John Bolton - Alberta Independence Under Fire： Cory Morgan Responds to Lukaszuk

00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John, and welcome to the channel Monday, December the 8th. I hope you're having

00:00:06.840 a great start to your Monday. And before you see the video with Corey Morgan, I need to

00:00:11.020 explain something. Great interview. You're going to enjoy this. We talk about this article

00:00:17.420 right here, and this is an article in the National Post. Thomas Lukasik went to visit

00:00:22.940 Mark Carney, and he said some terrible things about people in the independence movement.

00:00:28.400 We discuss that in this. We discuss moving forward with the independence movement, and

00:00:33.120 we discuss how this could be a little bit threatening to people in the independence movement and

00:00:38.680 is a little bit dangerous. Great interview. I hope you'll enjoy it. But you need to understand

00:00:42.620 this. I use Zoom when I do my videos, and I've been trying to learn how to share something

00:00:48.480 with the person I'm interviewing, and I wanted to share that article with Corey in this video,

00:00:54.460 thinking that what I saw on the screen when I went back and forth from the article to

00:01:00.220 Corey and I on the screen, that that is what was being recorded. But unfortunately, that's

00:01:05.060 not what happened. All I got was the audio with Corey and about 17 minutes of the article

00:01:11.380 I just showed you. So my bad here. But this is a great interview. I'm going to put Corey

00:01:17.440 and I on the screen. I've had him on the channel before. You will see our faces, but our lips will

00:01:21.980 not be moving. But this is well worth it. I needed to explain that to you. Again, my bad.

00:01:27.760 My apologies to Corey that we're not seeing his face on here. But I hope you enjoy this interview

00:01:33.020 with Corey Morgan right here on my channel. Thank you very much. Hi, it's John and welcome to the

00:01:38.220 channel. Monday, December the 8th, 6.30 a.m. Hope you're having a great start to your work week,

00:01:44.200 a great Monday morning here with the big blue mug of coffee. Of course, this morning, enjoying that

00:01:49.120 very much. And as you can see, we've got a guest on the channel today. I'd like to welcome Corey

00:01:53.380 Morgan from The Corey Morgan Show, The Western Standard and author of The Sovereignty's Handbook.

00:01:59.160 Corey, it's always great to have you here on the channel. Great to be on, John. Thanks.

00:02:03.760 And I wanted to welcome you to the channel as part of a very small group of angry white militant men 0.51

00:02:11.240 who are armed through the teeth. Corey, I gave you a call last night. I hadn't spoken to you in a

00:02:18.680 little while. I think the last time I spoke to you, you were in Israel, I believe.

00:02:24.900 Yes.

00:02:25.180 And I saw this article in the National Post last night that really kind of had me seething. And

00:02:31.620 I thought of you immediately. And here's the article right here. I hope I can share this okay so

00:02:37.000 everybody can see it. People are upset what Alberta's anti-separatist worries about. Forever

00:02:43.380 Canada leader Thomas Lukasik worries about Albertans he describes as a very small group of angry militant

00:02:49.420 men armed to their teeth. And I thought of you because I know in one of the times I've spoken

00:02:54.280 to you about what might happen should we move closer to a referendum, what might be the reaction

00:03:01.300 from the federal government? And this kind of scared me a little bit. What are your thoughts

00:03:06.640 after reading this article and after talking to me last night?

00:03:11.060 Yeah, and I looked more at it. And, you know, well, Lukasik is a character for those not familiar

00:03:15.940 with them. I mean, he's a relic of the disgraced, you know, Redford government of the past.

00:03:23.240 It claimed to fame was dumping a $20,000 phone bill on taxpayers after a trip to Poland.

00:03:28.020 But he's tried to remake himself as Captain Canada out here and the face of the anti-independence

00:03:34.180 movement, I guess. But yeah, his, his strange, you know, forever Canadian petition, I mean,

00:03:39.920 credit where it's due, they got a lot of signatures. They, they did a lot of organizing,

00:03:43.160 but it's kind of, he's, he's out of bullets. He doesn't know what to do now because the

00:03:47.300 independence movement is still just moving right along. And he went straight to kind

00:03:51.940 of like what we're talking about the predictable things. Oh, it's angry old white man. It's

00:03:55.860 he took shots at saying it has what flavors of oil field and Mormons or something. It was just

00:04:02.820 bizarre. And I mean, normally you could dismiss that. That's just a nutcase on X or something.

