John Bolton - Alberta Independence QUESTIONS？ Answers with Mitch Sylvestre (CEO- APP)

00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel Saturday, June the 14th.

00:00:09.020 Hope you're having a great start to your day.

00:00:10.700 I will tell you, I am recording this on the afternoon of Friday the 13th because I have

00:00:16.480 a guest today and I'm excited about our guest.

00:00:18.920 I do have my big blue mug of coffee as usual.

00:00:22.380 And if you're a subscriber here, thanks so much for doing that.

00:00:25.220 If you're not a subscriber, be sure to click on subscribe and join the 32,000 plus people

00:00:32.060 who are subscribers on my channel.

00:00:33.900 Now, as you know, I am an independent Albertan.

00:00:37.620 I've been kind of steering clear of the topic as of late.

00:00:40.900 I thought I was going to it a little bit too much, but today I do have a guest.

00:00:44.100 I want to find out where we stand right now when it comes to finally getting a referendum

00:00:48.020 in Alberta and to gain Alberta's independence.

00:00:51.280 Back on May 23rd, my guest today, he filed for the independence referendum.

00:00:57.600 And I'm excited about having Mitch Sylvester, the CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project

00:01:04.300 here on the channel today.

00:01:05.780 Mitch, thank you so much for being here and being my guest.

00:01:09.520 Okay, John, it's great to be here.

00:01:11.120 Well, Mitch, thanks very much.

00:01:12.420 I appreciate it.

00:01:13.120 It's amazing how you can be in your car.

00:01:15.140 It's obviously raining where you are.

00:01:16.680 We've got lovely weather here in Calgary right now.

00:01:19.480 Well, I appreciate it so much for you being on here.

00:01:22.160 You know, I showed a picture right off the top of this interview of you filing for the

00:01:28.680 independence referendum petition back on May 23rd.

00:01:31.260 Jeffrey Rath had tweeted a picture of you.

00:01:33.080 Can you tell me where are we right now when it comes to that?

00:01:36.160 And what's the process from here on in to find out when we can start signing a petition

00:01:41.060 and then eventually get to the referendum?

00:01:42.520 Well, where we're at as a group is we have the 270,000 pledges or addresses for people

00:01:50.220 that we'll be able to go collect signatures from.

00:01:53.260 The premier has changed the threshold from 600,000 signatures to 177,000 signatures.

00:02:00.680 However, that new bill has royal assent, but it has not been ratified.

00:02:04.340 So it's not law yet.

00:02:05.440 So we've submitted that question that you're referring to with a cover letter saying that

00:02:10.240 when it's ratified, that this would come into effect.

00:02:13.920 Elections Alberta actually didn't want to accept that. 1.00

00:02:16.260 So what they've told us is to come and resubmit when the new law comes in.

00:02:20.360 So the current questions that are in there at the 600,000 threshold where they have to

00:02:25.560 collect those signatures in three months.

00:02:27.100 And ours is going to be in the threshold of 177,000, and we'll have four months to collect those.

00:02:34.300 So that's the number that we know we can work with.

00:02:36.660 And if that's the actual number, which it is, then there will be a referendum for independence in Alberta.

00:02:42.580 Are you, is there any way it can be denied?

00:02:45.040 You're putting in sort of a request for this.

00:02:47.440 Can they deny the petition?

00:02:50.220 You know what, we've, this is a first, this is a brand new thing.

00:02:53.080 We've asked multiple questions and we need to have them replied to us in writing by Elections Alberta

00:02:58.860 based on the rules around this, because they're very unclear, as a lot of government policy is actually very unclear in this particular case.

00:03:06.280 So we're just waiting for a response from them, understanding that the premier and we're hoping the UCP government put that in good faith

00:03:13.640 to allow us to actually do this kind of thing, you know, just based on this, on this particular question

00:03:19.360 and on any other question, actually, I think was part of the whole reason that they did this,

00:03:24.560 because if they wanted other things dealt with, like Alberta policing, Alberta pension plan,

00:03:30.580 or any of the other stuff, that this is the path where we can bring this to a referendum and get the people to vote.

