John Bolton - Alberta - months from INDEPENDENCE - Canada - months from the END

00:00:00.000 Well, I think Albertans are hurt and betrayed. That's how I think Albertans are feeling.

00:00:04.700 I think Canada as a whole got a sense of that feeling of hurt and betrayal with the way the

00:00:09.940 Americans are treating us right now. But we're being treated, we've been treated that way for 0.63

00:00:14.060 the last 10 years. Treated like our interests don't matter. Treated like our economic imperatives

00:00:20.040 aren't important. Treated like we should be just shut up and just be satisfied with whatever the

00:00:26.620 central government decides to do, regardless of whether it's constitutional or not.

00:00:30.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. Great to have you along. I've got a different set. I've

00:00:34.620 moved over here in the basement. I do have my big blue mug of coffee, but there's some water in there

00:00:38.860 right now. And it is three minutes after 7 p.m. the 30th of April. Great to have you along today.

00:00:46.400 And just a reminder, coming up on Saturday, there is an independence rally in Edmonton at the

00:00:51.960 legislature. I will be there. I'm going to emcee the event from 1 to 3 if you can be there.

00:00:57.520 Please show up. Show your support for independence here in Alberta. I'm driving all the way from

00:01:02.760 Calgary to be there. So certainly if you live in the Edmonton area, you can be there. Again,

00:01:07.140 1 to 3 on Saturday. Joining me today to talk a little bit about what's happened in the wake of

00:01:14.040 the election on Monday night and the re-election of the Liberal Party after 10 years of dysfunction

00:01:18.820 here in the country is James Albers, a Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta member for many,

00:01:25.140 many years. James, terrific to have you here. Thanks so much for being on with me tonight.

00:01:29.440 Thank you. It's a pleasure.

00:01:30.520 So right off the top, I showed that clip of Danielle Smith after the election. She says

00:01:35.420 that Albertans are hurt and betrayed. How do you feel after the election the other night, James?

00:01:40.620 Well, I think hurt and betrayed is a good description of it. We were looking at this as

00:01:46.800 the opportunity, certainly from our perspective anyway, in the independence movement to see the

00:01:52.520 conservatives come in and maybe, maybe just one last time, take a shot at rejigging confederation

00:01:59.120 so that it worked for everybody. So that was, I think there was a faint hope in our minds that

00:02:05.100 that might happen, but, um, the results kind of speak for themselves from, from my perspective.

00:02:09.720 Anyway, um, Albertans have been let down again. And, you know, when you look at the results on the

00:02:14.840 map, you know, that wall, uh, heading from, uh, the edge of Ontario all the way out West is, uh,

00:02:21.200 it's, it says a lot. And I think we need to, we need to just be realistic about our chances of ever

00:02:27.560 really having a, a seat at the table. Did you have mixed feelings like I did on Tuesday morning?

00:02:33.440 Because, you know, I remember prior to Trudeau, uh, resigning, uh, on January 6th, a lot of people

00:02:40.640 online saying they were hoping that he would resign. And I remember doing a video saying,

00:02:44.200 I don't want the guy to resign. I want him to stick around. Cause I want to punish the liberals.

00:02:47.920 I want to punish Justin Trudeau. They deserve to be punished being in Albert. And I thought that, 0.99

00:02:52.580 and then of course, uh, Mark Carney got in and I wanted to see Polly have win because I wanted to 1.00

00:02:58.080 see the liberals punished. But I woke up on Tuesday morning thinking, listen, the opportunity is even

00:03:02.680 better now for the independence movement. And did you feel the same way kind of mixed feelings

00:03:06.640 as I had? No, absolutely. And like I say, I think we were, we were quietly hoping that Polly would

00:03:12.160 get in, but we've always maintained that, um, Albertans would want to see one last kick of the

00:03:18.580 cap before making a decision to go on their own. And I think what we saw in the election on Monday

00:03:24.540 was exactly that. I think Albertans woke up on Tuesday and went, you know what? We can't do this

00:03:29.660 anymore. And, and for a lot of people, it was like, I've held my breath for 10 years. I've kept

00:03:34.360 my opinions to myself because the regime in Ottawa wasn't too, um, uh, tolerable with regard to any

00:03:41.520 kind of dissent, you know, those fringe minority people, that's how that goes. But, uh, I think, I think

00:03:46.900 Tuesday morning people got up and said, okay, enough, enough. Well, you're in Albertan, you're from

