John Bolton - April 28, 2026


Alberta - 6 Months to Independence - With Mitch Sylvestre- Stay Free Alberta


Episode Stats


Length

17 minutes

Words per minute

207.29

Word count

3,537

Sentence count

154


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Stay Free Alberta's Mitch Sylvester joins the show to talk about the campaign to get the referendum on the ballot. Stay Free Alberta is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting for Alberta's oil and gas industry.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel Tuesday, April the 28th. I hope you're having an awesome
00:00:07.780 day today. I certainly am with the big blue mug of coffee, which I tip to you and I tip
00:00:13.500 to the guest we've got today, Mitch Sylvester, Stay Free Alberta. It is a pleasure to have
00:00:19.220 you on today. Thank you so much for your time as usual. And let me ask you this, Mitch,
00:00:25.520 are you relieved uh we're kind of finished with the petition signing are you relieved on tuesday
00:00:31.760 of next week i'll be relieved yeah yeah we'll talk a little bit about what comes next i wanted to show
00:00:36.480 you something okay sure um i think you know the gentleman i think you've got one of these hats
00:00:41.360 yes i have one you do actually yeah of our pain yeah i wore it yesterday at the uh pop-up that
00:00:48.320 i was at to sign people and yeah i got some real positive reaction on let's go well i i
00:00:54.960 I was talking about, he showed me one of these hats.
00:00:57.320 He sent me a picture from my independence calendar.
00:00:59.280 I said, I need one of those hats.
00:01:00.340 He sent this.
00:01:00.980 I got it in the mail today.
00:01:02.000 So LeVar, thank you so much.
00:01:03.740 He told me he gave one to you as well.
00:01:05.620 Let's go, Mitch.
00:01:06.580 Next part of this campaign is coming up.
00:01:10.600 I know I spoke to you earlier today.
00:01:12.240 You're out collecting signatures running around right now.
00:01:16.000 Any way people can help you with that to make it easier?
00:01:18.580 Actually, no.
00:01:19.340 I think we've pretty much got it nailed down.
00:01:21.080 I think I'm going to basically be all the way north to all the way south
00:01:26.240 in the next couple of days, and then we'll bring everything back.
00:01:28.700 And, you know, I was in Lloydminster today, collected some there.
00:01:33.260 And so, you know what, away we go.
00:01:35.620 We're in the final stages of this, and we've got signatures.
00:01:39.340 We should have lots of signatures to hold the referendum.
00:01:42.040 So, you know what, plus we'll add to that in the next couple, three days.
00:01:45.720 And, you know what, we'll come up with a number, and away we go.
00:01:48.880 I've seen a lot of people, they're posting on X and whatnot, you know, handing in the badge today, a big smile on their face.
00:01:54.340 You know, people are relieved.
00:01:55.360 I've had people sending me messages saying, you know, I'm glad that I don't have to be out in the cold anymore.
00:02:00.240 The weather just has been awful the last week of this, really.
00:02:03.360 So they're really happy.
00:02:04.920 But you know what's amazing is the exuberance and excitement has never ended in the last four months.
00:02:10.040 It's even grown.
00:02:10.820 Have you noticed that?
00:02:11.860 Oh, we've got such great people.
00:02:13.220 Yeah.
00:02:13.760 Like such great people.
00:02:14.740 Everybody's committed.
00:02:15.400 you know what we're giving people hope and and that's that's the whole idea here people have
00:02:20.440 are you know people are tired of uh of what we've been dealing with forever and and in the last 10
00:02:24.920 years it's gotten ridiculous like i mean before it was almost it was it was it was a level of
00:02:29.960 manageable if that's the case if that's the right way to put it but but now it's basically unmanageable
00:02:35.960 totally unmanageable and and you know what imagine all the way like i stood outside in a snowstorm
00:02:41.320 yesterday for for two hours uh and you know what some of these guys were there for four or five
00:02:46.600 hours yesterday uh doing the best that they could and we were getting signatures so we're signing
00:02:51.240 people uh still you know last minute people people excited to come and sign and and you know what
