John Bolton - July 30, 2025


ELECTIONS ALBERTA gives me the RUN AROUND on referendum question


Episode Stats


Length

7 minutes

Words per minute

181.5826

Word count

1,308

Sentence count

96

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Why was Thomas Lukasik's application for a citizens initiative for a referendum on Alberta independence approved? I wrote to the Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta to find out. I got no response. I then wrote to Elections Alberta and they sent me a form letter. Here's what I got back.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John, and welcome to the channel 8.35 a.m. Wednesday, July the 30th, my second
00:00:11.160 video today. Still have the big blue mug of coffee. I'm recording this in the morning,
00:00:15.540 so still lots of time for coffee, folks. But you're seeing this a little bit later on. I
00:00:20.000 did a video earlier this morning where I asked a very blunt question of Premier Danielle
00:00:24.540 Smith, not on behalf of the Alberta independence movement. I don't represent them, but I do
00:00:29.720 want Alberta independence. So check that video out. I'll put a link in the description.
00:00:33.600 I'll put a card at the end so you can click on it. And if you watched it, thanks. I hope
00:00:37.360 you gave it a thumbs up. It helps the channel. So this is a follow-up video to one I did way
00:00:44.020 back on July 6th. This is the thumbnail I put up for it. Why was Thomas Lukasik's application
00:00:48.500 accepted? I wrote the Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta to find out. Thomas Lukasik, former
00:00:55.920 Deputy Premier of Alberta, I think he has an axe to grind. I think he's a narcissist. I
00:01:01.560 think his application in his possible referendum question is a joke. And I was wondering why
00:01:07.360 the Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta allowed it and approved it. So I wrote an email. If
00:01:16.140 we go over to Alberta elections or Elections Alberta, here are the current citizens initiatives.
00:01:21.340 Let me move my picture out of the way here so you can see the bottom one. Alberta Forever
00:01:26.220 Canada, Thomas Lukasik, application approved. So they have to get signatures now and there'll
00:01:30.320 be a referendum question out there. I'll give you the question in just a moment. You can
00:01:34.500 see down here, Alberta independence are pending. The Alberta Prosperity Project, not too pleased
00:01:39.200 about that. It's been sent to Alberta Court of King's Bench. So we're going to have to
00:01:43.720 wait to see what happens with that in the future. Hopefully it gets approved as well.
00:01:48.160 So what did I write to Mr. McClure, who is the Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta back
00:01:56.420 on July the 6th? Now, let me just tell you this. I was waiting for a response and I didn't
00:02:02.500 see one until today, but I realized that it got shuffled into my spam folder and it was
00:02:06.680 sent out on the 10th of July. So four days after I sent it out. So my bad. But they did
00:02:12.020 send me a response and I'm going to get to that in just a moment. So subject questions regarding
00:02:17.500 the recent approval of citizens initiative referendum. I'm writing to seek clarity regarding
00:02:22.160 the recent approval of a citizens initiative for a referendum on the question. And this
00:02:26.200 is the question they want. Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada? I would appreciate
00:02:30.880 it if you could address the following questions concerning your approval of this initiative.
00:02:35.420 Number one, assuming the response options for this question are yes or no, what would be
00:02:42.500 the outcome if a majority of Albertans vote no? Two, if the outcome remains the same regardless
00:02:48.940 of how people vote, what is the purpose of this referendum question? More importantly, why
00:02:54.200 was it approved? Three, should time, effort, and taxpayer money be spent on a referendum that,
00:03:00.980 regardless of the result, maintains the status quo? Four, if the purpose of this referendum is
00:03:07.060 purely partisan, to pressure the premier into supporting the petition, which appears to be
00:03:12.200 the petitioner's intent, see link below, and I included a link where Mr. Lekazi basically says that.
00:03:17.820 Is this an appropriate use of your office? Your mandate states that, quote, Elections Alberta is an
