John Bolton - Alberta Rising： Dr. Dennis Modry on Breaking Free from Canada (Alberta Prosperity Project)

00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John, and welcome to the channel. It is Tuesday, September the 16th. I hope

00:00:07.380 you're having a great start to your day. And this is being recorded on Monday, September

00:00:12.080 the 15th at 11 a.m. I do have my big blue mug of coffee with me today. And the reason

00:00:18.520 I'm recording this is I do not expect my guests to get up at four o'clock in the morning to

00:00:22.440 do interviews with me. As you know, yesterday, Parliament returned. And I do not have a lot

00:00:29.980 of faith in the Kearney government and the Liberals and in Ottawa to do anything for

00:00:35.600 my province of Alberta. So I wanted to return to the independence movement today. There's

00:00:40.300 lots of time to talk about the federal government and Canada in general. I'm wearing my Alberta

00:00:46.440 Prosperity Project t-shirt today. Danielle Smith, the premier of my province, seems to be holding

00:00:52.240 out hope that Mark Kearney will throw us a bone and help out my province, but I don't think

00:00:56.820 that is possible. So today we're going to talk about Alberta independence. And my guest

00:01:01.920 today is Dr. Dennis Modry, a founding member and a chair of the Alberta Prosperity Project.

00:01:08.080 We're going to talk about Danielle Smith. We're going to talk about Mark Kearney. We're going

00:01:12.560 to talk about moving forward to get Alberta's independence. Dr. Modry, welcome to the channel.

00:01:18.700 Thank you very much, John. It's wonderful to be here.

00:01:21.120 Well, it's nice to have you here. I've had Mitch Sylvester here. I've had Jeff Rath here. Now I've

00:01:27.720 got you here. When I was out in Airdrie a little while back, all three of you were speaking there

00:01:32.620 at one of your events and incredibly impressed with what you guys are doing and other people

00:01:38.540 as well. Let me ask you this, Dennis, before we move on, I hope I can call you Dennis. I know

00:01:43.460 you're a doctor and everything. How many of these events have you done with the Alberta Prosperity

00:01:48.600 Project so far? Well, it would be a few hundred that we've done since February of 2022. In the last

00:01:59.240 four and a half months, we've done, I think we're on about 48 and we'll be over 50 by the end of this

00:02:07.740 week. And I was just looking at the event schedule and there's lots of them coming up. I'll put a card

00:02:13.760 up so that people can see all the different events. I hope people will go out because they're

00:02:17.740 incredibly informative here. Now I know you've been, well, you're one of the founding members

00:02:22.480 of the independence movement of the Alberta Prosperity Project. How long have you been doing

00:02:29.420 this and why do you think we need independence here in Alberta? We'll just make things simple

00:02:33.280 right off the top. Okay. Well, to answer your first question, I've been innervated since the

00:02:41.200 national energy policy. But it was really in 2003, I had been working behind the scenes with the

00:02:51.740 provincial government on the finance committee. And I had been consulted on various things in which I

00:03:01.220 drafted reports. But it was the dysfunctional relationship between Alberta and Ottawa that

00:03:09.020 really got my attention and in a way in which I thought to myself, how can this be resolved? And

00:03:16.140 this was a time when Premier Klein and Prime Minister Chrétien were actually having substantive verbal

00:03:25.020 sparring in the media. And I came up with an idea. And at the annual general meeting in Red Deer in

00:03:33.740 January of 2003, I said to Ralph, we were just talking privately, and Ralph was a good friend of

00:03:39.440 mine. I said to him privately, I said, Ralph, I think we've got a solution to fix the dysfunctional

00:03:46.120 relationship between Alberta and Ottawa. And he looked at me and he says, you do? And I said, yeah,

00:03:53.360 would you like to hear about it? And he said, absolutely. And so I said, well, it's based on this

00:03:59.360 question. And the question, you've heard this question, but you didn't know the source, but

00:04:04.220 now you're going to find out the source. So he said to Ralph, if you were the president or the

00:04:10.620 Prime Minister of the sovereign country of Alberta and Canada came to you and said, we would like

00:04:15.300 Alberta to join Confederation under the current terms and cost of membership, would you? And he

00:04:20.980 looked at me and he smiled. And he said, and I'll always remember this line, he said, to ask the

00:04:27.600 question is to know the answer, of course not. And I said, well, I'm glad you said that, because the

00:04:32.700 corollary is, don't you think that you have an ethical and an economic responsibility to Albertans

00:04:39.480 to fix this dysfunctional relationship? And he looked at me and he says, yeah, I guess I do. And I said,

00:04:44.700 well, I'm working on a document that will define the algorithm to solve this problem for you.