00:02:56.600 kudos to everybody like just all the work goes and just understand this they knew what they were
00:03:02.680 doing when they gave us this to do in the middle in the middle of winter but even they could not
00:03:08.760 have predicted this winter like last week we're expecting nice weather last week oh my god like
00:03:15.000 we got a foot we got a foot of snow here it was like five six seven below for highs uh thursday
00:03:20.760 friday saturday it was like cold and yesterday it warmed up to minus three with a big wind
00:03:27.320 and snowing so yeah no it was it was absolutely incredible that and we did well so just saying
00:03:33.720 that uh congratulations to all of you that did all the work and you know what john the one thing
00:03:37.960 that i noticed and everywhere i was is that people are afraid to sign and what does that say
00:03:46.840 what does that say about our country what does that say about the state of where we're in
00:03:50.120 and my response to them is that you you you're answering your own question here
00:03:54.520 if you're afraid to sign you know you know you absolutely better signed because you have to sign
00:03:58.920 but here's the beauty mitch when you get into a ballot box nobody knows what you're saying so
00:04:03.640 So they have an opportunity down the way to put an X on, yes, I want to leave.
00:04:08.980 And that's the beauty of this, right?
00:04:10.520 Yeah, 100%.
00:04:11.620 And that's the beauty of this, but we're not there yet.
00:04:15.260 No.
00:04:15.900 We're a long ways from there.
00:04:17.220 And you know what?
00:04:18.260 I've done a lot of work to put our premier in places, and I give her lots of credit for getting us here.
00:04:26.180 But her message at the last press conference I didn't find very encouraging.
00:04:31.020 So I'm a little concerned about that.
00:04:34.120 And you know what?
00:04:34.740 We're going to take steps to address that.
00:04:36.100 And hopefully, you know what?
00:04:36.880 We can get our question on the ballot.
00:04:39.060 And, you know, ours is a constitutional question.
00:04:41.460 So there's, you know, that's what I'm seeing.
00:04:43.560 I've seen that we have the question.
00:04:45.240 So let's see if they have the courage to put it there.
00:04:47.580 She's been pretty consistent saying that she wants, what is it,
00:04:50.120 a united or a sovereign Alberta with a united Canada or something like that.
00:04:53.740 What did it concern you that you didn't think she would provide us
00:04:56.700 with a question in the fall?
00:04:58.420 Well, that's the problem, right?
00:05:01.040 The part that concerned me is that she said, you know what, we're going to wait for a court ruling and then we're going to decide what's going on there.
00:05:07.240 Well, Jeff's got that judge in court on Wednesday.
00:05:10.840 They're going to talk about bias and they're going to spend a lot of time talking about bias.
00:05:15.440 So, you know, in case we need to appeal this, we can't just bring bias out after we lose a case if we're going to lose a case.
00:05:21.300 And it's been my feeling right from the beginning that we're going to lose this case.
00:05:24.900 So as a consequence to that, we have to, you know, take the correct steps
00:05:30.080 so that we could challenge it and appeal it.
00:05:34.060 So that's what we're doing Wednesday, somewhere in Edmonton, I believe.
00:05:37.200 And so I'm just thinking that, you know, Jeff's feeling the same as I am.
00:05:41.860 I don't want to put words in his mouth, but, you know,
00:05:44.000 we're both feeling that we're not going to win this court case
00:05:46.080 and that they're going to use everything they can do to stop this process.
00:05:48.300 She was pretty quick to drag out Thomas Lukasik's petition.
00:05:53.260 She had it handy.
00:05:54.300 She was reading off it, I think, last week.
00:05:56.700 Do you think she might go with his question?
00:05:59.880 And here's the problem with that, right?
00:06:02.720 Yeah.
00:06:03.100 That's the same thing as what the last question they had based on transfer payments.
00:06:09.020 It doesn't hold any water at all.
00:06:10.960 That's right.
00:06:11.680 Like ours is the question.
00:06:14.720 So ours is a shark bite compared to a mosquito bite.
00:06:17.740 And they know that.
00:06:19.140 They know that our question is a dangerous question.
