Alberta’s Danielle Smith has ‘great time’ with Ben Shapiro at US event

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After appearing with American right-wing podcast host Ben Shapiro at a gala in Florida on Thursday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wrote that she “had a great time,” and was “grateful” for the opportunity to share her message with Americans.

“I will always stand up for the best interests of Albertans and I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to share our message with hundreds of Americans tonight and thousands more via social media in the weeks to come,” Smith wrote on X.

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The event, a fundraising gala for PragerU, a conservative advocacy group, was held in Boca Raton, Fl., and was closed to the press, with no livestream. Even the location was kept secret.

However, the National Observer and DeSmog, news organizations that focus on environmental journalism, obtained audio of the event.

Shapiro and Smith, according to the outlets, discussed how Canada could elect “solid allies” of the United States.

“There was a massive conservative movement that’s happening in Canada,” Shapiro said. “I think the obstacles to that need to be removed. It is better for the United States to have actual solid allies running in Canada than to have some of the schmucks that have been running Canada over the past few years.”

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Smith responded: “I think the president recognizes especially the importance of oil and gas.” She added, “We already ship about 4.3 million barrels a day of oil to the United States. We’ll keep it coming.”

On day one of the federal election campaign, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was forced to deal with the fallout from comments Smith had made earlier this month on a Breitbart podcast. She said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to tariff Canada “seems to be benefiting the Liberals,” and that the Americans might consider putting a pause on tariffs until the Canadian election had concluded.

She also said that Poilievre, who held a dominant lead in Canadian polling until the resignation of Trudeau and the election of Mark Carney as Liberal leader under the shadow of a trade war, would be more “in sync” with the Trump administration. She also applauded the United States’ turn away from 2050 climate goals. In January, Trump signed an executive order to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

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Last week, in a Fox News interview, Trump said that he would prefer if a Liberal won the Canadian election. Host Laura Ingraham pointed out that the way Trump was treating Canada could push Canadians to elect another Liberal government.

“I don’t care,” Trump said. “I think it’s easier to deal, actually, with a liberal and maybe they’re going to win, but I don’t really care. It doesn’t matter to me at all.”

The U.S. president also criticized Poilievre. “The conservative that’s running is, stupidly, no friend of mine. I don’t know him, but he said negative things,” he said.

On Friday, Carney and Trump had their first phone call, just days before additional U.S. tariffs are set to come into effect. In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump called the call “extremely productive” and said that he and Carney “agree on many things.”

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Smith’s office has declined to release its own audio or transcript of the conversation between Smith and Shapiro. However, Smith’s post to X hinted that PragerU may publish portions of the conversation in the future.

Prior to the event, Smith also spoke with Marissa Streit, the CEO of PragerU, and said the interview — and Smith’s message about North American energy dominance — would be shared “in the weeks to come.”

The Alberta premier, who has been campaigning steadily against tariffs in the United States over the past couple months, came under considerable pressure in her home province for the appearance. Shapiro, who founded the Daily Wire, wrote in January that former prime minister Trudeau would be “expelled to Panama to work the canal” after the U.S. took over Canada. In December, Shapiro argued that Canadians would greet Americans “as liberators,” and called Canada “a silly country that makes maple syrup, hockey and annoying prime ministers.” Shapiro on Thursday said the comments were a joke. He has previously criticized Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

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“I still am unclear as to what the actual demand is against Mexico or Canada that would get rid of the tariffs. Canada, by the way, is the number one trade partner with the United States,” Shapiro wrote on Facebook in early March.

Either way, Shapiro’s a controversial figure in the United States — a fact that hasn’t been lost on politicians in Alberta and Canada.

“At a time when Canadians are encouraged to spend their tourism dollars in Canada and the Governor of Florida is insulting tourists from Canada, Danielle Smith will be fundraising for a far-right online platform with extremist Ben Shapiro,” Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said earlier this month.

On Thursday night, Shapiro and Smith addressed the controversy on stage.

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“I know that the premier is taking some flack in her hometown, in all of her hometown neighbourhoods, for even being on stage with me, because I made the unfortunate error of making a joke about our soon-to-be 51st state,” Shapiro said.

Smith told the audience, “I come in peace,” and received loud applause, according to DeSmog and National Observer.

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