00:03:52.840 Edmonton originally. You've really only been part of the separation movement, as I understand, for

00:03:58.380 about the last 10 years since Trudeau got in. Is that correct? That's correct. Yes. So you, you can

00:04:03.760 think back to the days, probably, um, what, over 40 years now, the national energy program here in

00:04:09.100 Alberta. I moved out here 12, 13 years ago and people still talk about that. Oh, absolutely. You

00:04:15.560 know, and it's, it's funny because I served in the armed forces. I remember, I remember watching, uh,

00:04:20.660 the Canada Russia hockey series and being so proud to be a Canadian. I served in the armed forces. I

00:04:26.040 was, was proud to, to wear that maple leaf when I traveled through Europe. And then one morning I

00:04:31.840 woke up and I went, ah, you know what? The country that I loved is, has no, no, no, no longer any use

00:04:39.240 for me as an Albertan. Uh, and they've left us behind. And it really, uh, it was a real, uh, wake up

00:04:46.700 call for me after the Trudeau election. What really bothers you about what's been happening

00:04:51.320 to Alberta over the last 10 years? And again, maybe even going back four decades,

00:04:55.380 there's been this situation for 40 years or what's bugging you about this?

00:04:58.880 Well, I think what, what everybody's coming to realize, and for me in particular, is the fact

00:05:04.160 that we can bang on the door all we want. We're really not going to get in, uh, to any sort of

00:05:10.120 serious discussion with Ottawa with regard to having an impact that will allow each province,

00:05:15.500 quite frankly, to, to be an equal and, uh, and an equal partner in Confederation. It's just not

00:05:21.800 going to happen. And you know full well from your history that it was never designed to give the West 0.86

00:05:27.540 that kind of, uh, leeway. Uh, the West was always designed to be, uh, an area that fed the, uh, the

00:05:33.700 metropolis, which was Ottawa, you know, Toronto, Montreal. And that model has worked perfectly. And

00:05:40.500 I think people just have begun to wake up to the fact that that's not going to change.

00:05:46.380 The other day, or just yesterday, the threshold for a referendum was lowered. I mean, it's,

00:05:53.700 it's fascinating. This happened basically a day after or within 24 hours of the election,

00:05:58.440 but we went from having to get around 600,000 signatures in order to get a ballot for a referendum

00:06:05.100 here to dropping it down to 177,000 approximately and extending the period out, um, 220 days to get

00:06:12.640 these signatures. This must seem closer than ever for you. And you must be thinking the time is now

00:06:18.200 we've got to make this happen. Well, I think there's a recognition that the sentiment is much

00:06:23.220 deeper and stronger than it ever has been. And so I think that was a good move on her part.

00:06:27.700 And, you know, I have to say, uh, you know, I belong to a different political party, but we're

00:06:32.980 big enough to say that, you know, she's done the right thing. She has been, uh, representing our

00:06:37.940 province, I think, uh, extremely well. And, you know, I'm not afraid to say that, um, that's what

00:06:43.700 real political discourse should look like, right? When somebody is doing something right, you should

00:06:47.260 tell them that they're doing something right. And I think for her to, uh, to give the people, um,

00:06:52.840 uh, place to, uh, to put their voice, I guess, with regard to a referendum. And I'm hearing some

00:06:58.800 interesting numbers even today that there's several that are floating around that are almost

00:07:03.460 at that 177,000 threshold. So I don't think it'll be very long before we're contending with, uh,

00:07:10.640 with the whole idea of a referendum and, and people want to be heard. They, they, they're, they've had

00:07:15.920 enough. Yeah. From what I understand, this has to be a paper. It has to be paper that has to be done.

00:07:21.400 And I've seen some online petitions where they've got a couple of hundred thousand people already

00:07:24.920 signing up. Um, but that doesn't really count. It has to be paper. The thing that I've noticed,

00:07:30.420 the thing that I've noticed, um, I came from Ontario. I never really understood what the

00:07:36.680 grievance was for Alberta until I moved here. And I call myself an Albertan now. I understand

00:07:41.140 completely. Um, what I've seen online over the last couple of days is people seem to think that

00:07:46.740 Danielle Smith's having a tantrum. People seem to think that voters out here are having a 1.00

00:07:51.380 tantrum because we didn't get our way when it comes to, uh, the election the other night,

00:07:56.280 the conservative didn't win. Carney got in. What do you say to those people?