00:06:21.280 So, you know, and according to Justice Feasby, he said, you know what, there's questions that the people should not be allowed to ask.
00:06:28.560 And this is what they're saying.
00:06:32.100 And these are federally appointed judges.
00:06:34.480 So just understand they haven't got our best interests at heart.
00:06:37.520 So, you know what, we basically have to do what I've been saying right from the very beginning.
00:06:42.660 We have to, you know, from the time I got involved with politics four years ago, join the UCP.
00:06:48.340 And if you stand one side or the other, make your voice heard.
00:06:52.420 And you know what?
00:06:53.280 Let's challenge our government to do what the people want them to do.
00:06:57.540 To people who don't know what joining the UCP means, what does that mean to you?
00:07:02.300 Well, what it means to me is it's a participation in a democracy.
00:07:06.120 So, you see, here's what's happened to us.
00:07:08.280 And I mean, and I'm no better.
00:07:10.520 I'm not going to tell anybody that four years ago, I was actually as bad as anybody.
00:07:15.240 I was busy running my world.
00:07:16.940 I have a busy world, you know, I've been working, coaching, raising kids, all manner of stuff. So I
00:07:22.580 get it. I get all of it, but we're an emergency right now. People understand our lifestyle is
00:07:28.400 under attack. And so people have to understand that in order for us to be heard, we have to
00:07:33.120 talk to government and government is right now the UCP. So in order to speak to the UCP, we have to
00:07:38.480 be part of the UCP. So, you know, and I wouldn't change this if it was tip or whoever it was in
00:07:44.840 power, just understand that if you're going to get results, you have to talk to the elected people.
00:07:50.120 I mean, that's politics 101. If you don't talk to the elected people and you're talking to your
00:07:55.440 friends and neighbors, they have no power, no ability to change it. So what we have to do is
00:07:59.240 join the UCP and make your voice heard, attend local AGMs, provincial AGMs, all manner of that
00:08:07.280 stuff, be visible, be heard. And you know what, we'll call on people. We have an agenda based on
00:08:12.820 what we think is going to help. And if you're a member of the UCP, well, then you can actually
00:08:17.400 attend and help out. Okay. State Free Alberta, a posting regarding, you probably have a few bills
00:08:24.680 that have to come in. You're asking for a few more bucks, are you? Yeah. Well, we'd like to have
00:08:29.180 a little bit more money. We're just about ready to finish that. We need about 20 to 25,000 to
00:08:34.240 finish this on a $600,000 budget. So that's reasonable, but we're just at the very back of
00:08:39.980 but we're very close to having enough money just to come out of here flush.
00:08:44.060 I'm in contact with people who seem pretty excited about going with you to Edmonton
00:08:47.960 to drop off these signatures.
00:08:50.640 Tell us how that works out, as this is happening a week from today, a Monday.
00:08:55.060 That's on Monday.
00:08:55.840 We'll be leaving Bonneville at about 9.30.
00:08:58.640 So you know what?
00:08:59.660 This is totally unprompted.
00:09:00.940 This is people on their own coming over here.
00:09:02.920 We haven't planned this.
00:09:03.780 We're going to come out with some kind of a plan now that we know that people are coming.
00:09:07.480 We have people coming from Red Deer, which is exactly what started this conversation, all the way here to drive to the city and then, of course, continue to go home after it was done.
00:09:16.720 But we'll be leaving Bonneville at about 9.30 in the morning.
00:09:20.400 We have to be in Elections Alberta by 1.30, so that'll give us lots of time.
00:09:24.380 So we'll be able to get there in time to deliver the signatures.
00:09:29.280 We will have people there to take your picture.
00:09:31.140 We will have, you know, John's coming.
00:09:34.660 so we'll have some we'll have celebrities there as well and uh you know they'll they'll want to
00:09:40.180 meet you and everybody will be excited that will be a real feel-good moment and i'll guarantee you
00:09:45.220 five minutes after that's over i'll we'll be relieved yes you okay so we're waiting for the
00:09:49.540 relief and we'll uh we'll maybe put a microphone in front of you and have you do a big sigh next