00:04:08.040 But no, this is the National Post. A man is saying this, this is going across the country.

00:04:13.240 And he's claiming that he's already been speaking to Mark Carney representing sort of Alberta,

00:04:17.600 and that he's going to speak to him further. So what sort of image is the prime minister getting

00:04:22.700 of Albertans when, when somebody like Thomas Lukasik is going over there purporting to know

00:04:27.780 anything about what's going on with the independence movement. It's a, it's, it's predictable,

00:04:32.540 annoying, but still concerning as well. We can't dismiss it.

00:04:35.580 Yeah. It was written, the article written by Donna Kennedy-Glann. She discloses in the article

00:04:39.920 that she knows Thomas. She was an MLA out here in Alberta, was she not?

00:04:43.660 She was. She said she served in cabinet with Lukasik and the Redford government. I mean,

00:04:48.300 Donna's actually one of the more rational red Tories typically. 1.00

00:04:52.700 As far as that goes, I mean, I disagree with her on a lot of policy things, but for her to give

00:04:57.840 air to this pile of work, as you can say out of Thomas is interesting. But again, the independence

00:05:04.120 movement, well, it's a very, you know, you're on one side or the other and it can get pretty

00:05:08.780 emotion. So perhaps she feels this is a good way to go. But I think tactically, if you're opposing

00:05:13.360 independence, shooting at something where you're looking at at least a third of the province

00:05:16.860 supporting and probably more who are very strongly considering it and calling them all angry old white 0.99

00:05:21.560 men who are armed to the teeth, I don't think that's going to be a wise tactic to try and reduce the 0.64

00:05:26.080 growth of support.

00:05:27.700 Well, he goes on to say here that this could go on to trigger national security risks. And

00:05:34.540 that has a real ominous feel to me, Corey. In fact, I started thinking of this a little

00:05:40.720 differently this morning. I was sitting here waiting to talk to you. And tell me if I'm wrong here.

00:05:45.660 And maybe I'm going way out on a ledge. But when you call, this is a this is an emotional issue,

00:05:51.220 you'd have to agree, right? When you're talking about a province leaving a country that could break

00:05:55.420 up a country. And we talked earlier on this channel about the patriotism that's involved here. It's a

00:06:00.760 very emotional subject we're talking about. Right?

00:06:04.400 Oh, absolutely. And on both sides, you know, some people can become too active, I guess,

00:06:12.480 there's always a risk of that in any activist group, whether it's for or against. But one of

00:06:18.440 the ways that happens, if somebody starts inflaming things, you're talking about that dark side,

00:06:22.360 if the federal government is taking the stuff that Lukasik is saying seriously, that's when,

00:06:28.020 well, if you really believe that there's going to be dangerous civil unrest, that means the federal

00:06:31.820 government might be considering coming in to suppress that civil unrest. And that's what actually

00:06:36.660 causes civil unrest. So Thomas's stuff is getting dangerous now, even if that may not necessarily be

00:06:44.300 the intent, I would hope not. But it's very irresponsible, actually, to start that kind of

00:06:49.920 rhetoric, because there's never even been a glimmer of dangerous rhetoric or actions or anything of the

00:06:55.800 independence movement. It's been a bunch of town hall meetings and rallies at the legislature. And to

00:07:00.580 start labeling it as if we might have some sort of armed insurrection coming is, as I said, grossly

00:07:05.860 irresponsible. And actually, that could be dangerous. Well, I'll put a picture up in post

00:07:10.560 of October 25th of legislature. What a great group of people. And they weren't a group of angry white

00:07:16.180 men. They were all people from all different walks of life here. But you went exactly where I was

00:07:21.020 thinking this morning. I was thinking that maybe I won't go a little bit farther here, but you might

00:07:26.040 be putting a target on the backs of the people who speak on behalf of the independence movement out

00:07:30.600 here. Because you're saying these people are armed to the teeth. And that is an outright lie. And

00:07:37.280 yeah, I think this could get a little bit dangerous in this situation. And it kind of frightened me when

00:07:44.260 I was thinking about it this morning. Absolutely. And this movement has been nothing but pushing

00:07:49.260 to at least take the democratic means to bring sovereignty, a full sovereignty, independence to

00:07:54.680 Alberta. It's always been focused on a referendum, on bringing a peaceful vote to Albertans. Nothing more.

