John Bolton - Charting The Course To Independence - with Cory Morgan (The Western Standard)

00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. Great to have you along today. I've got a special guest

00:00:07.400 with me today on the channel. Of course, I do have my big blue mug of coffee, which always

00:00:11.680 kind of flashes in and out of the screen whenever I do these interviews. Coffee tasting very sweet

00:00:16.800 today for sure. And as you know, we've got a big event coming up this coming weekend at the

00:00:21.180 Alberta legislature from 4 to 6 p.m., big independence rally. I am Alberta. Make sure

00:00:27.080 you go on your social media and you promote it as much as possible and make sure you're

00:00:32.740 there. Our guest today would like to be there, but unfortunately, you know, he's a long way

00:00:37.640 away. Generally, when I interview or I'm being interviewed by this man, he's about 26 kilometers

00:00:42.760 from where I'm sitting right now. But right now he is a long way away. He's written a book

00:00:47.660 on Western independence and Alberta independence called The Sovereignty's Handbook. Link in the

00:00:52.580 description. Of course, I'm talking about Corey Morgan of the Western Standard and the Corey

00:00:56.800 Morgan Show. Corey, welcome to the program.

00:00:59.800 All right. Well, thanks, John. Always happy to be here.

00:01:02.580 Well, you know, I mentioned off the top that you're a little bit away from me right now.

00:01:06.820 In fact, I think you're nine time zones, is it? You're nine hours ahead of me right now.

00:01:12.840 So I'm talking to you at one o'clock in the afternoon. It's now 10 o'clock. Are you in Tel

00:01:16.560 Aviv?

00:01:17.740 I'm in Tel Aviv right now. Yeah, we're moving up by the Golan Heights tomorrow, but still in Tel

00:01:21.820 Aviv for now.

00:01:22.700 I want to ask you about that near the end. I don't want to get in too deep. I understand you're

00:01:26.400 there with the Western Standard in Israel. But I wanted to talk to you a little bit about

00:01:31.640 the independence movement. We've talked about this before. We've got a big event coming up

00:01:35.460 this week, and I don't think you're going to be there. Is that correct?

00:01:39.040 I'm afraid not. No. And I was supposed to speak at another one, and I still feel terrible

00:01:43.700 about that. I canceled that. That's tonight, I believe, in Calgary. But this trip came up

00:01:48.860 suddenly, and I couldn't avoid it. But all the same, it looks like a lot of great independent

00:01:54.200 stuff happening. So I'll be watching enthusiastically from afar.

00:01:57.800 I'll actually be going to the one. It's Act Now. I'll be going to that one. I'm going to

00:02:02.380 go to that one tonight as well. And I'm going to be seeing Mitch Sylvester and Dennis Modry

00:02:06.580 will be there. I was hoping to meet you. And every time I get a chance to meet you, we

00:02:10.620 seem to be going in different directions. I didn't think I'd miss you in Israel. But let

00:02:15.860 me ask you about this. You did a quick video on the weekend. And I've been amazed at the way

00:02:21.620 things have been going with the independence movement. I thought through the summer, it

00:02:24.520 would start lagging. People would lose interest in it. I think you found as well that it's

00:02:30.880 got some kind of a momentum going here. And that I'm still feeling really optimistic about

00:02:36.280 things. And I get the feeling you're feeling that way as well.

00:02:39.640 Exactly. And I'm happily surprised. As you said, I was sort of thinking it was going to

00:02:44.780 slow down. I mean, I was always optimistic, but it has its ups and downs. And I figured, okay,

00:02:48.520 it's going to have a hard time kind of getting rolling again in fall and filling those rooms.