00:03:23.260 independent, non-partisan, my bold type, office of the Legislative Assembly responsible for administering
00:03:30.380 provincial elections, by-elections, and referenda, unquote. Five, is a petition designed to influence
00:03:36.460 or pressure a single individual, the premier, a responsible and non-partisan use of your time
00:03:42.700 and taxpayer resources? I believe Albertans deserve clear answers to these questions before this
00:03:48.900 initiative proceeds any further. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. So, of course, I
00:03:53.240 was waiting for the response, and I got one, and I'm not very pleased with it, because this doesn't
00:03:58.680 tell me anything. It answers none of my questions, and it's basically them sending out a form letter
00:04:03.220 because they think I'm being a nuisance, and I'm not. I want the answers to the question. I'm a
00:04:07.620 taxpayer. I need to get answers. These people are paid by taxpayers like you and me. So, here we go.
00:04:14.400 I'm not going to read the whole thing because it's a waste of time. Good morning, Mr. Bolton. Thank you
00:04:19.240 for your email with questions regarding the Citizen Initiative Act and associated processes relating to
00:04:24.620 the approval of citizen initiative applications. Elections Alberta implements legislation passed by the
00:04:31.560 Legislative Assembly of Alberta. In the case of citizen initiative applications, petitions, and
00:04:36.480 resulting votes, Elections Alberta reviews, verifies, and conducts the votes in accordance to the Act
00:04:42.160 and other election legislation. Do I need to go that much farther? All they're telling me here is how the
00:04:47.420 Chief Electoral Officer either accepts or rejects applications. Section 11 in the second paragraph of
00:04:55.640 the Act provides that in situations of unsuccessful petitions, the Chief Electoral Officer must publish a
00:05:01.160 notice on the website. If we move to the next paragraph, in the case of a successful petition,
00:05:06.380 the Chief Electoral Officer must submit a copy of the proposal to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
00:05:11.460 So, basically, we're getting how all this process is done but not answers to my questions on why this
00:05:16.660 particular application was accepted. And I think they were valid questions.
00:05:21.340 And just to finish up, here is the final part of it. If you have concerns regarding the requirements of the
00:05:29.320 Citizen Initiative Act, you can raise those with your member of the Legislative Assembly. And, of course,
00:05:34.900 Don Johnson, she, her. And at the bottom, you can see there is a land acknowledgement at the bottom.
00:05:41.120 Of course, there is. So, folks, I didn't get any answers at all. And, again, I think they just saw me as being a
00:05:46.280 nuisance. And I wasn't being a nuisance. I have valid questions. I would like them answered. Am I going to
00:05:50.500 follow up on this? I don't think so. I don't think it's worth the time and effort. I still think
00:05:57.340 Mr. LeCasic's possible referendum question is a waste of time for all the reasons I pointed out in
00:06:02.440 that question to Mr. McClure. Shame on you for not answering my questions and getting some form letter
00:06:07.480 sent out to me by one of your she-hers. The other thing that can happen here is because we have the 1.00
00:06:13.540 pending question for Alberta independence out there. Mr. LeCasic could block a question on a
00:06:22.700 referendum because these are similar questions regarding a similar topic. I'm not sure if that's
00:06:29.340 100% sure, but it's possible. The Alberta independence movement could be blocked by Mr. LeCasic
00:06:37.240 and his question, which I don't think should have been approved in the first place. I think he's a
00:06:43.200 narcissist and I think he has an ax to grind. I think there's a lot of people who have been
00:06:48.740 involved with Alberta politics a lot longer than me that would probably confirm what I just said.
00:06:54.420 Thank you very much for watching. I do appreciate it. I didn't get any answers, but I told you I
00:06:58.620 would follow up and I don't think I'm going to follow up any further. If you liked the video,
00:07:05.300 give me a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, ring the bell for notifications. I'll see you with
00:07:08.880 the big blue mug in the next one. Have a great day.