00:07:59.940 Nobody's ever called for anything beyond that. And, you know, if you take away, because that's what

00:08:08.520 some people are talking about. That's what we're talking about with the court ruling and then the

00:08:11.140 changes that have happened to allow the referendum to go. If you take away the democratic ability

00:08:16.080 for people to pursue independence, that could engage some people who really, I mean, there's always a

00:08:21.340 fringe somewhere way off out there to do something stupid or foolish if they feel there's no other means,

00:08:26.380 if they feel there's no other way to do it. That brings it about. To try and cap the bottle is not

00:08:31.580 the way to deal with this. I mean, what Ottawa should be doing, if they really care, is actually

00:08:36.680 asking us why we're so ticked off. Actually trying to find things to cool us down. But if you come out

00:08:42.420 and start saying we're worried about an armed dissurrection in Alberta, boy, we could turn this into

00:08:46.180 something a heck of a lot more ugly. I don't see that appetite, thankfully, among the Alberta

00:08:50.920 independence movement. But Canada has seen some horrible things from independence movements

00:08:55.140 historically in Quebec. Nothing like that ever since. And I never want to see anything like that

00:09:00.080 again. But when you get a clown like Lukasik starting to stir those waters, it becomes dangerous

00:09:05.280 and not on the part of independence supporters, but on what the government may do in response.

00:09:09.060 Well, what's fascinating about this, he tweeted this out, I think just yesterday. I saw this after

00:09:18.100 the article. And this is what he tweets out after he says that. And it gets on a national website in

00:09:25.300 a national newspaper, separatists are not our enemies. They're fellow Canadians. Some are upset about a few

00:09:30.620 legitimate issues. Some are manipulated. Some feel not heard. And we must find a way to communicate,

00:09:35.000 not shout at each other. And then he says that they will triumph. I mean, talk about mixed messages

00:09:42.720 here. I mean, for goodness sakes. Well, I imagine somebody got on a phone to him because that that's

00:09:48.640 almost a rational approach to opposing the independence movement then, you know, sort of

00:09:54.700 still a veiled shot, but not fully inflammatory and saying, you know, well, maybe we should have some

00:09:59.540 discourse. But if it comes to a vote, we'll win. Okay, I can live with that. I don't agree with you,

00:10:04.100 but I can live with it. And because that's such a different message from what you saw in the paper.

00:10:08.400 Yeah, I got a feeling his inbox probably had a few messages from people saying, dude, what the heck

00:10:12.660 are you doing? Yeah, well, you've said we need to be civil with Canada. I did a video a while ago,

00:10:17.700 said I don't like Canada much anymore. And I said, you know, I was kind of, people are saying you

00:10:22.100 shouldn't really say that. But if I like Canada, I want to stay. I want to leave. So I don't like

00:10:27.180 Canada much more. I have friends there. I think it's a great country. You've said here, you know,

00:10:31.620 and Edith will still be out in Toronto if we leave. And you'll still be able to visit. And

00:10:35.980 we'll all still be friends. We'll have a different relationship. You've said this before. But you

00:10:41.180 think we need to take a softer tone when it comes to this, don't you? Because we can leave peacefully

00:10:47.120 because we're a peaceful group here in Canada, whether you're in Alberta or the rest of the

00:10:51.400 country, right? Yeah, I mean, it's a big issue. It's going to get emotional. And then we got to speak

00:10:56.940 firmly. And sometimes, you know, when I do a speech at a meeting, I never call for anything

00:11:02.160 like violence or anything like that. But, you know, we get the room hyped up and say, let's

00:11:05.240 rock and roll. Let's get going. But at the same time, there's no room for that sort of extremism

00:11:11.720 or problems with the federation. It's with the system. It's with the agreement. It's not with

00:11:16.820 the people. And again, I think most people realize that. That's why even though there's been an

00:11:21.720 independence movement, you know, had its ups and downs in Alberta for decades, there's never been a

00:11:25.940 glimmer of anything extreme coming out of it or dangerous. How do you feel about this? I said to

00:11:31.920 Mitch Sylvester the other day, Mitch, we're actually moving on to probably the next part of this process

00:11:38.240 where the province has never been before. Bill 14 may have changed everything, I think. I mean,

00:11:45.300 you've spoken very, you said we need to soften things down just a video a few days ago when it

00:11:49.920 came to Danielle Smith. She's made it easier to get signatures. She's now in the, just

00:11:55.920 before a court case was determined the other day, kind of changed the rules midstream here.