00:02:53.860 But I did a couple of speaking events I was a guest at. And I mean, the rooms were packed. And these

00:02:58.480 are small towns, but relative to the size of the town, these are enthusiastic crowds. I don't know

00:03:04.500 if I mentioned it on the video, but at the one I did in Okotoks recently, when it packed a room of

00:03:09.000 90 people, they expected 30 to 50 for a chapter meeting. And when the host asked how many people were

00:03:16.120 at their first meeting ever, I'd say almost half of the room raised their hands. And that really

00:03:20.480 got me excited. You know, when we're seeing new faces coming out to these in fall, there hasn't

00:03:26.840 been a particular event to inflame people. There's lots and, you know, a cumulative amount of a lot

00:03:30.940 of things going on to bring people out. But it's just giving me a feeling of strength and momentum

00:03:36.440 that I didn't quite expect. And I'm happy to see. And I'm just really hoping that rally

00:03:41.760 really draws people out because it'll make an impression.

00:03:45.500 We really need a lot of people out there. I was talking with Darren from the Alberta Prosperity

00:03:49.600 Project earlier today. I think you mentioned in your video on the weekend as well, they've got

00:03:53.080 buses going. So there's buses from around the province, not a lot of them right now, but a new

00:03:57.060 one has been booked from Fort McMurray. So if you want to go from Fort McMurray into Edmonton,

00:04:02.120 go to the Alberta Prosperity Project website. I'll put a link in the description and you can book

00:04:07.500 from Fort McMurray and go to Edmonton on Saturday this week. I mentioned in the intro here, Corey,

00:04:13.760 that you wrote a book on this, The Sovereignty's Handbook, Charting the Course to Western Independence.

00:04:19.800 I know that, I think it's doing pretty good for you now, probably since this movement has started

00:04:24.360 growing over the last year or so. And in there, and actually, if you actually look on Amazon

00:04:29.680 and you read the description of it, it says,

00:04:32.600 Western separatism described as primitive and confused, groping for a platform and searching

00:04:39.040 for a leader. Here we are over 40 years later and the statement is as true as ever. Do you still feel

00:04:44.420 that way? I do in the sense, though I'm seeing much more of an organization out of the APP than

00:04:51.360 we've ever seen before. They're putting together a fantastic ground game. I've really been impressed

00:04:57.160 with them. And I always got to, you know, qualify that, that I'm not a member of the APP. And if they

00:05:01.540 screw up, I'm going to hold their feet to the fire just as much as any group. But I really think

00:05:05.220 they've been doing an excellent job out there. So that part of it is not quite as accurate as it

00:05:10.320 was when I wrote that book two years ago. There wasn't quite an organization doing that.

00:05:14.440 There's still not an outstanding figure representing the movement yet. I mean, there's some great people

00:05:21.480 speaking for it, Dennis, Mitch, you know, and Jeff doing their work out there. But there's no

00:05:28.040 particular person. If somebody's going to point out who's the head of this movement, who's the face of

00:05:31.420 this movement, that person hasn't emerged yet. I've talked about that in past videos, too. I think

00:05:36.320 it's kind of almost an advantage and a disadvantage. You know, a solitary leader can bring a whole

00:05:41.340 movement down. But at the same time, getting more of a singular face, whoever it may be, helps for

00:05:49.420 consistency in messaging, assuming the messaging is good, and can help unify the movement. Though it's

00:05:55.140 not terribly divided, I think, right now anyways. So it's kind of interesting. It's doing well without a

00:06:00.100 particular leader in it. And maybe, you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Just see how things

00:06:04.600 keep going as they are. Well, if you haven't been out to one of the meetings that Corey was talking

00:06:08.680 about, they're happening about four or five every week. So there'll certainly be one coming through

00:06:12.760 your area. I've been out to a number of them myself. So I'm wondering what you're thinking of

00:06:18.000 right now we're being held up on this. The question that was put out, I'll read it for you here.

00:06:23.580 Do we agree that Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?

00:06:27.620 It's kind of being held up right now. Do you think this question will be found constitutional?

00:06:33.160 And what do you think happens if it isn't called, isn't considered constitutional?

00:06:39.360 Yeah, well, they're both big questions. I mean, I think by its very nature, it's sort of not

00:06:43.680 constitutional. It's asking to exit the constitution. There's no part of the constitution that gives a

00:06:48.520 mechanism to do that. So I think theoretically on that alone, a judge can say it's not constitutional.

