John Bolton - May 14, 2026


Be Proud - Without Struggle There Is No Progress - We Will Win!


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

175.83897

Word count

1,785

Sentence count

123

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A judge threw out the Alberta Separatist Party's bid for a referendum on independence from Canada. What does this mean for the future of Alberta's sovereignty? Is there still a chance for a vote on independence?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel Thursday, May 14th, 4.56 a.m. I hope you're having
00:00:08.240 a great start to your Thursday. I appreciate you being here and I do tip the big blue mug
00:00:12.720 of coffee to you today. I went to bed last night and I slept soundly. I woke up this
00:00:19.000 morning thinking about the court decision yesterday, which ruled against the Alberta
00:00:23.100 independence movement. I did a video with Mitch Sylvester yesterday. He was gracious
00:00:27.540 enough to speak with me. Minutes after this ruling came down, court rules against the petition.
00:00:33.660 Mitch Sylvester responds, is the vote in jeopardy? Well, is it? I've got a clip in just a moment from
00:00:40.320 Keith Wilson, who did a fantastic video yesterday. Link in the description. I would suggest you go
00:00:45.380 watch the whole thing. But I'm going to let Mitch have the final say in this video, which isn't
00:00:49.580 going to be very long. Without revealing everything it's about, because I was concerned about one
00:00:55.040 thing in particular. Mitch says, be proud and you should be proud. Now watching Keith, the thing I
00:01:01.680 got out of Keith's video, other than reassurance, which was very important for me, was the fact that
00:01:08.060 there really isn't democracy in this province if we have this decision that stands. Danielle Smith
00:01:14.920 is going to appeal it, a short clip from her in just a moment. We don't have democracy 1.00
00:01:19.140 if this decision stands. Think of it this way. A group of people in this province have asked
00:01:25.520 something of their government, not a lawyer. I'm breaking it down to that simplistic thing.
00:01:31.140 We're asking something of our government. And if a few native chiefs don't like it,
00:01:36.980 we have to ask them for permission first. Is that democracy? No, it's not.
00:01:42.760 i also was thinking about frederick douglas this morning and a quote from him frederick douglas
00:01:51.340 likely the most important person fighting for civil rights in the 19th century
00:01:56.200 he was an abolitionist he was a black man and he was known to say agitate agitate agitate is that
00:02:03.940 what we're doing in the alberta independence movement i suppose it is i suppose we're
00:02:08.780 agitating. We're certainly agitating when it comes to the forever Canada or forever Canadian
00:02:13.380 people. But here's a complete quote from Frederick Douglass, and I think we should
00:02:17.740 take this to heart. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom
00:02:25.040 and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. Mitch said
00:02:31.900 in the interview with him yesterday, we knew this was going to be hard. It was going to be a struggle
00:02:35.880 and we have to continue struggling to get what we want.
00:02:40.660 There are people in this province who do not want us to have democracy
00:02:44.040 and that would be the head, Nenshi.
00:02:46.060 And for those people who don't live in Alberta,
00:02:48.320 he is the head of the Alberta NDP.
00:02:50.960 Here's what he tweeted and this is just a little bit of his tweet.
00:02:54.380 I don't want to bore you to death.
00:02:55.980 Today, a judge has thrown out the Alberta separatist petition
00:02:58.760 because Danielle Smith's UCP government failed
00:03:01.600 in its legal duty to consult First Nations.
00:03:04.860 Mr. Nenshi seems to think that we have to ask First Nations for permission in this province, for everything.
00:03:10.740 Is that what he's going to do if he ever becomes premier, God forbid?
00:03:15.220 So I am reassured by what Keith Wilson said in his video yesterday.
00:03:20.640 And here's a short clip from Keith. I think you'll be reassured as well.
00:03:24.240 Citizens should have the right in a democracy to petition their government,
00:03:30.620 to bring an issue to their government and say,
00:03:34.900 we would like you to look at this issue.
00:03:37.800 That's all the petition was doing.
00:03:40.000 And the court said no.
00:03:42.100 Well, the good news is it doesn't matter what the court said here
00:03:47.600 because the decision has no reach, is very narrow, is very technical,
00:03:55.360 and in no way limits the authority and the right of the cabinet, the provincial cabinet,
00:04:04.540 to issue an order in council announcing that there will be a question on independence
00:04:12.660 in the October 19th referendum.
00:04:15.580 I think you feel reassured as well after hearing that.
00:04:18.420 Keith has been very consistent in this.
00:04:21.040 Last year, he was saying there will be a vote on independence this year.
00:04:25.360 What does this mean for Danielle Smith?
00:04:26.960 Well, there's 300,000 people right now who have their names written on petitions sitting at Elections Alberta
00:04:32.520 who want her to call a vote in a referendum for Alberta independence.
00:04:37.480 And the pressure is on her.
00:04:39.560 She said yesterday the government will appeal.
00:04:42.400 Our government does support Alberta remaining in Canada.
00:04:45.680 We think that today's decision by the court will deny opportunity to well over 300,000 Albertans
00:04:51.760 to have their petition verified by Elections Alberta.
00:04:54.660 we think that this decision is incorrect in law and anti-democratic and we will be appealing it
00:05:02.420 as a result our cabinet and caucus will of course be meeting in the next couple of days to discuss