00:12:00.800 So we need to soften down the rhetoric and maybe be a little easier on Danielle Smith. Do you feel

00:12:06.420 that way? Well, or at least just if you don't like her, fine. But my focus is on the independence.

00:12:12.120 Direct your energy at that. Something else you'd mentioned, I had to look into it because I was

00:12:16.220 busy on the weekend. It was in 14. Maybe you were looking to get there. But it's something talking

00:12:20.240 about the language on who has the final authority on nominees running in an election. And it changes

00:12:25.600 the wording directly to the leader versus some other words in there. And so people already got

00:12:29.980 the pitchforks out. Oh boy, we got to get 22 constituency associations and overthrow the leader

00:12:33.820 and throw her out. Guys, look, maybe you're not familiar with party politics, and that's fair enough.

00:12:40.260 The leader has always been the final authority on candidates. This isn't new. This is just a change of

00:12:45.140 phrasing. But we've got this prickly element within the independence movement that at the drop of a

00:12:49.600 hat wants to go to war with the party in power. We only have so much energy. We only have so much

00:12:54.660 time. We only have so much political capital. We might have a referendum this year. I don't want

00:12:58.240 to see all that dedicated to going after a leader who's been the most independence friendly one we've

00:13:03.100 had in 20 years. Focus on the referendum. You know, we've got way too much to do rather than

00:13:09.840 constantly bickering at Smith. And if you try to replace her, you might replace her with somebody

00:13:13.800 say you're never getting a referendum. And we're in a situation where, I mean, there's talk again

00:13:20.380 of the rise of the NDP. God forbid we should get Nahed Nanshi and the NDP back. And we've got an

00:13:25.960 election coming up in October of 2027, I believe. And that's not too far off. And if we destroy the

00:13:32.860 party that is in power right now, we could end up in, well, we may never get, you know, move this

00:13:39.160 province forward. And imagine the way this province would be if we had the NDP leading it right now

00:13:44.160 and not Danielle Smith and the United Conservatives. Well, that's it. And if Premier Smith really didn't

00:13:49.560 want the independence, really despised it that much, she's had a number of easy outs where she

00:13:54.200 could just say it can't happen. The court ruling was one right there. She didn't have to have Bill 14.

00:13:58.980 She could have thrown her hands up and said, look, we did what we could, but I'm afraid the courts have

00:14:02.660 stopped us. We just have to move along. Instead, she changed the legislation to allow a referendum.

00:14:07.540 Guys, you aren't going to find one more friendly than this. You know, she's not going to endorse

00:14:11.560 a yes vote, but she's given us the mechanism. Quit turning your guns at the party and let's have 0.86

00:14:16.520 these hundreds of meetings you need because this referendum is going to be tough.

00:14:20.620 Okay. So I want to kind of, I will wrap it up here, but I have a couple of questions

00:14:24.740 and I'll kind of tie them together. Do you think that, I mean, obviously this is a threat

00:14:30.540 to the rest of Canada if Alberta leaves. I mean, we contribute a lot to Canada, a lot of money.

00:14:37.540 Do you think that the federal government is actively working and planning right now some

00:14:42.840 type of a campaign against the independence movement? And, and as somebody who wrote a book

00:14:46.880 on this, the sovereignty's handbook, what do you think we should be doing right now in order to

00:14:51.640 prepare for a possible referendum? Yeah. Oh, the government absolutely will put together a

00:14:57.300 campaign opposing it. I mean, we saw this happen in the nineties as well with the Chrétien government

00:15:01.120 and the Quebec referendum. Again, to be fair, it's kind of their role. If their goal is to maintain a

00:15:06.620 federation, they should be, uh, you know, uh, campaigning against and saying, you know,

00:15:11.680 why we should stay. And if Lukasik is going to be the head of that, then that's great. I think

00:15:15.840 the referendum's in the bag, but, uh, it, we have to, and it's, it's, it's hard to do that mental

00:15:23.560 balance, but we have to be positive yet. At the same time, we're talking about a negative. We're

00:15:27.980 talking about leaving the federation, but we've, we've got to switch that to why we will be better.