00:09:53.640 monday um we're moving into the next phase of this um i think fundraising is the big thing to come
00:10:00.000 there's going to be a lot of money being poured in here from ottawa all over the country to try
00:10:04.380 to keep us to stay um how can people help out with that um if they can at all right now well you can
00:10:11.020 donate to the to the alberta prosperity society is that where they that so they need to go to the
00:10:16.140 alberta prosperity project website is that the place to go now okay yeah or finish us up here
00:10:21.660 with stay free alberta sure sure of course so one place or the other but uh you can donate
00:10:26.620 any amount anonymously to the alberta prosperity society now uh so that money goes in anonymously
00:10:32.780 we until this is how third parties work if you donated money to us and we were a third party
00:10:39.400 then we would have to disclose who the donors are right now if you donate to us it's totally
00:10:44.920 anonymous we're a non-for-profit so you can donate any amount of money to albert prosperity society
00:10:51.360 and we will use that money 100 guaranteed to advance this cause okay gotcha um so fundraising
00:10:58.100 is coming up. I suppose that people have ideas as well to get in touch, and I have another idea
00:11:03.680 that I want to kind of do as well, so I'm pretty excited about that. What's the timeline here?
00:11:10.860 When will we know how many signatures? People have been asking this for three months. How many
00:11:14.980 signatures have we got? What's the timeline in finding out the number of signatures we got,
00:11:19.760 and when's the earliest we might find out about a question on a ballot if that happens?
00:11:25.260 the answer to that is you'll know when you get to the elections alberta office on monday what
00:11:31.820 the number is you'll also it's it's three weeks it's three weeks to that they are taking to
00:11:39.180 to verify the signatures so the earliest that all of this could get going so probably the 25th of
00:11:45.260 may 26th of may so if they verify the signatures and then uh you know these are legit and i've
00:11:51.500 looked over these sheets and i was involved with signing people and our process was completely
00:11:57.100 different completely completely different to lucasics yeah he did not need never mind legal
00:12:02.140 land description he did not need id he did not need anything just people had to sign their name
00:12:06.140 on the on the line and then away they went well we need we need physical address uh you know peel
00:12:11.820 box numbers don't work if you have a driver's license with a peel box number that doesn't work
00:12:15.260 for us we were sending people home 15 or 20 percent of our people were going home to get
00:12:19.740 physical address yeah and i you know i'm concerned about how many of them ever came back
00:12:24.060 so you you say that on monday this coming monday you're going to have a number for people we're
00:12:31.420 going to know how many because you've had them counted already well we're counting them every
00:12:35.200 day yeah okay so you got a number it's just going up okay good so that's that's people really want
00:12:40.800 to know how many signatures after all the work over the last four months so that's going to be
00:12:45.000 interesting to hear on monday so we'll be prepared for that as well um what do you what do you want
00:12:52.640 to say i mean you've already mentioned the people that were out there and i've been out visiting
00:12:57.580 people i've said to them so many times thank you for being out here i ran into some people down
00:13:02.500 at elbow falls a while back a couple sitting out there doing good business by the way at elbow
00:13:07.240 falls uh on 66 highway just uh southwest of brag creek there and they had 860 signatures each and
00:13:16.280 you've mentioned that these people are great your final words for what's happened over the last four
00:13:20.440 months well you know what i think this sums it all up i was coming home from the south i wasn't
00:13:24.760 coming home from the south i was going to another event it was 25 below zero there was a cargo
00:13:30.760 trailer at the side of the road with alberta flags on it big sign on the door says knock if you want
00:13:36.680 want to sign they're both sitting inside that cargo trailer bundled up for like 30 below in a