00:04:51.180 And I worked on that document for the next several months. And I had it vetted by other prominent

00:05:00.120 people, constitutional lawyers, other professionals, lay people, provincial politicians, such as Gary

00:05:07.880 Maher and Steve West, academics like Ted Morton, who was a former MLA as well, and federal politicians

00:05:17.360 like Don Mazinkowski, who was a good friend of mine. And then the document when it was completed was

00:05:23.120 entitled Alberta at the Crossroads, Status Quo, meaning we don't change anything, refederation,

00:05:31.220 in other words, we fix our circumstances, our dysfunctional relationship within Canada,

00:05:36.880 and or autonomy, meaning Alberta becoming a sovereign country. And I met with Ralph in August of 2003,

00:05:46.800 for about an hour and a half. We had a great conversation, it was a lot of fun, we were

00:05:51.680 joking around. And, and he asked me, would you like to present this to caucus? And I said, sure.

00:05:56.640 So I left, and my secretary and I started working on a PowerPoint presentation. And I got a call a few

00:06:04.960 weeks later, from the chief of staff saying that I wasn't going to be presenting at caucus. And I said,

00:06:11.600 well, why is that? And he said, your document is about separation. And I said, No, it isn't. It's about

00:06:19.520 leverage, the sort of leverage that your government doesn't have. So what I was referring to in that

00:06:26.800 document was, of course, a referendum on sovereignty built off of the Clarity Act. And the Clarity Act,

00:06:35.920 as you know, John, is the legal pathway for a province to leave Canada. Now, to be fair,

00:06:44.080 that chief of staff at the time was Peter Elzinga. And Peter is a former federal member of parliament.

00:06:50.640 So you can imagine why he would be opposing it, despite the fact Ralph, you know, etc. He thought

00:06:57.760 it would create too much kerfuffle. To be fair, as well, you know, at that time, Alberta was booming.

00:07:05.600 Okay, we had the lowest unemployment in history, we had a surplus budget. We had the balance sheet was

00:07:16.400 was a surplus as well. We had a triple A bond rating. And the number one or two GDP per capita in the

00:07:26.160 world. So you can understand why the, you know, people like Peter Elzinga and other MLA's were

00:07:33.680 opposed to having a referendum on sovereignty. But, you know, in life, it's hard to see the future,

00:07:41.280 right? You don't know exactly what's going to happen. And this would have been an opportunity

00:07:47.680 at that time, to get the power and the leverage and the control and maybe have substantively changed

00:07:53.600 the constitution at that time, so that today, we wouldn't be facing the kind of problems that

00:07:59.120 we're facing now. Let me ask you this, you mentioned leverage, because I'm going to talk

00:08:04.160 about Daniel Smith a little bit here. A lot of people are saying Daniel Smith, she came up with

00:08:09.520 these nine things that she wanted eliminated, they haven't been eliminated, she's still holding out hope

00:08:15.360 that Carney may throw her a bone when it comes to a pipeline. But people are saying she's trying to use 1.00

00:08:20.240 these things as leverage, much like Quebec has used things for leverage since, well, they had a 0.97

00:08:25.840 referendum in 80. And I was, I remember the one in 95 more than anything, but do you think that's

00:08:30.960 what she's trying to do right now? And what is your take on Danielle Smith? Because I don't hold up much

00:08:36.160 hope that Carney and the Liberals and the rest of Canada is going to do anything for the province of

00:08:41.360 Alberta. No, I don't either. I think, you know, I've got a lot of respect for Danielle.

