John Bolton - Alberta at a Crossroads： Mitch Sylvestre Reacts to Premier Smith

00:00:00.000 hi it's john and welcome to the channel it is 10 15 a.m it is friday february the 20th great to

00:00:10.060 have you along today here with the big blue mug of coffee of course tasting oh so sweet today

00:00:15.940 and i'm very lucky to have on the next gentleman on with me on the channel mitch sylvester from

00:00:21.280 stay free alberta who spends so much time in his car doing this interview from a car today

00:00:26.920 nice to talk to you mitch thanks for your time i appreciate it well thanks for having me john

00:00:32.800 interesting times it really is interesting times and again i want to thank you very much because

00:00:38.740 you're you're a very busy person and i i like that i like that you're you you give the time to people

00:00:44.440 around the province who want to hear from you because you're leading up this movement towards

00:00:48.500 the independence um towards independence hopefully for a referendum in the fall but i want to talk

00:00:54.160 to you about what happened last night i watched danielle smith um do this speech address to the

00:01:00.880 province and maybe i'm looking for some reassurance here mitch um the words independence weren't

00:01:07.800 mentioned at all in this speech um but it seemed like it was all over this speech as far as i was

00:01:14.040 concerned uh and and here we are now with referendum questions in the fall nine of them some of which

00:01:21.920 address some of the issues we have when it comes to alberta independence am i reading too much into

00:01:27.520 this it was just a shot across the bow by the premier at the independence movement i really think it is

00:01:34.780 um you know unless they well here's the here's my perspective on it okay um every question that she

00:01:44.320 asked is a no brain like why doesn't she just do it why do we need why do we need uh her to ask

00:01:52.220 permission for albertans uh to do something about something that's critically a problem right now

00:01:57.180 and why do we have to wait nine months for a decision on that when it's it's very clear that every one of

00:02:02.180 those questions is is a very simple yes answer like do we agree that we should stop uncontrolled

00:02:09.140 migration i i suggest that um that's very clear across the whole province everybody agrees with

00:02:14.520 that in spite of the fact and you may be you may remember this uh i very clearly remember the premier

00:02:20.960 taking a position a couple years ago that she wanted 10 million albertans uh in alberta and uh now uh you

00:02:27.720 know and i remember the reaction she got at the agm at that time and she since changed her stance on that

00:02:33.660 but but but we're we're seeing the results of half that number right now uh being catastrophic

00:02:40.960 and if it's really catastrophic why are we waiting seven or eight months to take action

00:02:45.740 is my problem it's it's more of delay delay delay and and that's exactly uh where i see the problem is

00:02:53.920 uh the premier clearly didn't address uh cpp she talked she talked about 10 billion dollars in the

00:03:01.580 heritage uh savings fund uh but we're talking about 400 billion dollars that are flapping in the wind

00:03:09.260 that nobody seems to want to pay attention to she clearly didn't talk about revenue collection um you

00:03:15.280 know based on the fact that you know in the event that we have a free and independent alberta that we

00:03:20.660 will be able to collect our own taxes on day one and she didn't talk much about police she didn't talk

00:03:25.720 about any of those things that i think are clearly important to us right now uh you know no matter which

00:03:31.020 side of this movement you're on and you mentioned all i'm seeing go ahead go ahead i'm sorry go ahead

00:03:35.320 all i'm seeing from them uh the ucp is you know delay more delay tactics and um you know i mean we're

00:03:43.940 collecting signatures we're going to get to the threshold so that we can have this referendum i

00:03:48.400 believe and uh when when that happens then we're going to have to address a clear and independent

00:03:53.000 question on uh on on albert independence i am i got a text message from somebody this morning just

00:03:59.240 irate that the question about whether you want a number of pension plan wasn't on one of these

00:04:04.660 questions and you mentioned cpp there but my my question to you is if if we got all of these

00:04:09.660 things which i think is highly doubtful because many of these questions are have constitutional issues

00:04:15.180 involved i mean i don't think you can get all the 10 provinces to agree on anything when we can't

00:04:20.240 agree to get a trillion dollars worth of oil out of the ground which will benefit all of us but

00:04:24.140 you know if we got all of these things would you be satisfied at that point no no i i think i think

00:04:31.520 our biggest problem is in ottawa i i think that the corruption and level in ottawa is off the charts