00:13:42.420 cargo trailer with a small heater yeah and they're going to be there all day collecting signatures
00:13:47.060 hoping to get 10 signatures all day what does that tell you yeah yeah i know it's just it's
00:13:53.640 just incredible how much work people have done and you know i'm so appreciative and i know
00:13:58.120 everybody's appreciative for everything everybody does but uh without all that massive group of
00:14:03.520 volunteers. There's just absolutely no way this happens. And people have no idea how hard it was
00:14:07.980 to collect signatures from people. People don't want to be on the list. I started with that
00:14:12.860 earlier today, but you have to be aware people are afraid of government. And the fact that people
00:14:18.220 are afraid of our government here, I remember the day. I can tell you exactly where I was when they
00:14:22.220 first announced that they're freezing back accounts. I was on my way back from an Oilers
00:14:25.260 hockey game. I was just at the Glendon turnoff about 15, 20 minutes from Bonneville. And I turned
00:14:31.640 in and I stopped and I had a discussion with my wife and I go, holy, this is a whole new level
00:14:36.380 here. So, so yeah, so that's exactly what was going on there. Well, I remember having a
00:14:42.780 conversation with my wife being concerned that my bank account was going to be frozen back then
00:14:47.780 because I had contributed to that and I was, we were quite concerned about it. So yeah, I remember
00:14:54.300 that as well, but it has been an interesting, you know, it's, it's very strange. I was thinking this
00:14:58.140 before you just connected with me here on this zoom call was it seems like just yesterday this
00:15:03.420 began but boy those four months took some time to get through after when you really start to think
00:15:07.420 about it you know there was there was it was an adventure from december 22nd till today yeah like
00:15:15.180 it's just been one thing after another after another uh one thing to deal with another thing
00:15:19.660 to deal with uh you know issues here there and everywhere government uh you know we've had court
00:15:25.340 case after court case we've had three letters every week from elections alberta multiple letters
00:15:31.020 every week from elections alberta we had all those people trying to assault our canvassers
00:15:35.340 with no reaction from the other side we never did that to forever canada people never would do that
00:15:41.820 either that's just not who we are so you know what uh there was a lot going on here you know i mean
00:15:48.140 it started off with people trying to run marty over on the side of the road and then the bullet
00:15:53.740 here and then finally somebody gets a cigarette but to put out on their face here at the end uh
00:15:59.580 you know people are throwing hot coffee on our canvassers so i'm just saying you know what it
00:16:03.580 was uh a lot of courage uh shown by our people and uh you know what i respect that i respect courage
00:16:10.860 and that's why i respect all my people so much you know going around um driving around and seeing
00:16:16.380 blue flags flying everywhere it's been a great way to educate people about this as well and
00:16:21.740 Despite those things happening, people have kept their spirits very high, and I think they're ready for the next phase.
00:16:27.580 And it's going to be about six months.
00:16:29.000 So four months for the petitions, six months for the question and educating people and fundraising.
00:16:34.560 So I think everybody's ready to go.
00:16:36.840 And as the hat says, Mitch, let's go.
00:16:39.300 We're ready to go.
00:16:39.980 Thanks so much for doing this today.
00:16:41.240 I appreciate it.
00:16:42.360 Yeah, we'll share the plan with you here in a week or two.
00:16:45.440 It's going to be very elaborate, very clear, and we'll have lots of work for everybody.
00:16:49.180 That's the goal.
00:16:50.280 Mitch Sylvester from Stay Free, Alberta.
00:16:52.200 We appreciate what you've done all the way along.
00:16:54.560 Thank you so much for being here today.
00:16:56.160 And if you like this video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, ring the bell
00:17:00.280 for notifications.
00:17:01.120 I will see you in the next one.
00:17:03.360 Thanks, John.