00:08:48.480 Yeah, she's bright, she's articulate, and she can get a message across. And rhetorically,

00:08:54.640 she is standing up for Alberta, rhetorically, but substantively, not so much. And I say that because,

00:09:04.080 for example, she's made these nine demands. And she has said, if we don't get them, that will be a

00:09:10.720 threat to national unity. That can only mean one thing, that she's willing to take the step

00:09:16.560 to hold a referendum on sovereignty as leverage to achieve what she wants. Now,

00:09:25.280 as you know, John, she implemented, her government implemented as their first piece of legislation,

00:09:30.400 Bill 1, Alberta Sovereignty within the United Canada Act.

00:09:33.760 And that was, of course, to give power to the province to be able to push back against federal

00:09:42.000 overreach of provincial constitutional authority. But how has it worked? It hasn't worked at all.

00:09:48.640 She has, her government has launched some 18 lawsuits against the federal government in relation to

00:09:55.840 the development and transport of oil and gas, agriculture, censorship and property rights.

00:10:02.880 And we haven't won on any of these things. Okay. Now, we did have a Pyrrhic win on

00:10:12.000 ending Bill C-69, the no new pipeline ban by the Supreme Court sided with us. But the federal

00:10:17.200 government hasn't done anything on it. They've ignored it. They've ignored it. Yes. Because they

00:10:21.600 are amending the legislation that they want to implement. And so we're stuck in a situation where

00:10:30.480 I think it's incredibly either, number one, naive to think that you can achieve these objectives,

00:10:39.840 or it's strategic. In other words, when I say it's strategic, demonstrating to the public that we

00:10:48.560 can't get any traction with the federal government. So look at the Alberta Next panel. There are eight

00:10:54.080 requests of the Alberta Next panel put to the public in support of making eight constitutional changes.

00:11:04.560 Those will be impossible to make because it's impossible to overcome the constitution. And

00:11:11.600 there's no way that the federal powers that be the Laurentian elites, if you will,

00:11:17.920 are ever going to give up power and control. And the whole federal governance structure speaks to that.

00:11:26.000 And it's been set up, I think, as you mentioned in Airdrie, I remember you saying,

00:11:29.280 this was set up this way back in 1905 when Alberta became part of the country since the very beginning,

00:11:35.120 correct? Yeah. And it was, it was set up that way. And, and there's no appetite by the federal

00:11:41.840 government to make adjustments because by making adjustments, they will be losing control and power

00:11:50.480 over us. And, and, you know, this is a serious problem. And I think, you know, um, and, and I don't

00:11:59.360 know which way Danielle is lead is, is, uh, thinking about this, this whole issue of her ability to stand

00:12:09.360 strong for Alberta to negotiate with the federal government thinking in her mind that she and her

00:12:17.200 team has a better ability to negotiate with the federal government than all previous provincial

00:12:23.280 governments in Alberta. So I would ask the question, what makes her think that she can negotiate better 0.99

00:12:30.800 terms than all previous provincial governments in Alberta? Because all we've done is gone backwards

00:12:38.320 in over the 120 years where the federal government has taken more and more control of what should be

00:12:45.600 provincial constitutional authority. And I don't see, I don't see that changing, but in a way she's

00:12:51.360 painted herself into a corner because she made these nine demands. She said that would be a threat to

00:12:58.080 national unity if she doesn't get them. And like you said, if the federal government throws her a bone 0.89

00:13:03.600 on one of these things, well, is that enough? Really? Well, you know, I saw, I saw Scott Moe and Danielle

00:13:11.280 Smith, they, they met their caucuses met back in June and Scott Moe sat there and said, we've got hundreds

00:13:17.120 of projects we want done. And Danielle Smith was sitting there nodding her head. I mean, they're going to throw 0.94

00:13:22.160 probably Churchill Manitoba. There was nothing in these first five things they threw out. But today it's

00:13:26.800 interesting because we're recording this on the 15th and today parliament is back. And from the way I

00:13:32.160 calculate it, we're at six months right now, those nine demands come due today. And of course you said

00:13:37.440 there'd be a national, she said there'd be a national unity issue. And for some reason she hasn't drawn a

00:13:41.760 line in the sand with the government here. I don't know what the end game is here for the premier, but I

00:13:46.720 don't see anything good coming of this. And I don't expect anything from Mark Carney and the liberals, um, with