00:04:37.040 and and i've been saying this every night all over the all over the provinces like when people

00:04:41.500 understand that we're taxed 43 to 53 percent that's the problem you know the problem is it doesn't

00:04:48.380 matter how much oil you produce if they take all the money what difference does it make how much oil

00:04:52.360 produce uh where you know we're clearly in a situation where trillions of dollars in debt

00:04:56.760 and um saudi who actually has exports three things um you know has a way better system way better

00:05:05.220 economy and they're not even they're they don't even have 10 of our debt so where's all the money

00:05:09.660 going is the problem so even if you produce more and have more money uh where is it all going to go

00:05:15.220 obviously not to not to our people and so if if that is right in a nutshell the real problem

00:05:22.120 how do you address this mitch this is a question that really struck me we now have nine questions

00:05:28.880 on a referendum on october the 19th i believe is the date nine questions and the independence

00:05:35.620 movement wants its questions stay free alberta's question needs to be on that referendum are we going

00:05:41.980 to be stuck at number 10 is this what you envisioned when you wanted a referendum on independence here in

00:05:47.080 alberta we've you know our question is supposed to be a constitutional question it's supposed to be a

00:05:52.520 standalone question and all of these questions that they're asking is just muddying the waters

00:05:57.480 just making everything less clear the whole all of that gets solved with a yes vote on our question

00:06:04.620 all of that gets solved with a yes vote on our question every bit of it there doesn't have to be any more

00:06:10.940 that question solves solves everything or at least gives a clear path if if uh albertans decide that

00:06:18.260 they don't want uh alberta independence well then you know then the premier is going to have to act

00:06:23.260 on her own to make these decisions on behalf of albertans or that are going to be best for them

00:06:27.700 and i really don't believe that she has to wait seven months to do it she should be doing it right now

00:06:32.120 how do you address this say we say we move along we get the the signatures we need

00:06:36.400 she said that we'll be able to have a question on this we're we're pretty much assured that's going

00:06:41.500 to happen can you imagine her having two of these days where we're going to be answering this this

00:06:47.560 could be very expensive difficult to do certainly as you said and as i said in my video this morning

00:06:52.660 you read my mind from my video this morning we could easily solve all of these problems with the

00:06:57.260 question that you want to put in front of the people of alberta but how do you how do you get this

00:07:01.900 question and are they going to try to push this off to another year next year is certainly out of the

00:07:06.580 out of the realm of possibility we're going into an election year we won't have a question on

00:07:11.500 independence prior to an election do we get this thing pushed back a little bit and lose the momentum

00:07:16.300 we've grown here's a lot in that question there mitch but these are the things that are running through

00:07:20.720 my mind well the i see that you know mr carney's on a on a on a plan to canadian destruction

00:07:28.240 i mean c8 c9 c15 all these bills are outrageous and the way i see this it actually concerns me

00:07:37.060 um at at the pace that they're moving that they almost want to dare us to push them up push push

00:07:43.780 alberta out of canada it it seems to me that they couldn't do any more to to make that happen like

00:07:50.660 it's it's actually amazing and very concerning i don't i don't understand why i print this it's going

00:07:57.860 to become very clear the longer the further this goes down the line that there's only two sides to

00:08:02.840 this either you want to put up with a chance that we're going to end up a socialist or communist state

00:08:08.060 which is exactly the way we're headed and i mean that's always the elephant in the room and people

00:08:12.120 are going to say oh my god but it's it's actually the way it is so the the lines are going to become

00:08:18.460 clearer less blurred the further down the path that this goes if they think that that's going to

00:08:23.020 you know make it the momentum go down i believe it's going to make the momentum go up quite a bit

00:08:28.980 i really believe it's just the opposite the more time we have to explain to people what's happening and

00:08:34.220 the more they can see for themselves what's happening we don't have to make things up they're doing it in

00:08:39.020 lifetime and at warp speed do you want to be question number 10 in the fall or do you want to get

00:08:43.860 this push back a couple of years i know so so how do you how do you address this that's the question

00:08:48.320 how do you address this how do you say premier smith we don't want to be number 10 we want our

00:08:52.860 own question how do you do that well you have first of all you have to ask but the second thing

00:08:58.140 is our question is a constitutional question right yeah and a constitutional question by definition in

