ascendency now, and Harper who would be waffling around looking for a seat.

Clark would be chortling and so would the Alliance's enemies -- PCs, Liberals and New Democrats alike

Instead, Harper is at the helm of a united party, the Alliance has leapfrogged over the PCs in the polls, the Democratic Representative Caucus (DRC) that Clark pinned so much on has collapsed, with its members returning to the Alliance.

The credit for much of this belongs to Ezra Levant -- now, incidentally, a household name across the nation -- so little wonder Harper spent two hours with him this past weekend.

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Jackson, associate editor of the Sun, can be reached at [email protected].