00:13:52.160 parliament back. I think it's going to be an absolute disaster for Alberta. Well, I, I, I think so as well. 0.80

00:13:59.040 And then this is where I think it's going to be important for the premier. I mean, if she wants to be

00:14:08.480 a Maggie Thatcher type leader and, and have the re a steel resolve to protect Alberta, then she is going 1.00

00:14:18.160 to have to say, come to the people of Alberta and say, citizens of Alberta, we have tried to negotiate

00:14:25.600 with the federal government. We've made nine demands. Now, admittedly, they're all in relation to oil and

00:14:31.520 gas, except a single use plastics. Right. But then they, then the eight constitutional changes that she

00:14:37.840 wants. Similarly, she's not going to be able to get and, and, you know, I'm going to cut her some slack

00:14:46.240 and say, let's give her let's give her another month or so. And see where things shape, shake out. 1.00

00:14:55.440 I don't think they'll shake out in a way in which it looks her it, it makes her look like she is

00:15:01.840 successful, unless she can come to the citizens of Alberta and say, citizens of Alberta, we can't

00:15:08.160 get anything with this federal government. Okay, yes, they've given us this one thing, but it isn't

00:15:13.680 nearly enough. And when you think about Brexit, the number one reason why Brexit occurred, when you look

00:15:20.000 at the analysis, is because they didn't want Europe telling them what to do. They didn't want Europe

00:15:28.720 telling the Brits what to do. By the same token, we're sick and tired of Ottawa telling us what to

00:15:37.120 do. Here's one of the main reasons why we want out. Yeah, I just jump in here. I'm sorry to interrupt

00:15:42.720 you, but what bugs me about this, Dennis, is that my province is begging the government for its

00:15:53.600 prosperity. It's just so distasteful to me. I just can't understand why we continue to do this.

00:15:59.920 I mean, I wasn't in the province during the national energy program. I wasn't in the province

00:16:04.480 when Preston Manning talked about the West wants in. I've only been here for 15 years,

00:16:09.360 but I've seen a lot of people lose their jobs. My wife worked for a company where 0.94

00:16:13.200 the whole building was emptied out about 10 years ago because of Trudeau and his government. And I just,

00:16:20.240 we're begging for prosperity here from Mark Carney and the Liberal Party that have, what's that old

00:16:24.960 saying, fool me once, right? And we're just getting fooled over and over and over again.

00:16:29.360 I just can't stand for that anymore. Well, I think it's even beyond just prosperity. It really, truly

00:16:35.120 is a freedom issue too. And, you know, when you consider that term sovereignty, you know,

00:16:42.880 it's really a matter of freedom from external interference. And I like to say, you know,

00:16:50.160 ask yourself the question, are we in this province in any way, shape or form by the federal government,

00:16:57.920 subjugated, dominated, exploited, or our self-determination inhibited? And on every metric,

00:17:05.200 we are. When you look at federal persecution, you could say, you could say what we want is we want

00:17:12.560 out from that persecution. And what do I mean by that? I mean, freedom from political persecution,

00:17:19.440 economic, religious, cultural, medical, and regulatory persecution. We want self-determination.

00:17:27.200 We don't want the federal government telling us what to do. And that freedom comes from getting

00:17:34.960 out from under all federal regulation. Okay. And it also means getting out from under all federal

00:17:41.440 taxation so that we have the ability to purchase the goods and services that we want. And then

00:17:46.320 eventually, in this province, we would be able to eliminate provincial taxation as well. And this is

00:17:53.520 freedom. It's freedom from regulations and it's freedom from taxation. And this is really what we're

00:18:00.160 after. That leads to prosperity. People often ask me, they say, what do you want as a conservative?

00:18:05.120 I say, I just want to be left alone. I mean, honestly, Reagan said, the government that is best

00:18:11.840 governs least. I believe that. I do believe that. I have a question for you here because we don't have

00:18:19.520 a lot of time here, but we're being held up in court right now. The question that we put forward

00:18:27.440 is, do you agree that Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of

00:18:31.840 Canada? I think a decision is being made in October. Correct me if I'm wrong there. But what happens

00:18:39.520 if they say no, that we cannot ask this question, that it's unconstitutional? What are we going to do?