00:08:01.180 I think what people need to understand is that Albertans have kept quiet for a very long time.

00:08:05.500 And we've always maintained that when, when Alberta decides it's going to leave,

00:08:09.540 there's not going to be a lot of fanfare. There's not going to be a lot of posturing.

00:08:12.700 It's like, no, thank you very much. We're done. Goodbye. And I think people will be shocked

00:08:17.740 at how fast that happens. Well, I, I actually heard that there's a, there's an opportunity

00:08:22.460 here. And I think this should be done. There should be a very, very, um, slow effort to move

00:08:29.080 forward, but this is possibly, this possibly could get on a municipal ballot in October.

00:08:34.800 We're having municipal elections here. I've heard people saying this could happen as early

00:08:38.860 as October. This is a lot closer than a lot of people across the country think.

00:08:44.960 No, I agree. And we, when we were looking at what was happening with regard to the polls and

00:08:49.780 everything that was happening with Carney and the liberals, I think we recognize that this could

00:08:54.500 come upon us fairly quickly. And I think the next couple of days or weeks are going to be very

00:09:00.820 telling in terms of, um, you know, Mr. Carney flip-flopping back and forth on, um, so-called

00:09:06.900 promises to Alberta, which don't really carry a lot of weight to be totally frank. But if he,

00:09:13.040 uh, toes the line with, um, Mr. Blanchet and the Québécois and some of the stuff that's going on

00:09:18.320 there, that's just going to add fuel to the fire. Like the resolve is already there. People are

00:09:23.700 speaking up that have never spoken up before. It's like Albertans are saying, you know what,

00:09:27.160 we're not going to be quiet about this anymore. Enough is enough. Well, you brought, I'm sorry,

00:09:31.220 you brought up Francois Blanchet. So I actually have a clip. Let's play a clip of him. This is

00:09:35.660 after the election. And then we'll come back and discuss. Okay.

00:09:38.880 And the fact that there's no future for oil and gas, at least in Quebec and probably everywhere.

00:09:48.080 And this has to be said and protected. I have a brand new weapon to do that. Mr. Bonin will be

00:09:55.320 extraordinary carrying that message. So that was Blanchet saying no future for oil and gas

00:10:02.480 in Quebec and really no future for oil and gas everywhere. I mean, this, we're never going to

00:10:09.100 get a pipeline out East. If this is the case, the Parti Québécois out there, they feel the same way

00:10:14.280 about our oil and gas. It's over. It's time to leave.

00:10:17.120 Well, it is. And to, and to quote, well, not quotes verbatim, but a fellow Albertan and Premier

00:10:24.960 Ralph Klein, it's like, well, let's just turn off the taps, turn off the taps and see, see how that

00:10:29.800 works for you. Well, I always remember to quote, and maybe you don't want to say it, but I think

00:10:33.800 it was let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark or something like that. A very famous thing that he 0.98

00:10:38.860 once said, and I've said here on my channel, I have, I have family. I don't want them to freeze in the

00:10:42.420 dark, but we need to get our oil out. Well, what do you say to people who say, well, we'll be

00:10:46.600 landlocked? Although I look at the map from the other day and I think we'll take half the country

00:10:51.200 with us possibly if the independence movement continues to grow. Saskatchewan may be part of

00:10:56.860 Northern British Columbia as well. Well, you know, the people forget about the fact that Alberta would

00:11:03.380 have way more power to bargain with places like British Columbia, for example, as an independent

00:11:08.800 country versus as a province. Right now as a province, we're hamstrung by Ottawa. We can't do

00:11:14.020 that. But BC has, what, several trillion dollars worth of goods that flow into the port of Vancouver

00:11:19.880 and out to the rest of Canada, and they would have to go through Alberta. So, you know, it behooves them

00:11:27.200 to play nice with regard to stuff like that. Being landlocked isn't at all a constriction for what we

00:11:32.940 need to do as an independent country. There's a lot, we would actually have a lot more freedom to

00:11:38.380 negotiate in good faith with the people around us, with the provinces around us, and get something

00:11:42.580 that works for everybody. Well, a few years back, well, actually, it's more than a few years. I've

00:11:46.720 mentioned here again on the channel, I've got some pictures of a thousand people in an auditorium in

00:11:52.220 North Calgary. This had been about 2019, and that question was... I was there. Were you there? Well, I was

00:11:57.840 there, and it was the first time I'd ever gone out, and people were so excited about this. That was

00:12:03.380 seven years ago, or six years ago now. And I remember somebody asking the question, well,

00:12:08.480 if you can't get your oil through Quebec now, how are you going to get it if you leave? And the

00:12:13.520 same thing with British Columbia. And the guy said, well, we'll just tell Quebec they can't have our

00:12:17.600 oil, and they can't have our money either. You're going to get nothing from us. And British Columbia

00:12:21.580 basically can't use our borders anymore. And I thought that was an interesting way of putting it.