00:15:33.400 We already know why it's bad. We already know the problems with Ottawa. We already know the

00:15:38.080 shortcomings of the federation, but we have to convince a lot of the Albertans who aren't sure

00:15:42.780 they're on the fence. Why are you going to be better off a couple of years after an independence

00:15:47.560 vote? You know, is your pension still going to be protected? Is the economy going to be better?

00:15:50.880 Are your personal freedoms going to be improved? We have to really start pivoting to the positive.

00:15:56.100 People don't always just want to vote on a negative. They want to know that there's a lighter

00:15:59.860 picture at the other side of it, because we've been pretty negative and you have to be, you have

00:16:03.240 to point out the problems before you work to the solution, but now we've got to start getting

00:16:06.200 solution oriented. It's going to be interesting. Um, I was thinking about a possible signature

00:16:11.800 campaign coming up maybe after the new year, who knows? And, um, we've got to get people out. It's

00:16:15.980 going to be tough when it's minus 30 degrees. I have to start thinking about where we can hold

00:16:21.260 the signature signings because you know, the forever Canadian folks, they had some pretty nice

00:16:25.160 weather to do that through in the summertime and whatnot to get people out. So there's going to be a lot

00:16:29.480 of planning and I know that, uh, the Alberta prosperity project is working on it and, uh,

00:16:33.340 they're looking for volunteers and whatnot. And they've got a lot of people who've signed up already

00:16:37.440 to sign the petition, but we have to get, get out there and do that. And, and do you think it's

00:16:41.240 important that we get more signatures than the forever Canadian people? Uh, well, not necessarily

00:16:47.220 more than the forever Canadian, but it would certainly look better. I mean, it's that's that kind 0.51

00:16:51.720 of first race, uh, just because the, the APP is definitely better organized. They've been working at this

00:16:57.360 for years. Theoretically they should pass that 177,000, you know, realistically 210,000 that they

00:17:03.660 would need within a couple of months, I would think, but you've got four months to work on it.

00:17:09.220 Run that campaign right to the end of the four months, get every signature you can, because

00:17:12.920 that's the start of the referendum campaign. Anyways, that's going face to face with people

00:17:16.580 that's going door to door. So, you know, it's like the oldest sports euphemisms and so on,

00:17:21.820 you know, always go as if you're a few points behind, just push right to the end.

00:17:25.140 And then that'll transition into the formal campaign. So, I mean, if they came in with

00:17:29.120 500,000 signatures, brilliant. Corey, thank you so much. I want to meet you.

00:17:34.800 Yeah. We can't seem to cross paths. I'm certain we will. I mean, we're running those same circles.

00:17:39.660 We just can't seem to get in the same room at the same time.

00:17:41.620 Yeah. You were in Israel when I was up in Edmonton that time, I thought I might meet you

00:17:45.640 there, but you're in Israel. I know that was an important thing for you to do. Um, I, you know,

00:17:48.900 what I really want people to do and I want, and I mean this sincerely is go over and subscribe

00:17:52.680 to the Western standard for Christ's sakes. I'm a subscriber there. Go over and subscribe to the,

00:17:57.740 to the Western standard, watch Corey show and buy your book. I mean, you wrote the book on this and

00:18:03.180 it's always a pleasure having you on. There's great information in there and go over to your

00:18:07.060 YouTube channel as well. Because if, if people, if you have questions or people are saying specific

00:18:12.060 things to you against the independence movement, Corey, boy, does a great job of explaining those

00:18:17.500 things like, you know, we're landlocked or, um, you know, the Aboriginal problem that everybody 0.95

00:18:23.220 talks about and they've got vetoes and stuff like that. Go over to your channel, Corey. So,

00:18:27.060 so nice to talk to you. I hope to meet up with you very soon.

00:18:30.400 I appreciate it. I'm certain we're going to meet sometime soon. It has to happen.

00:18:33.360 For sure. Uh, thanks a lot to Corey Morgan. If you liked the video, give it a thumbs up,

00:18:37.400 subscribe to the channel, ring the bell for notifications. I'll see you in the next one.

John Bolton - December 08, 2025

Alberta Independence Under Fire： Cory Morgan Responds to Lukaszuk

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