00:18:44.720 Well, there's a couple of answers here. Number one is, we've made a request to

00:18:52.640 meet with the chief electoral officer. And the provincial government is aiming to help facilitate

00:19:00.400 that meeting with the chief electoral officer. Because in the Citizens Initiative Act, if a question is

00:19:06.960 posed that the chief electoral officer is not completely comfortable with, he has an obligation to work with

00:19:14.640 the proponent of the question to solve the problem. So we'll see if we can solve that problem. Now,

00:19:22.720 the issue as well, in terms of trying to get to a resolution, we know that the premier and the

00:19:32.320 minister of justice have stated publicly that they want our question to go forward. Right? They've already

00:19:39.840 stated that. Yes, they have. Yes. Okay. And then, with respect to the outcome of the court

00:19:54.000 adjudication, which I think it's going to, the court case is actually going to be dealt with in November,

00:19:59.920 and an answer will be forthcoming in before the end of the year, according to Justice Feasby.

00:20:08.000 And so, so we'll have that answer. But then the answer to your question is, what happens if the

00:20:14.720 question is not approved? So it would be surprising to me, though, John, if the question isn't approved,

00:20:22.960 or a modification. The hang up, just for your listeners, to provide some clarification,

00:20:29.840 is that the chief electoral officer was concerned primarily that, according to the Citizens Initiative

00:20:37.280 Act, if you pose a question that will result in constitutional change, that it not abridge Section

00:20:45.120 35, or 1 to 35.1 of the Constitution. And this is primarily in relation to Aboriginal rights. Now,

00:20:55.760 the provincial government has said as well, that any referendum on Alberta sovereignty will never abridge

00:21:05.440 Aboriginal rights. So that's, that's one answer to it. And so we think that more than likely,

00:21:13.280 the question will be approved, but we may have to add in at the end of the question that's been proposed

00:21:22.320 by us. Words along the lines of consistent with sections 31 to 35.1 of the Constitution. Okay,

00:21:32.720 so if that's added in, well, that simply would solve the problem right now. But we think the question

00:21:39.280 is valid on its own, without having to add to that. Do you think, sorry, do you think this will,

00:21:46.160 are we going to be on a timeline for a referendum in 2026, if this continues to get pushed down the

00:21:54.400 road, as it seems to be? Well, we're working on the 2026 timeline. Yeah, we expect from our internal

00:22:00.960 discussions with government that we're looking at probably the spring of 2026. But anyhow, what is

00:22:08.640 Plan B, for example, if the question wasn't approved, or we weren't able to go ahead? Under those

00:22:14.240 circumstances, your listeners need to understand that the Alberta Prosperity Project has twice the

00:22:21.040 membership of all the political parties in the province of Alberta put together. All right. So

00:22:27.440 we have the ability, then to influence the constituency associations, for which many of the CA members are

00:22:38.240 members of the Alberta Prosperity Project, as is the majority of the UCP board of directors.

00:22:45.040 And it will be our responsibility, then, to change the MLAs in the next election, so that they're

00:22:52.080 MLAs that are in support of Alberta sovereignty. And then we would proceed under those circumstances,

00:23:00.880 you see, because the Premier doesn't need the citizens to force a referendum on sovereignty.

00:23:07.600 She actually could call for a referendum on Alberta sovereignty on her own.

00:23:12.400 Okay? Do you think she should, when Carney didn't have a pipeline on his list last week,

00:23:17.760 do you think she should have called a referendum? I think what she should have done is she should

00:23:21.680 have made it very clear her disappointment. Yeah. And I think she should have said, you know,

00:23:26.560 we are going to evaluate further how we can use the Alberta sovereignty within the United Canada Act,

00:23:36.640 and we may need to move forward more quickly on a referendum on Alberta sovereignty.

00:23:42.320 The danger that we have right now is that the federal government is moving very quickly to implement

00:23:49.120 changes that adversely affect people's economic wherewithal, their cultural wherewithal,

00:23:59.600 their values. And this is important. I mean, this brings to mind exactly the conversation that we had with

00:24:11.280 Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the leader of the Parti Quebecois last Thursday evening for four and a half hours.