00:06:53.380 I think part of what the, you know, rationale for those putting this to the court, though,

00:06:59.480 was that this might clash with indigenous rights. I've done videos and a lot of discussions on that

00:07:03.580 already. I strongly believe it doesn't. But I also, the courts are going to take into mind how this

00:07:09.380 will ripple all the way across the country. If they rule that it's unconstitutional, well,

00:07:15.360 they're also telling Quebec that they can't go as well. And no government's had the courage to say

00:07:18.860 Quebec's not allowed to choose to go. Are they really going to try to claim that now? And as for

00:07:24.440 what would happen if they did say that, I think Alberta would have to emulate Quebec because I

00:07:28.480 know exactly what Quebec would say if that ruling came down and say, well, we don't really care what

00:07:32.780 you think. When we hold our referendum and we will hold it despite you, we're going to move on as per

00:07:40.080 the Clarity Act and, you know, do our thing. So I feel Alberta should respond the same way. I'm not

00:07:46.180 talking about perhaps Brigham Smith taking an independent stance, but sort of saying it's

00:07:50.620 consistent to her stance of that. This is the sort of thing that if Albertans enough of them want it,

00:07:55.720 it should go to a question on a ballot so they can choose for themselves as to what's going to

00:07:59.620 happen in the future. So we'll see where that goes. You know, I was thinking before I contacted you,

00:08:06.320 or we contacted each other, I guess, just a few minutes ago, I'm thinking this,

00:08:10.740 this is a very dangerous thing that the Alberta independence movement is doing here when it comes

00:08:18.100 to Canada's perspective, very dangerous. And I'm wondering if we start moving ahead with this, 0.61

00:08:24.980 what do you think is coming down the road? Should we get the signatures, which I think will happen?

00:08:30.840 And a referendum question is finally, that referendum question, if it's considered constitutional,

00:08:36.900 ends up on a ballot, what do you think is coming down the road and how should the independence

00:08:41.420 movement be prepared? You wrote a book on kind of charting this course. Did you ever get this far

00:08:46.120 when it came to? Yeah. Yeah. My book sort of stopped at the point of saying, we've got to get

00:08:52.580 the mechanism for a referendum. Yeah. Maybe I'm due to get an updated copy. Yeah. Yes. Another chapter

00:08:57.960 or two, Corey, for sure. Yeah. And we've hit that point. So it's much more uncharted now and getting

00:09:03.900 beyond it. Canada and federalists within Alberta and outside will, of course, fight against this

00:09:09.760 tooth and nail any way they possibly can. How they fight it, they're going to have to be really,

00:09:14.660 really careful. I've said repeatedly too, I don't think Alberta is at the level of a vote were held

00:09:19.800 tomorrow that they would go. But I think the momentum is moving towards it. And if things don't

00:09:24.560 change, it will reach that level and pass it. If it's a belligerent anti-independence campaign,

00:09:31.020 if it's insulting to Albertans, if it's derogatory, they will increase the probability of a yes vote

00:09:38.140 actually beginning to happen. You know, going down a speculative road, and it's purely guessing,

00:09:43.600 but I think Premier Smith really wants to see a referendum. I don't think she wants to see a

00:09:48.880 yes vote necessarily. But politically, if Alberta held a referendum, we had independence discussion for

00:09:55.780 months and months, a campaign on it, and then we came out of it with 40, 45%. Boy, as a Premier,

00:10:00.740 she's sure going to have a heck of a lot more leverage when she's dealing with Ottawa after that

00:10:04.920 point. If a 51% vote comes in, well, we're all in for a pretty wild ride as a nation.

00:10:12.800 And I would guess if, you know, it doesn't come at 50%, 50% plus one, she can put this in the

00:10:18.680 rear view mirror and move on to an election, which I think is, what, two years away now,

00:10:22.940 would finally kind of put all of this separatist talk behind her. Let me ask you about this,

00:10:28.820 because do you hold out any hope that there may be some major projects that the Kearney government

00:10:35.740 will okay, that we'll finally see the government, which could make a decision on a pipeline that goes

00:10:41.520 across borders into, say, British Columbia, even though Premier David Eby has said he doesn't want

00:10:45.780 that to happen. I think the federal government has the constitutional right to do that. It's the

00:10:50.520 provinces that control the natural resources within their borders, but the government controls,

00:10:55.600 I think, what crosses the borders, if I remember correctly.