00:09:05.100 the clarity act is a standalone question okay because it it it says in the clarity act that our

00:09:11.460 question is a standalone question and mr lucasic's question however uh she could choose that question i mean

00:09:18.220 based on the fact that she has the choice and if she puts his question in it in number 10 then it's

00:09:24.580 going to have the same effect as having uh the vote on uh whether albertans want to pay uh transfer

00:09:30.320 payments to quebec and they voted yes and nothing came of it opening the constitution is an impossibility

00:09:35.780 everybody understands that you know all the things is do we want to have a voted senate do we want to

00:09:41.280 get rid of that of the senate well come on it's appointed by the liberals how many albertans are

00:09:47.240 going to want to keep the senate so so let me ask you this am i being overly concerned here should

00:09:52.500 people be concerned and no not at all of course very concerned they should be very concerned okay

00:09:59.260 they're playing delay tax and playing games with us that's exactly what's happening let me let me throw

00:10:05.340 this at you maybe it's the conspiracy theorist in my mind here um you know we often say i saw people

00:10:10.860 tweeting about this this morning she made it easier for us to get signatures fewer signatures

00:10:16.060 uh passed bill 14 just before christmas to allow us to get the signatures and now she drops this

00:10:21.240 right in the middle of our signature campaign do you think this was all planned out um and this was

00:10:25.940 sort of it's kind of a master chess move by the premier well was it was it an accident that they

00:10:32.180 delayed us in court until it got to be 20 or 30 below i was it an accident that they took us to court

00:10:37.300 in the first place is it an accident that we're dealing with another court case um you know same as the

00:10:43.020 first one uh starting april 7th um i don't believe in coincidences these are smart people

00:10:48.400 they totally understand um you know and and their position is clear our premier said that she's an

00:10:55.480 independent alberta within canada girl and that's fine but i would uh i would like her to go on tv

00:11:02.200 and define what that actually means in context of what's happening in ottawa like what does that

00:11:09.000 actually mean what does a free that's as far as i'm concerned that's where we are now is an

00:11:13.440 independent alberta within canada um and it's not a very good situation for most of most of albertans

00:11:20.260 as far as i'm personally concerned it seems with all of these things she's asking and things she's

00:11:24.480 done in the past over the last couple of years since she got elected that she's trying to further

00:11:28.620 and further alberta away from what canada does why not just take the whole step and allow us to ask

00:11:34.140 the question that we'd really want to to answer in this case right and there's that too i mean there's

00:11:40.640 the fact that we're actually collecting signatures uh there's a fact that you know i mean and that's

00:11:45.760 the that's the confounding part of this um but i i really believe that the big problem is that 70

00:11:52.880 of her base is uh independence people and i mean we saw that clearly at the agm and actually

00:12:01.020 uh i was talking to a reporter this morning about a poll that said that 75 percent of people that

00:12:07.360 voted for pier polio in the last election uh are in favor of alberta independence so that's a very

00:12:14.980 interesting stat so what i'm saying is that uh they they put bill 14 out to kind of stem the tide

00:12:22.520 of frustration and now they're having to deal with the consequences of it and they're trying to

00:12:29.440 muddy the waters and make it less clear and and that's you know clearly the way i see it at any

00:12:35.720 rate and i'm just frustrated a little bit honestly i gotta tell you we've been after this ucp government

00:12:41.740 to move quicker on a lot of things from the from from day one and and you know i'm a ucp member and

00:12:49.700 i'm frustrated on the speed that things are getting done and i'm frustrated by the fact that you know

00:12:55.900 we're not capable of making a decision and and passing a bill based on things like what she's

00:13:01.980 asking that are very clearly um things that we need to do and why do we have to wait seven months

00:13:08.800 so i'm assuming your advice to people who are out there collecting uh signatures and working hard

00:13:13.840 for independence just work even harder and not be too concerned about this just keep you know keep

00:13:18.140 your eyes on the prize i guess i suggest that you're probably going to suggest work really

00:13:21.740 yeah i'm going to tell everybody work really really really hard let's not take this for granted

00:13:28.280 you know let's make this too big to rig yep yep i want to ask you i want to kind of do a rapid fire

00:13:34.460 here with you okay real quick your thoughts on the petition campaign so far how's it going

00:13:38.840 good but not that level that i would like it uh we're we're having our biggest problem early in this