00:03:35.800 I'm, you know, I'm feeling, I'm feeling pretty optimistic right now.

00:03:38.640 I really am.

00:03:39.520 I, I was, I spoke with Corey Morgan a couple of weeks ago and I asked him whether he thought maybe there might be a lull

00:03:45.540 in this, this momentum that's happened, I think, when it comes to the independence vote through the summertime.

00:03:51.360 But I, I, I see all the things that you're doing, that the Alberta Prosperity Project is doing,

00:03:56.480 the people who are showing up, it seems like day after day you've got different meetings set up.

00:04:00.340 I'm looking forward, IRSVP to the 24th here in Calgary, so hope to see you, maybe you'll be there and meet you.

00:04:06.880 I will be there.

00:04:07.480 Yeah. Are you optimistic? How are you feeling about it right now?

00:04:09.900 Well, I am very optimistic. Actually, I'm surprised by the continuing response we're getting.

00:04:16.860 And, and, and the other thing that I'm very surprised about, that makes me feel optimism as well,

00:04:21.760 is that the fact that 50 to 60% of the people in the room have never been to a political meeting before.

00:04:27.480 And the other, and the other thing I'm seeing is young moms with babies and young people, you know,

00:04:32.740 traditionally our, our, our political meetings were people over 45, even over 55.

00:04:37.780 And now we're seeing a lot of 20 to 40 year olds attending these meetings and very much in support.

00:04:43.680 So that all by itself makes me optimistic about this.

00:04:47.580 The message is very strong. I mean, the message is very good.

00:04:50.600 And we don't believe for one second that it's even partisan.

00:04:53.500 We think that once people understand the numbers that, you know, both sides of the aisle are going to be very happy with,

00:04:59.520 with the results of a yes vote and an Alberta referendum for independence.

00:05:03.520 You know, I've watched a few videos of you. You describe Alberta as the richest real estate in the world. 0.99

00:05:09.600 Financially, what would independence mean to a typical Albertan, an average Albertan out there?

00:05:16.300 Well, it's funny that you should mention that we're just publishing a business plan.

00:05:19.240 And we're going to probably have a press conference next week about it.

00:05:21.880 And it's very clear. What does it mean to the average Albertan will probably be, I would suggest that the average Albertan can look for an immediate 20 to 25 percent increase in pay based on not having to pay federal tax.

00:05:34.760 So say you're earning $70,000 a year, you know, you can be looking for $17,000 more disposable income based on the fact that we don't have to pay all of these ridiculous taxes that we're being charged.

00:05:48.880 You don't have to convince me, Mitch. You know, I'm ready to sign. I'm ready to go. I really am.

00:05:54.380 But what do you say to people who are sort of sitting on the fence?

00:05:56.720 I saw an article, Rick Bell wrote about it today in the Calgary Sun. 58 percent of UCP voters in the province would vote to leave right now.

00:06:04.820 11 percent of them are unsure. So, I mean, they had almost a million people vote for the UCP.

00:06:09.900 That means, you know, upwards of 500 to 600,000 people would vote right now to go.

00:06:14.080 What do you say to people who are kind of sitting on the fence? Maybe that 11 percent I mentioned.

00:06:18.480 I think that once they understand the numbers, I don't think they'll be sitting on the fence anymore.

00:06:21.960 And the other thing that they have to understand is this.

00:06:23.880 We have a dysfunctional relationship with the federal government of Canada.

00:06:28.100 And I mean, it's become clearer and clearer and clearer the further down the road we go.

00:06:33.380 Like they're literally sabotaging our industry. They're literally attacking our people.

00:06:37.740 They're literally overtaxing us. This is all conscious.

00:06:40.540 And we make it very clear in each of our presentations that this is actually what happens.