00:10:58.680 Yeah. In fact, the government has the constitutional obligation to facilitate that sort of

00:11:04.320 infrastructure, just as much as they would with a railroad track or a highway. And they've

00:11:09.560 abdicated it. They've made it pretty clear. They will not exercise their constitutional responsibilities.

00:11:15.280 If they're already saying they're not going to do that, I don't see it changing. Even if they realize

00:11:19.540 this is the sort of thing that's pushing Alberta more towards an independent stance, they're

00:11:24.700 ideologically driven. Kearney is just as insanely net zero obsessed as Trudeau was. This is, again,

00:11:33.340 a religious ideology for those people. They will not back down from this. They think they're saving

00:11:38.900 the world. And so I can't see a project is particularly happening fast enough, even if he

00:11:46.380 started leaning towards it and offered more weasel words and brought us a little closer.

00:11:50.760 Until people see ground moving, nobody's believing anything out of this government. And I don't see

00:11:55.100 any indication he's going to get into a scrap with Eby and with some of those indigenous bands and step

00:12:01.680 into the mire. At best, he's just going to keep doing what he's doing, which is pretending he somewhat

00:12:06.360 supports it while not actually supporting it in reality, which is just going to frustrate more and

00:12:10.760 more people. And that's part of the driver, I think, that this didn't calm down with time. People

00:12:16.840 didn't start to say over summer, you know, well, we'll see if maybe he's going to change some things.

00:12:21.560 Maybe he's going to embrace the conservative things. He's going to be pragmatic. He's going to

00:12:25.680 move away from the old Trudeau status quo. It's pretty clear he isn't. And people don't think he is.

00:12:31.760 They don't think he's going to. And that's why that independence movement is not sagging. It's

00:12:36.560 growing.

00:12:38.000 What do you say to the people who are kind of sitting on the fence right now? You would like to see

00:12:42.400 an independent Alberta. And they're just sitting there wondering, maybe looking for that one

00:12:48.080 tipping point. What would you suggest that be the thing that would kind of push them over the edge?

00:12:52.580 I guess, you know, take a day and meditate on it. You know, look at things and ask yourself

00:12:58.720 what scenario you could see that's going to change the status quo. Because I think the people sitting

00:13:02.940 on the edge are frustrated and upset. But somewhere in the back of their mind, they think something

00:13:07.660 might change this direction, might change this balance of power in Canada. And if you just take

00:13:13.480 some time, contemplate, think of it, look at the political system, look at the political trends.

00:13:18.420 And you come to that realization that most of us who are independent supporters already have come to

00:13:22.300 and that we've either got to accept that we're always going to be a colony of Canada,

00:13:26.200 or we've got to move to independence. There is no third option.

00:13:30.140 What do you say? I don't know that I asked you this question the last time we spoke here on my

00:13:34.680 channel. You know, I've talked to Mitch Sylvester a couple of times, Dennis Modry, Jeff Rath, and

00:13:38.480 others. And I'm sure that I asked you this one, but how do you get around the patriotism thing?

00:13:43.800 That's the thing I think that can get in the way of people saying yes to independence in Alberta.

00:13:49.260 It's a tough thing to fight, Canadian patriotism.

00:13:51.820 Absolutely. And it's real. And that's something, you know, that as advocates, we've always got to be

00:13:56.840 cognizant of. Those of us who have gotten over that aspect must remember, if somebody still has that

00:14:01.860 strong patriotic feeling and you get in their face, they're going to dig their heels in more.

00:14:06.900 You've got to work carefully with people. And again, they've got to let their cold rationality

00:14:13.060 overcome their feeling of patriotism. And that takes some time. It takes careful discussions.