00:12:26.160 You brought up Mark Carney. Your thoughts on this guy? I mean, Trudeau 2.0, but I think he's

00:12:33.900 Trudeau 2.0 even more. I think this guy's really dangerous for the country, and not good for Alberta,

00:12:41.120 for sure. Oh, absolutely. I call it the biggest misdirect in the history of Canada, where instead

00:12:49.060 of looking at the abysmal liberal record of which he had much to do, he got people to look the other

00:12:56.300 way and look at the bad man down in the US. And they use fear. And that's been a liberal tactic

00:13:02.920 for a long time. And I think that's what I think frustrates a lot of us Albertans as well. It's like,

00:13:07.540 we don't make decisions based on fear. We make decisions based on what's best for us and our

00:13:11.660 family and our livelihood. And the fear factor is something that rarely, rarely comes into play.

00:13:18.260 That's why we were so upset during the whole COVID thing, not to sort of rehash that whole era. But

00:13:23.740 Albertans have been fiercely independent, and we want to make the decisions that are best for us.

00:13:30.280 And watching the other parts of the country, I won't say the rest of the country, because I think the

00:13:34.520 West didn't buy into the baloney. Everybody bought into this fear-mongering, and it was disappointing,

00:13:43.960 to say the least.

00:13:44.980 Yeah. You brought up Donald Trump, 51st state. He's been meddling, obviously, meddled in the federal

00:13:54.980 election. If the independence movement gains traction here, what about meddling from Trump

00:14:01.700 when that happens? What do you think about the 51st state thing? There are some people in the province

00:14:06.160 that they want to go talk to the Trump administration about Alberta becoming the 51st state. Would you be

00:14:11.060 open to that, or are you just looking for independence, our own country here?

00:14:15.280 Well, two thoughts on that. Number one, Albertans will ultimately decide what that independence looks 0.93

00:14:20.320 like, number one. Number two, for me, independence doesn't mean serving one country, then serving

00:14:27.620 another country. Because, sure, Donald Trump's in right now, and maybe everything's looking rosy. But

00:14:32.860 in four years, there could be a completely different type of administration in there that we

00:14:37.460 would find very untenable. And so I don't know that jumping from the frying pan into the fire

00:14:42.600 necessarily makes a good choice. So I'm for independence, not necessarily 51st state. Having

00:14:49.700 said that, though, I think people misunderstand a lot of what's happening there. Donald Trump is

00:14:56.240 advancing a foreign policy known as Fortress America. And that includes Canada, that includes Mexico.

00:15:03.400 He has a very clear agenda, which I'm sure he has communicated to both Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Carney.

00:15:10.240 And the fact that they're not biting at it, in fact, the fact that they are siding with China. So

00:15:15.680 there's only two countries that are doing retaliatory tariffs right now, Canada and China. So I don't

00:15:21.940 think that bodes well for Canada at this point, because Mr. Carney either isn't getting it or is

00:15:27.280 actually being deliberately antagonistic. You find it fascinating that we went through 10 years of

00:15:35.560 this, and then they got reelected. It was stunning the other night. And again, so many people just

00:15:40.480 basically forgot everything because they had Trump derangement syndrome. It was just stunning to see

00:15:46.700 that happen the other night. And I did want Paulie up to win. He did very well. He actually did very

00:15:51.240 well. He'd have been the prime minister if this hadn't happened with the 51st state and the liberals

00:15:56.560 playing it to the YLT. And they did a damn good job of it, you have to say. 0.60

00:16:00.740 Well, and don't forget, they had the help of the propaganda arm, which was all the mainstream media.

00:16:07.100 I was at the point where I was only listening to independent media voices on YouTube and other

00:16:14.080 places like that, simply because you couldn't find a mainstream outlet that would give any

00:16:20.140 credence or credibility to any of the conservative positions or to Mr. Paulieff.