00:13:47.940 campaign was dealing with the volume uh the amount of volunteers we have but right as of now

00:13:53.880 i'm going to be very confident that moving forward from now till you know we're just before

00:13:58.440 the halfway point uh but we still have lots of time to go we still have seven or eight weeks to go

00:14:03.640 uh we're going to collect a a big bunch of signatures this week uh from our canvassers that

00:14:09.520 are out there we're giving everything coming back so we're expecting we're expecting to get a

00:14:13.940 very clear view on that we're moving forward into the door knocking campaign which is which we're

00:14:18.740 going to initiate initiate here very quickly uh so you know what i'm i'm confident that this is all

00:14:23.820 going to get done and uh in in timely fashion hopefully we're going to have uh you know lots of

00:14:29.660 signatures uh to get this petition before april 7th before we have to go back to court uh that's that's

00:14:35.940 going to be a goal on our part so we're they're kind of trying to and it's april 7th and accidents

00:14:41.500 a month before you know our deadline like literal month before our deadline trying to cut our town

00:14:47.240 down by 30 days by by having this injunction so i mean there's that too so let me ask you this you're

00:14:53.680 looking for people to make phone calls as well a call out to those people stayfreealberta.com they

00:14:58.360 can go over there and um get involved doing that you want to make phone calls correct

00:15:02.520 yeah you know and if people want to become phone callers uh we're set up we've got a phone call

00:15:08.740 bank okay we've got you know we're looking for volunteers to do that so if you want to do that

00:15:14.140 go to stayfreealberta.com and and volunteer to do that a couple three hours a day if you can do that if

00:15:20.040 you if you can do more fine if you you know if you want to be on a shift rotation we can make that

00:15:24.320 work for you too uh we need more canvassers we've got uh confirmed uh badges somewhere in the

00:15:30.420 six thousand range now with people that have their badges we have more people adding to that

00:15:35.180 every day so you know what we're we're very happy with the way that's going i think we're officially

00:15:40.120 the largest um group of campaign of volunteers ever in a political campaign right now okay now

00:15:47.540 another thing i wanted to talk to you about quickly is we're seeing increasing aggressive behavior by

00:15:51.760 people who disagree with us any advice for people out there on the front lines trying to collect

00:15:56.180 signatures and things like that yeah take pictures of these people take their license plates

00:16:01.220 uh i had somebody come and drop a bullet off on the desk uh at my store and say this and say this

00:16:07.740 is for mitch we're actively going to charge that gentleman with two charges two two charges of

00:16:12.840 assault on the two girls behind the counter um you know for terrifying them and uh you know uttering

00:16:18.840 death threats and he's basically running away from the police right now but we are going to

00:16:24.160 find him and actually charge him and anybody that thinks that they can intimidate people that are

00:16:30.320 going to interfere in elections over the process we're going to prosecute so you know what uh we're

00:16:37.080 we're actively going to do it we have a large file already and we're taking every single one of them

00:16:42.180 very seriously because you know john we never did that to them no no no we like people we are yeah

00:16:49.140 yeah we're we're all about uh making your own mind up and uh you know what uh this is a democracy and

00:16:56.660 you're entitled to your opinion and uh good on you if you want to stand out there and collect signatures

00:17:01.500 for a referendum that's perfect that's part of our system part of our democracy and uh you know what

00:17:07.360 uh go ahead do it and it'll come to a vote and then the people will decide mitch thank you very much

00:17:14.420 i appreciate your time um i know you're very very busy doing this out of a car again today

00:17:19.760 all the best to you in the future hope i can talk to you again real soon we can see each other again

00:17:24.460 or maybe in the same place and there's a lot of events coming up uh in the future and to everybody

00:17:29.580 out there that's working hard for independence keep at it don't be too concerned about what the

00:17:34.080 premier said just work even harder i guess eh yeah we're in westlock tonight in slave league tomorrow

00:17:40.200 night okay mitch thank you so much i appreciate it all righty okay john thank you mitch sylvester from

00:17:47.140 stay free alberta thanks for watching if you like this video give it a thumbs up subscribe to the

00:17:51.500 channel ring the bell for notifications share it if you like and i'll see you in the next one

John Bolton - February 20, 2026

Alberta at a Crossroads： Mitch Sylvestre Reacts to Premier Smith - Stay Free Alberta

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