00:14:17.320 That's why I was talking about, you know, with people, they should take a day and really dwell

00:14:21.980 on it and really think on it. And they should be encouraged to do that. And just as cold as it

00:14:27.080 might sound, try to remember that Canada will still be there the day after. We're just talking

00:14:31.480 about changing the contract. We're talking about changing the agreement. You know, your, your aunt

00:14:35.960 Margaret's still going to be over in Toronto and uncle Eddie's still going to be in Newfoundland and,

00:14:40.720 and, and everybody's still going to be there. Uh, and we're all, we'll all still be friends.

00:14:47.560 Sure. I mean, one of the analogies that you did another, uh, uh, meeting, you know,

00:14:51.200 as some truth to it is, is it, uh, with my, my, my ex-wife, I get along much better with her now

00:14:55.840 that we're divorced than I did while we were together. So, uh, sometimes the relationship can

00:15:01.300 actually be better, uh, later on, but it's a tough nut to crack because, you know, emotion trumps

00:15:07.400 rationality. And we, we just got to be patient yet constantly working on people, I guess,

00:15:13.060 and moving, moving them towards that. Corey, the big event coming up on Saturday,

00:15:17.220 as I've mentioned at the legislature four to six in Edmonton, I'm going to be, I am seeing the event.

00:15:22.360 I'm excited. So that's great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's another one. I'm so sorry. I'm going to be

00:15:29.860 missing, you know, I'm going to be just getting back into Calgary through Amsterdam. I think if I tried

00:15:35.320 hard enough, I might make it up there at the last minute, but I'd be exhausted and sort of a waste

00:15:38.860 of, uh, of, uh, space I'm afraid on that day. So just missing it. You have a safe trip back here.

00:15:44.240 Just before you go, don't want to get too deep into this. I know you've had a long day, pretty busy

00:15:47.900 where you are right now in Tel Aviv, but what, what has you in Israel right now? Well, it is a media

00:15:55.200 group that that's out here. And as I kind of said earlier, no, I'm not sponsored by Netanyahu or the

00:15:59.800 Israeli government or anything like that, but we are going out and seeing directly, uh, some of the

00:16:06.080 sites, some of the things that happened. It's been a tough one today. I was at the Nova festival site

00:16:11.080 where, where the, the slaughter of all those kids happened. Uh, I was also at some kibbutzes where more

00:16:16.720 of that happened. You can still see that the bullet holes and the, and that the, the waste that was done.

00:16:21.420 Uh, I'm going to be going up to, to Golan Heights. I watched that horrific 47 minute video.

00:16:26.840 Um, that I've heard about it. Yeah. It's going to scar me, but the, the goal of this, I guess,

00:16:34.740 is just to get media members. They're not, we're not being told what to say or what to conclude,

00:16:39.560 but to see firsthand, here's what's happening. Here's what's on the ground. Here's people you can

00:16:45.860 interact with, you know, you're not some controlled environment. And certainly the, the intent of,

00:16:51.200 of this is to try and get more of a favorable view as a, as to where Israel standing within

00:16:56.580 this, but you know, we're, we're left to make our own conclusions. So it's, it's a six day sort

00:17:02.660 of junket around the country in a few different spots and a meeting with a number of different

00:17:06.200 people to, uh, learn more about this very, and it is a very, very complicated situation. So,

00:17:12.040 so the more I can learn here, I can learn far more here than in a thousand books, uh, you know,

00:17:16.360 on the issue. You got there right after this ceasefire was signed. What's the feeling there? Are

00:17:21.760 they optimistic or the Israelis optimistic this, that this will hold? I, I'm, I'm never optimistic

00:17:26.500 when it comes to a group like Hamas, but how are they feeling about this now?

00:17:30.300 Well, on the immediate term, actually people are, have been jubilant. Uh, we, we, we went out,

00:17:36.560 it's different out here. You know, Jane and I, we eat supper at five o'clock and start, uh, you know,

00:17:41.800 winding down by seven or eight. Supper's just starting out here at eight and you're not even getting back to

00:17:46.880 your hotel until 10. Uh, and then in this part of town, it's just got a very vibrant nightlife.