00:06:44.920 This is not my words. These are the words that we see coming from the premier of Alberta all the time.

00:06:49.060 She literally said that they're sabotaging our industry.

00:06:51.540 And we see it every day living where I live.

00:06:54.780 I live in Bonneville, Alberta.

00:06:56.100 So Bonneville produces 35 percent of Alberta's oil.

00:06:59.800 And so we understand that every time that there's an attack on the oil patch, that we feel it directly.

00:07:06.420 And, you know, I mean, the stats are showing that they continue to go down the road of the of the of the carbon cap.

00:07:12.580 And, you know, there's stats that are saying that we will lose 54,000 jobs as a consequence to that.

00:07:18.040 Now, nowhere else in Canada is any of this happening.

00:07:21.200 Like nowhere else in Canada are the attacking industry.

00:07:23.760 Nowhere else in Canada won't even dream of attacking industry.

00:07:26.380 But it seems to be something that's been going on here for literally 120 years.

00:07:30.740 And so we're just trying to, first of all, as an Albertan, we've always been on Team Canada.

00:07:37.280 This is a very new position for me.

00:07:39.900 This position, this position actually happened after the last federal election and not just for me.

00:07:44.860 I think I think at that point, I think Albertans in general are the ones that we're dealing with for sure had lost hope in Canada.

00:07:53.940 And many people are actually to the point where, you know what, they're ready to do this, they're ready for change based on the fact that they don't feel that there's any way out of this.

00:08:03.040 Our fourth consecutive liberal government and the fact that their behavior basically shows us that they don't really want us in this country, actually, to tell you the honest to God truth.

00:08:13.700 They're happy to take our resources and our and our money, but they don't want to treat us with any respect.

00:08:18.540 And that's basically what it is.

00:08:20.380 You said this happened to you after the last election.

00:08:22.580 You're talking about the one that just the recent one on the 28th or the one previous?

00:08:26.260 Okay.

00:08:26.880 Yeah.

00:08:27.160 This just recent one.

00:08:28.920 And not just me.

00:08:30.420 Like, I've never seen a deflation in people politically at the level that I saw the next morning on April 29th.

00:08:41.180 Like, people were discouraged.

00:08:43.620 And that's why they flocked to Alberta Prosperity Project to give them some hope.

00:08:47.860 And we were getting 4,000 to 5,000 people an hour signing on to Alberta Prosperity Project after the election.

00:08:54.600 Yeah.

00:08:55.180 So you're not encouraged by what Carney's been saying about energy superpower, you know, building projects across the country.

00:09:03.180 You don't believe that at all?

00:09:04.000 Absolutely not.

00:09:06.280 I mean, you know, once a relationship and once a trust is gone and once a relationship is severed, we totally understand that with 82 ethics violations, the liberal governments are basically criminals.

00:09:18.260 They're basically taking money from Albertans.

00:09:20.520 And if you do not, we cannot, these people do not go to jail for the stuff that they do.

00:09:26.980 Like, one ethics violation after another ethics violation, any one of which would have brought down any of the previous government.

00:09:34.440 And they had, like, 82 from what I understand.

00:09:36.780 So, you know, Arrive Can, we, Progain Parliament for $400 million missing, printing 327 or however many billion dollars they did during COVID with no audit, no tracing the money, infrastructure projects with actually no projects that happened, but the money gets transferred over.

00:09:57.500 Nobody's looking into any of that.

00:09:59.860 So the purpose of this whole exercise is that, and the premier said this to me in meetings, in public meetings, actually, she said, and I quote her on this.

00:10:10.060 She said that when I became premier, I thought that I could change everything in six or seven months, but everything's broken. 0.76

00:10:16.540 Everything's broken means everything's basically so crap that you can't fix it. 0.74

00:10:21.780 What do you make? 0.92

00:10:22.640 I'm sorry, go ahead.

00:10:23.880 Continue.