00:24:18.160 He is very concerned about the federal government interfering with Quebec culture, with Quebec values,

00:24:29.760 with Quebec views on how things should be handled, and on Quebec self-determination. And they too feel

00:24:37.680 as though they've been subjugated and dominated and exploited and their self-determination inhibited.

00:24:45.440 And so, I mean, we had a very good discussion, but I digress. The point that I'm getting at here is

00:24:52.000 that the premier needs to understand that this is far beyond just an economic issue for Albertans.

00:25:00.000 There's much more at stake here. It's our very freedoms and our values and our culture that are at stake

00:25:06.560 as well, not just our prosperity. And if she doesn't do something about it, we as a people,

00:25:14.080 a grassroots organization, we have to do something about it. And she either gets in front of this 1.00

00:25:20.160 parade or somebody else will have to get in front of this parade. 0.99

00:25:24.640 What do you, and I worry now we've got another liberal government. I don't expect much from

00:25:29.120 Carney and the liberals at all. There are people saying, well, you know, there'll eventually be

00:25:32.880 a conservative government. Do you expect anything different if the conservatives get in? Ever?

00:25:37.360 Well, I think, John, you and I know that it can't be anything different. If a conservative federal

00:25:47.360 government doesn't align their policies with the wishes of the Laurentian elites, they won't be

00:25:56.480 elected again. And this is why we saw, for example, three best examples. One, Mr. Polyev was not interested

00:26:06.720 in ending equalization at all. Yet Mr. Plamondin said, we don't need equalization payments. If we get

00:26:14.560 out from all federal regulation and taxation, we'll be perfectly fine. So in any case, Mr. Polyev was

00:26:21.120 unwilling to get rid of equalization, even talk about it. Similarly, he was unwilling to talk about an

00:26:28.240 Alberta pension plan. Again, because he thought that would cost conservatives votes. And third,

00:26:35.760 he's also unwilling to do anything about the dairy cartel, which controls the price of dairy and eggs,

00:26:43.680 and puts limits on what Alberta farming can actually produce, which I think is ridiculous.

00:26:51.920 And so you see, just from those three examples, if a conservative government wants to be elected,

00:26:59.760 elected, and if they are elected, they want to stay in power, they can't shake the governance tree too

00:27:05.760 much. We can never get representation by population in the House of Commons. That'll never happen. We can 0.86

00:27:12.240 never get representation by population in the Senate. And we don't have control over the appointments of the

00:27:18.480 Supreme Court justices either. They all come out of the Prime Minister's office. So we're caught in a bind.

00:27:24.320 And Quebec has a little bit more of an advantage over us on any attempts to change the Constitution,

00:27:33.120 because they have a de facto veto. What that really means is that if there's to be a change in the

00:27:39.520 Constitution, Quebec has to be consulted, and then their agreement or disagreement will be taken into

00:27:45.840 account, you see. But actually changing the Constitution to benefit Alberta is impossible.

00:27:52.720 There are four hurdles, and it's impossible to change that, to change.

00:27:56.320 We could talk, we could talk all day. I jotted down a whole bunch of things. I was watching some of your,

00:28:02.080 some of the videos that were done at some of the events. What would be your main pitch to people who

00:28:08.320 are sort of on the fence when it comes to Alberta independence? I mean, you're preaching to the choir

00:28:13.120 here. I want to see the province leave. I want to see us become an independent country. But what would

00:28:17.360 be the main thing you would tell people and how it would benefit them if Alberta left?

00:28:22.320 Sure. I think, well, there's a couple of things I'd say. I'd say, number one, I get it. I understand

00:28:30.240 the patriotism in Canada. We fought in two world wars, but what were we fighting for? Were we fighting

00:28:36.320 for Canada or were we fighting for freedom? Because right now we're still fighting for freedom.