00:05:08.280 the full context and make some decisions after we've had a chance to talk it through whatever
00:05:12.960 you might think about danielle smith she's against us when it comes to independence but thank you
00:05:17.680 madam premier for fighting for our right to ask this question thank you very much the pressure
00:05:23.760 is certainly on her and a lot of people are speculating what might come. I'm not going to
00:05:28.040 get into that right now. I did speak to Mitch yesterday and Mitch wasn't surprised by what
00:05:34.240 happened. Again, I'll put the card up at the end so you can watch the whole thing. He wasn't
00:05:38.000 surprised. I wasn't surprised. Mr. Albertan sent me a text message yesterday. As soon as this came
00:05:43.760 down, I called it. People knew this was going to happen, that we weren't going to get a favorable
00:05:48.640 decision yesterday, but there was one thing that I was terribly concerned about when this happened
00:05:54.140 yesterday. I was thinking about the people who went out starting just after the beginning of
00:06:00.660 the new year, and they sat out in snowdrifts and collected these signatures, how disappointed they
00:06:05.640 would be that those signatures were not going to be counted, and I asked Mitch about that,
00:06:10.900 and Mitch was rather reassuring as well. Now, what I'm concerned about, and I'm sure a lot of people
00:06:16.260 who worked very hard over four months.
00:06:19.040 You saw those boxes when you handed them in.
00:06:21.380 You had a big grin on your face, those people sitting in the snow.
00:06:24.340 What happens to the signatures?
00:06:26.040 They were sealed up.
00:06:27.200 They're sitting at Elections Alberta.
00:06:28.760 For all I know, you counted them, thank God.
00:06:31.260 We know there's over 300,000 signatures there.
00:06:33.900 Are these going to be destroyed, all that work,
00:06:36.840 and never be counted because of this judge's decision?
00:06:40.100 Well, I don't think you should look at it that way.
00:06:42.560 Okay.
00:06:42.820 I think that what happened when we collected 301,000 signatures is we showed the premier and the UCP government that there's 301,000 Albertans that are prepared.
00:06:54.860 And I believe the number is actually real.
00:06:56.900 I know that the number is actually real.
00:06:59.060 Our process was very stringent.
00:07:01.260 I wouldn't be surprised if there was any attrition in those signatures.
00:07:04.500 They had to be signed by the person that was actually signing the paper to authorize that they were actually there.
00:07:11.560 They have to be vetted according to living in Alberta or not, their age.
00:07:17.280 And they had to have a physical address.
00:07:19.600 And then the canvasser had to sign off on it.
00:07:21.620 So there's lots of steps there.
00:07:23.200 But the way you have to see this is that you all showed up, you participated, you did the
00:07:28.280 work, and you told the Premier of Alberta, look, there's 301,000 people that have the
00:07:33.160 courage to sign this petition.
00:07:35.760 That number is not going to change whether they destroy it or not.
00:07:39.600 That number is the message.
00:07:42.000 And, you know, they play around with it and say, well, we need it.
00:07:45.080 They asked for $177,000 to trigger the referendum vote.
00:07:49.280 They got $301,000.
00:07:50.640 So our premier, right from the beginning, was going to be tasked with making this call.
00:07:55.200 And you've showed her, in a large way, that you want to vote on Alberta independence.
00:07:59.680 So don't ever despair and say that all the work that we've done was for naught.
00:08:03.760 It was totally not for naught.
00:08:05.260 This would not be happening without that.
00:08:07.040 And so you should all continue to be proud of yourselves, as proud of yourselves as we all are, for all the work that went into that.
00:08:14.320 And, you know, it's not for naught at all.
00:08:16.600 As a matter of fact, like I said, I'll repeat it.
00:08:18.580 Without that, we don't have a chance moving forward.
00:08:21.900 You should continue to be proud.
00:08:24.240 And whether or not those signatures are officially counted by Elections Alberta,
00:08:28.460 it will be your hard work over the last four months that will eventually get us to a question on a ballot on Alberta independence in October.
00:08:36.480 And again, I am reassured by what Keith Wilson says.
00:08:39.420 Mitch also said in that interview, I think he said,
00:08:41.920 we're going to have the mother of all rallies, so stay tuned.
00:08:45.160 We'll let you know when that happens.
00:08:46.840 I'm looking forward to being part of that.
00:08:49.600 Going back to the Frederick Douglass quote,
00:08:51.640 if there is no struggle, there is no progress.
00:08:55.400 And are we agitating?
00:08:57.340 Is the Alberta independence movement agitating?
00:09:00.920 Again, the other side would probably think that we are.
00:09:04.200 But I can assure you, Madam Premier, if we don't get a question on a ballot in October, there will be plenty of agitation.
00:09:15.660 I want to update you on something.
00:09:18.140 The other day I asked you to participate and contact me.
00:09:23.540 I need your help. I wanted to get your thoughts on Alberta independence.
00:09:27.920 And I wanted you to put in the subject line of my email address, my thoughts on independence.
00:09:34.720 And boy, did you send me email, 300 emails.
00:09:39.840 So as soon as I'm done with this video here, I'm going to start using AI to go through all your information.
00:09:46.380 There is no way I can compile information from 300 email by myself.
00:09:51.700 I'll have that hopefully for you tomorrow.
00:09:54.120 It's going to take a lot of work.
00:09:55.460 Thanks for watching.
00:09:56.200 I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel,
00:10:02.140 ring the bell for notifications. I will see you in the next one. Agitate, agitate, agitate.