President Donald Trump recognized Calgary at a memorial service held on Sunday in honour of Charlie Kirk.
Charlie Kirk, an American political activist and founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University earlier this month.
Vigils were held all across North America to pay respect to Kirk, including one in front of Calgary’s City Hall last week.
While speaking about Kirk’s impact at his memorial service in Arizona, President Trump mentioned the vigil in YYC, saying, “In Calgary, Canada, thousands gathered at City Hall to sing the American National anthem, and raise up posters with the name Charlie Kirk.”
Calgarians quickly took to Reddit to discuss the shoutout. Some users were surprised by the shoutout, and others weren’t exactly thrilled.
“I would prefer to be off that guy’s radar screen,” one person wrote. Another added, “Not the shoutout we want, while a third said, “Humiliating hearing our city’s name come out of his mouth.”
Some pointed out that his statement was a bit incorrect, with thousands being an exaggeration.
“It wasn’t thousands,” someone said. “I think it was a couple hundred per CPS, incredibly low turnout,” another user commented.
Others jumped to the defence of the vigil, “Let people pay respects to whoever they choose,” while some were shocked by the shoutout, “Definitely unexpected,” one user commented, “Gotta be honest, wasn’t expecting the shoutout.”
Trump visited Alberta in June, when Kananaskis hosted the G7 Summit. He later left the summit ahead of schedule due to conflict in the Middle East.