Danielle Smith's fight against Trump tariffs takes her to right-wing non-profit PragerU gala

In a fiery legislature speech this week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the Mark Carney Liberals "want this lady and Alberta to just sit down and shut up."

Smith was referring to her efforts to reach out and change the minds of Trump-friendly conservatives at a time when Canada is threatened by a U.S. trade war.

The new Liberal leader and his party haven't publicly said she shouldn't venture stateside; in fact, they might appreciate some of her rhetoric, given that they've made a partisan ad out of her remarks in a U.S. interview that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is "in sync" with President Donald Trump's direction.

Smith, undeterred by something the Carney Liberals haven't said (though the Alberta NDP has), headed down to Florida for another U.S. speaking engagement.

She said she's "going into the lion's den to change the hearts and minds of the very Americans that we need on Canada's side to avoid a trade war." And on Thursday night, Smith added, she'll speak "this time through the second-largest podcaster in the world" — Ben Shapiro.

Getting on the already tariff-wary Shapiro's popular conservative podcast could be considered a coup in Canada's persuasion campaign with Trump and his "make America great again" (MAGA) allies.

But that's not what Smith's doing down in Florida.

She'll appear alongside the commentator at a $1,500 US-a-ticket gala fundraiser for Prager University Foundation. It's not an accredited university, but the self-described "world's leading conservative non-profit" that pumps out educational videos and other materials designed to combat "woke themes and anti-American sentiment" in schools.

The premier will appear on a podcast, too, though one far less popular than Shapiro's. It's hosted by Marissa Streit, the CEO of PragerU.

It's actually only a few weeks after another Canadian voice appeared on Streit's Real Talk podcast — Tom MacDonald, a rapper originally from Mission, B.C., dubbed by Rolling Stone as a "MAGA rap kingpin."

Her first question to the expat, delivered with a laugh: "Should Canada be the 51st state?"

MacDonald sighed; he's no "elbows up" patriot. "Well, I wish it would be, but I doubt it's going to happen."

As their chat proceeded, Streit compared Canada to communist Cuba. "Now I think of Canadians as refugees. There are so many of you who come here and don't want to go back and horror stories. It's just hard to believe because you speak English in Canada! You're supposed to be normal!"

(Emigration, or people leaving Canada, has risen lately, but the pace of immigration and population growth have become a bigger challenge.)