00:10:24.140 And so if that's actually the case, and Pierre Polyev actually says the same thing, and you can Google it and find it online anywhere, he said everything's broken.

00:10:33.420 So we're seeing all manner of unprecedented stuff going on now.

00:10:38.180 Everybody knows that something is off-center.

00:10:40.320 Something's wrong.

00:10:42.240 Something's going on that we've never seen before.

00:10:45.120 We're also seeing censorship.

00:10:47.280 We're seeing stuff that, you know, as a person of my generation, we never ever thought would be even a conversation in Canada.

00:10:53.080 Even the fact that the federal government, for whatever reason, is attacking our biggest industry is something that's beyond comprehension for me, literally.

00:11:02.940 What do you make of Danielle Smith?

00:11:04.300 You said you spoke with her.

00:11:05.540 You know, she's made this easier to have a referendum. 0.99

00:11:09.360 Of course, she's being called a separatist.

00:11:11.140 I don't like the word separatist.

00:11:12.560 I like I'm an independence-minded Albertan.

00:11:15.300 And they're using separatist as a dirty word against us anymore.

00:11:18.860 But what do you make of her?

00:11:21.620 Well, just lowering the threshold made this possible.

00:11:24.800 Yes, yes.

00:11:25.160 I'm not saying that it wasn't possible before.

00:11:30.260 Because with the amount of activity that we saw right after the federal election, I think for everybody to get one more person to get us to 600,000 would have been doable.

00:11:39.740 Right.

00:11:40.200 Right?

00:11:40.800 Yeah.

00:11:41.060 So now that people understand we have enough people in our group to actually make this happen, people have backed off a little bit.

00:11:48.720 But what we're seeing at town halls is that people are coming out.

00:11:53.160 People are signing their intent to sign.

00:11:56.060 And, yeah, and the thing, the wonderful thing about it is, is that 60% of the people that come or 80% of the people that come in a lot of cases have not signed our intent to sign already.

00:12:08.220 They have not signed it.

00:12:09.280 So that's telling me that even though we've got somewhere in a neighborhood of 260,000 to 270,000 people with pledges, the vast majority of our people have not pledged.

00:12:18.980 I've been a little bit concerned along the way, Mitch, about really not having a face of this campaign.

00:12:24.420 There's a number of different people kind of leading the way.

00:12:27.980 Jeffrey Rath is out there.

00:12:29.400 Cam Davies from the Republican Party.

00:12:31.400 You're out there as well.

00:12:32.680 Do you think we need sort of that cohesive voice, that one person out there speaking on behalf of this movement?

00:12:38.780 Or are we okay to where we are right now with a number of people speaking?

00:12:43.000 This is consciously done.

00:12:44.840 Okay.

00:12:45.400 And the reason why we're doing this consciously is here's the problem.

00:12:49.860 The people of Alberta have to be the face of this.

00:12:52.720 The people of Alberta are going to be the ones that ultimately decide this.

00:12:55.900 They're going to go to a constitutional conference after this, and they're going to participate in that.

00:12:59.740 And they're going to forever have to participate in a democracy moving forward because that is how we got here.

00:13:08.060 What's happened is because of our apathy that we ended up coming here.

00:13:11.320 Well, let's not mistake the fact that we have real good lives here in Alberta for the most part.

00:13:15.100 Up until just recently in the last couple or three years, people here always had the opportunity that they worked hard.

00:13:21.600 They could, you know, earn a lot of money and become basically as wealthy as you almost want.

00:13:28.180 By the amount of work ethic and making a smart decision or two here, you could do very, very well, as a lot of us have done.

00:13:35.100 And, you know, I mean, there's a lot of people in Bonneville.

00:13:37.620 That's, like I said, the heart of the oil patch.

00:13:39.480 So there's a lot of people there that have come off of, you know, dirt poor farms and have now become very, very wealthy people based on a real good work ethic.

00:13:49.140 And those down, but up and working hard for years and years and have actually earned a lot of money.