00:17:52.340 So the streets were just packed and there's young people and, and people were, uh, hitting the bars,

00:17:57.320 hitting pizza places, just hanging out. And in talking to them, it really is people, I don't

00:18:03.180 think necessarily understand just how deeply it hurt this nation to have their citizens held hostage

00:18:09.020 like that and the bodies, which is very sacred to juice. They, they, they must have those remains

00:18:13.540 back. The families can't mourn until the remains are back everywhere. You go everywhere. There are

00:18:18.880 signs saying, bring them home. There's posters with the missing and killed hostages. There's,

00:18:22.820 so it's just with a, a great relief and celebration that the, the, the last, at least of the living 0.98

00:18:29.060 hostages are back. It really, really hurt them deeply. I don't think any are under the illusion

00:18:35.200 that it's over, but this phase of it is over and they're, they're happy for that. And they really do,

00:18:41.640 despite what some people think they want peace. Uh, I I'm speaking to IDF soldiers as well,

00:18:46.680 guys who have been dealing with things in Gaza, they're young folks, you know, they're conscripted

00:18:51.680 essentially into the army. They, they felt true in their cause in being there, but they'd be more

00:18:56.560 than happy to be just doing their patrols on the streets within Israel rather than going into Gaza,

00:19:01.060 uh, and dealing with all that. So they're, they're hoping that some form of lasting peace comes

00:19:06.400 about, but the, the religious differences, the, the, the Islamist ideology, even if Hamas is gone, 0.77

00:19:14.360 they do understand, you know, another head of this ugly monster is, is going to rise up and it just

00:19:19.460 seems to be a cycle of battles. Uh, hopefully in the long, long run, somehow somebody can figure out

00:19:26.200 how everybody can kind of try to live together in this tight space with so many shared holy sites.

00:19:30.660 Uh, but for the immediate term, actually people are really happy and, uh, they, they were just

00:19:37.400 thrilled with Trump. They, they, and because I mean, that's all, that's all they wanted. And it

00:19:42.140 really does drive home what people have been saying for the last two years. If you want Israel to stop

00:19:48.160 bombing Gaza, release the frigging hostages, release the hostages, release the hostage. You can't say it 0.93

00:19:54.100 enough times. And sure enough, the hostage is released. And guess what? IDF backed right up.

00:19:58.360 They don't want to be there. They just wanted their people back. Well, so, uh, yeah, well,

00:20:03.620 that's good to hear an update like that. Certainly sound that's, that certainly is, um, very positive.

00:20:08.920 That's good to hear from somebody who's been on the ground there talking to these people.

00:20:13.000 Yeah. Yeah. Cause there's, there's been a lot of sadness and harsh things to see out here as well.

00:20:16.600 Well, it's kind of been around the world. There's been a lot of sadness about this, um, for the last

00:20:20.920 couple of years. So it's good to see that this is hopefully coming to an end. Corey, I won't keep you much

00:20:25.300 longer. Um, thanks so much for your time here. Wish you could see you this weekend. When you come back

00:20:30.020 into town, let's go for like a coffee or something. So I can finally meet you in person. Okay.

00:20:34.180 Absolutely. We're going to cross paths and burst in one of these days. It has to happen.

00:20:37.880 Yeah. Well, people will know that you wanted to be, uh, be there tonight as well at this event.

00:20:42.560 I'm saying tonight, because this is going to go up tomorrow morning, so it'll be passed already.

00:20:45.760 Uh, but, um, of course this weekend coming up on Saturday at the legislature, I know people

00:20:51.480 know you want to be there. We wish you could be there as well. Be safe coming back. Okay.

00:20:56.400 Yeah, you bet. Thanks, John.

00:20:57.800 Okay. Corey Morgan, uh, from the Western standard and the Corey Morgan show. If you liked this video,

00:21:02.460 please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, share it as well. Ring the bell for

00:21:06.460 notifications. I'll see you in the next one.

00:21:15.760 Thank you.

John Bolton - October 21, 2025

Charting The Course To Independence - with Cory Morgan (The Western Standard)

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