00:16:25.840 There'd be lots of time oohing and aahing over Mr. Carney, but every commentary around the

00:16:32.880 conservatives was negative. And they weren't even trying to hide it. And I think that,

00:16:37.360 and if that's what we were seeing in Alberta, I can tell you that it was 10 times worse in

00:16:41.680 Ontario and Quebec.

00:16:42.500 What do you tell people here, maybe in Alberta, that might have to vote on this in the future?

00:16:47.480 What benefit will it be for them to be an independent country here in Alberta, as opposed

00:16:52.620 to being part of Canada?

00:16:54.520 Well, you know, I just start with a really simple fact that, you know, would Alberta,

00:17:00.120 what would Alberta look like with that extra just about $70 billion that wouldn't have exited the 0.81

00:17:06.360 province? You know, what would that have done for us as a province? It's, you know, even with

00:17:11.840 things, you know, I don't want to go into, you know, get too granular on some of these issues,

00:17:15.620 but even things like the CPP, Alberta overpays. We don't get nearly as much back from CPP as we pay

00:17:23.560 into it. We're subsidizing other provinces. If we were actually paying into something that was

00:17:30.180 a straight across deal, everybody would be better off, even with something as simple as a pension

00:17:37.320 plan. So from my perspective, you know, we have way more to gain than we have to lose in this case.

00:17:44.220 And I can tell you that when we start to negotiate, you know, what the federal government actually owes

00:17:51.560 Alberta in this discussion, I think people will be shocked because nobody's really talked about that.

00:17:58.120 Well, yeah, basically what happens, you get the 177,000 signatures, you get a ballot. If you get

00:18:05.900 a clear winner, I think it's 50% plus one on a clear question, then the feds, the provincial

00:18:12.940 government and Aboriginal groups, First Nation groups, by law have to sit down and talk about

00:18:18.940 this with Alberta to work out the deal and to work out the future of Alberta and their place in it,

00:18:25.800 correct? Something like that. Yeah. Boy, it's hard to believe, you know, I heard somebody throw out

00:18:30.860 October. And I've said a few times on my channel that, you know, separation is closer than you may

00:18:36.980 think. And it's getting closer day by day. And after the election the other night, it's, it's getting

00:18:42.140 real close. James, thanks so much for talking to me. I do appreciate it. What would you suggest people

00:18:47.380 do if they're part of this movement? What should they be doing to, to move it along and to get the

00:18:53.800 ultimate prize, which is Alberta independence? Well, there's a couple of things that are going on right

00:18:58.380 now. So you mentioned the rally that's happening up in Edmonton. So that is a joint effort between the

00:19:03.600 Independence Party of Alberta and ourselves, the Wild Rose Independence Party. We see ourselves as a

00:19:09.140 movement. So it's bigger than just being a political party. And so that's really important. So get out, make your

00:19:14.900 voice heard, come to the rally. We're going to be putting on a convention or conference on

00:19:20.120 independence in June. We haven't got the dates nailed down yet, but that's going to be happening.

00:19:25.280 I hear that Mr. Manning is also exploring the idea of putting a Western Independence Assembly together.

00:19:31.840 So keep your, your ears peeled and your eyes on the news and watch for opportunities to get out and

00:19:38.840 make your voice heard. It was interesting to hear President Manning get involved in this about a week

00:19:42.820 ago. He said that there'll be a national crisis, basically, if the Liberals win once again. And

00:19:48.480 then I did read a little bit about him having some type of a committee, getting committees together.

00:19:53.260 Back in 87, the mantra of the Reform Party was the West wants in. He's actually considering

00:19:59.580 the West wants out right now, which is pretty amazing considering it's a big name like Preston Manning.

00:20:05.600 So James, thanks so much for being here. I do appreciate it. I'm sure we'll see you in the future.

00:20:10.040 And when we find out more about this conference you said you're going to have, I think in June,

00:20:14.680 get you back on and we'll get somebody on to talk about that as well. Thanks so much for being here.

00:20:18.680 Okay. We'll see you on Saturday. Absolutely. I'll see James, James Albers. And thanks a lot for

00:20:24.800 watching the channel. If you like the video, please give me a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel as

00:20:29.280 well. We're almost at 30,000 subscribers here. Hard to believe. I'll ring the bell for notifications and

00:20:34.500 I'll see you in the next one.

00:20:40.040 Thank you.

John Bolton - May 01, 2025

Alberta - months from INDEPENDENCE - Canada - months from the END

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