00:13:55.680 And that's the Canadian dream.

00:13:57.480 That's the dream why people come to Alberta.

00:13:59.220 However, we're seeing today that that is no longer the case.

00:14:02.940 That is no longer the case for young people.

00:14:05.540 Young people can't actually leave high school and work a couple of years and end up in a new house or a home with very few exceptions. 0.96

00:14:13.460 So when I was growing up, that was something that was not at all out of the question.

00:14:17.380 As a matter of fact, it was more common than not.

00:14:20.160 Yeah.

00:14:21.420 I know you're busy.

00:14:22.540 I've put down a few things and sort of a rapid fire thing.

00:14:26.360 I don't want to take too much time on these things, but these are the arguments against independence that I hear all the time.

00:14:33.120 And maybe if you could quickly respond to these.

00:14:35.220 One, Alberta's landlocked.

00:14:37.660 No problem.

00:14:38.360 We're policy locked.

00:14:39.140 We've always been landlocked.

00:14:40.260 That's not going to change.

00:14:41.300 We're policy locked.

00:14:42.360 If we can get rid of government policies that are landlocked, that are actually locking us, we will have no problem.

00:14:47.960 Don't forget, 90% of our oil exports go south.

00:14:50.800 They may be amenable to another south pipeline that we could put to the west coast.

00:14:54.100 We could also go north, and B.C. is actually approving a pipeline, as we speak.

00:14:59.700 That's right.

00:15:00.160 Okay, so indigenous have rights to the land because of treaties.

00:15:04.760 Well, the treaties gives them lots of rights, but I mean, the interpretation of the rights for the land.

00:15:09.420 But we're not leaving indigenous people behind.

00:15:12.640 I'm not in a position to talk about what their land rights are.

00:15:15.540 I just know that all crown land in Alberta belongs to the government of Alberta.

00:15:18.260 And that's for sure because I just went through a big undrip fight with, you know, basically the federal government on that and won that based on treaties that were signed by all parties concerned, aboriginal, Métis, farmers, trappers, all those people on caribou preservation just north of Bonneville.

00:15:35.040 And it was very clear, it was made very clear that crown land in Alberta belongs to the government of Alberta.

00:15:41.960 So that's not the question.

00:15:43.500 The question is, is that their treaty rights are rights that were signed by them.

00:15:46.600 Nobody's going to chase them down.

00:15:47.780 As a matter of fact, we want to try and make aboriginal people way richer by giving them, actually tripling their income and giving them the opportunity to come out of poverty and to give them a better life.

00:15:57.580 We're not leaving those people behind, but I really believe that the people that have, well, I don't believe, I know, that we've showed our business plan to aboriginal chiefs and they're very excited about it.

00:16:07.140 We really believe that we'll have them all on site.

00:16:09.660 Yeah, you covered my next one regarding resources.

00:16:11.980 A lot of people think that Canada owns the resources here in Alberta, so you covered that.

00:16:15.320 What about seniors will lose their pensions?

00:16:17.900 You know, I know that you are a strong advocate for an Alberta pension plan. 0.69

00:16:21.840 I think you're nuts if you don't want to be part of an Alberta pension plan.

00:16:25.300 Seniors are worried about their pensions. 0.74

00:16:27.580 So just understand, CPP has a portability clause.

00:16:31.520 So it doesn't matter if you live in the country of Panama or in Costa Rica or in France or anybody.

00:16:37.680 As a Canadian citizen, you paid into that CPP.

00:16:40.380 It doesn't matter where you move.

00:16:41.260 You're going to still get your Canada pension and your old age security.

00:16:44.140 The other thing that you're not going to lose is your Canadian citizenship based on the fact that, you know, even our prime minister, Mark Carney, has like three or four passports.

00:16:52.360 So those things are absolutely moot points.

00:16:54.720 You're going to get your pension.

00:16:56.080 You're going to get your OAS.