00:28:41.280 And I would say to those people, you know, is this the same Canada now that you should justifiably hold

00:28:52.560 reverence for? Or has something changed? You know, do you feel as though you or your kids' goals and

00:29:00.560 aspirations are harder to achieve now? Do you think freedom and prosperity for yourself and your

00:29:09.280 and your children and future generations is just a dream? And there's an example of that. You know,

00:29:16.640 in 1960, 50% of young people at age 30 owned their home. Now it's 12%. So you see, so for people to think

00:29:26.880 about, you know, the future and what's in their best interest, is it in their best interest to stay in

00:29:33.440 Canada? And I say to these people, ask yourself, is your love for Canada greater than your love for

00:29:41.440 your family and your children and future generations? Because if your love for your family is greater than

00:29:49.840 it is for Canada, then when you're out from all federal regulation and taxation, and your take home pay,

00:29:56.800 instead of being 55% of your income is now 92%. And now you have the opportunity to truly purchase the goods and

00:30:06.800 services that are in the best interests of you and your family, and to plan for your future, and to pay for goods and

00:30:14.800 services that are less costly, because they no longer have those federal taxes on them. Is that not a better future

00:30:20.800 for you and your family and future generations? So these are the kinds of things that that I would say

00:30:27.280 to people. Some people are more attuned to the idea that they're losing their culture, because of certain

00:30:35.520 things that are going on. And and religious freedom is under under strain as well. And we're we're seeing

00:30:45.200 that there's a parliamentary committee right now, looking to end charitable status for churches. And and so

00:30:54.480 religion is particularly Judeo Christian religions are are truly under attack. And we have an opportunity to get 0.99

00:31:03.280 out from under that we have an opportunity to be a beacon of light a beacon of hope a beacon of a pathway to true

00:31:11.520 freedom and prosperity, which is an which would be not just what we do, but as an example for the rest of Canada, and

00:31:18.640 elsewhere around the world. And you can be sure that other regions in the world that want freedom and prosperity, they're

00:31:25.280 looking at what we're doing. And they're hoping and praying we're successful.

00:31:28.800 You you've been out, I've only got a couple of minutes left, because I don't have an extended plan on zoom here. But you've been out to

00:31:36.320 dozens of these meetings. What's your thought right now? How are you feeling optimistic about independence

00:31:43.840 here? I'm feeling very optimistic. As you know, from a few months ago, the polls were 45 to 48% in

00:31:51.360 favour of sovereignty. We live in an era, John of cancel culture where people often in a poll won't answer

00:31:58.800 a question that was best exemplified in the US election. The polls did not predict the win. We see

00:32:05.760 in Canada, what has happened with the trucker convoy, people had their accounts frozen. So they're

00:32:10.720 reticent to publicly state in a poll that they are in support of Alberta sovereignty. But I'll leave you

00:32:17.280 with one fact. Sure. And that is and it's a thought exercise as well. And that is, in 2021, we had that

00:32:24.800 referendum to end equalization. And 62% of Albertans voted to end equalization. Well, as a thought exercise,

00:32:33.040 ask yourself the question, how many of that 62%, knowing that the only way to end equalization

00:32:40.240 would be for Alberta to become a sovereign country, would therefore vote for sovereignty? Right? I think

00:32:46.320 from what we're seeing, is I think we're winning, I think we may have a plurality already, but we're not

00:32:52.560 going to assume that we want to assume that we're still behind. And we're pushing hard, you know, getting

00:33:00.320 the message out. Well, what I'll do is we're going to wrap things up. I'd love to talk to you again

00:33:04.480 in the future. I appreciate your time today and how busy you are because I'm just looking, you know,

00:33:08.320 on the website for the Alberta Prosperity Project, the events that are coming up. It's just happening

00:33:12.960 day after day after day. And I hope people will go out to them. I'm seeing you going to small

00:33:17.200 communities here in Alberta and half the population is showing up. So that's really good news from that

00:33:23.120 standpoint. Thank you so much for chatting with me today. I hope we can talk again in the future.

00:33:28.400 Best of luck to you. Thanks so much, Dr. Dennis Modry. Thanks, John. I'd like to thank you for

00:33:34.480 watching the channel. If you like the video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel,

00:33:38.800 ring the bell for notifications, and I'll see you in the next one. This is my big blue mug. It's hiding in

00:33:44.320 my screen behind me. I hate when that happens.

John Bolton - September 16, 2025

Alberta Rising： Dr. Dennis Modry on Breaking Free from Canada (Alberta Prosperity Project)

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