00:16:57.580 And in reality, Albertans work harder than anybody in Canada.

00:17:01.460 We actually give Canada pension $3 billion a year more than our seniors collect.

00:17:06.900 So even without, if they even pulled pension away from our seniors, just what we pay in Canada pension premiums would allow us to give them a 40% raise right off the bat and not change anything.

00:17:17.360 Alberta independence talk is driving away investment, and it will drive away investment, Mitch.

00:17:22.640 That's what I'm hearing.

00:17:23.360 Well, I'm going to share something with you as a 47-year-old business.

00:17:27.480 I've been in business for 47 years.

00:17:29.440 Lower tax rates and more disposable income in our region of Alberta based on a lower tax rate and based on that formula I told you Albertans will have between 25% and 45% more disposable income creates just the exact opposite environment.

00:17:45.520 If we have lower tax rates and, you know, it's possible based on our business plan that in 10 years, Albertans won't have to pay income tax in any way, shape or form.

00:17:54.100 So if that's actually the case, Alberta business is going to thrive.

00:17:58.800 I won't keep you much longer.

00:18:00.460 I do have one final question.

00:18:01.800 What do you think the chance is that this will go across the line and there'll be independence?

00:18:05.800 And when do you think there might be a vote on this?

00:18:08.740 Well, the premier said spring of 2026.

00:18:11.060 And generally, my experience with her is she's thought it through and that's what the goal seems to be.

00:18:17.740 So if she said spring of 2026, I would have to mirror that. 0.98

00:18:21.900 Okay.

00:18:22.360 And you think we're going to win it?

00:18:24.940 You know what I think?

00:18:26.160 I honestly think that we have a very good chance to win this.

00:18:29.100 And I actually think that it's going to be our job to get it in front of enough people so that they really understand what's going on and really understand the numbers.

00:18:36.000 And once they understand it, it is going to be, people will be very much in favor of an independent Alberta.

00:18:42.000 Mitch, thanks very much.

00:18:43.080 I won't keep you any longer.

00:18:43.920 I hope I can have you back or we can get somebody else from the Alberta Prosperity Project.

00:18:48.160 I'll put a link in the description so people can go there, find out where the meetings are.

00:18:51.660 You've got a lot of them already lined up right into July right now.

00:18:54.460 And again, on the 24th, I'm ready to go to that one.

00:18:58.040 So I'm excited about that.

00:18:59.920 Yeah, we're booking into August.

00:19:01.020 We're probably going to be doing five to seven meetings a week until this is done.

00:19:04.280 Yeah.

00:19:04.460 Well, thank you very much, Mitch Sylvester, CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project.

00:19:08.980 Good luck to you.

00:19:09.700 Thanks for your hard work.

00:19:10.960 Maybe if I can throw one more thing.

00:19:12.240 What can the average person do to help out here?

00:19:16.340 Go to the APP website.

00:19:17.960 Sign our pledge commitment so that we know where you are because we only have 120 days to collect the signatures.

00:19:24.460 You know, I've always said that if we have 250,000 members, if everybody donated $20 to $50 for us, we'd have lots of money to get this over the line.

00:19:33.360 And that's what it's going to take for us to reach the young people and to pay our monthly expenses.

00:19:37.460 Nobody here gets paid.

00:19:38.640 So everybody's working on their own, basically on their own dime.

00:19:42.340 It's all volunteer help.

00:19:43.560 So as a consequence to that, moving closer to the election, we may need to hire people to do specific special tasks.

00:19:50.220 And it would be very nice to have the money to do that.

00:19:52.740 Mitch, thank you very much.

00:19:53.760 And I'd like to thank everybody for watching.

00:19:55.720 And we'll certainly try to get somebody back from the Alberta Prosperity Project talking more about Alberta independence.

John Bolton - June 14, 2025

Alberta Independence QUESTIONS？ Answers with Mitch Sylvestre (CEO- APP)

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