John Bolton - December 04, 2025


Enough Is Enough： Stop the Mockery, Stop the Abuse, Stop the Recalls!


Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

166.33447

Word count

1,975

Sentence count

152

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In this episode, John talks about the growing number of United Conservative Party MLAs who are being recalled and why he thinks it's a bad idea. He also talks about how the threshold to trigger a by-election has been set too low.

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. It is 1.30 in the afternoon, Thursday, December
00:00:07.480 the 4th. Hope you're having a great day today. I certainly am with the big blue mug of coffee
00:00:11.740 and I'm going to talk about an issue that I haven't touched on on this channel yet because
00:00:16.600 sometimes I like to let ideas percolate a little bit. I've been thinking about this
00:00:21.320 over the last couple of days, actually probably going back a couple of weeks when this story
00:00:25.500 started to break and I'm going to talk about all of these recall petitions of United Conservative
00:00:31.540 Party MLAs in Alberta and how this is an abuse of power. I think most right-thinking people,
00:00:38.220 and I mean right, conservative, and right meaning we're on the right side of this, would agree
00:00:44.160 with that. This is wrong, what is going on here. And you know what, I'm going to tie this in
00:00:48.240 with something that's happened fairly recently when it comes to Canadian politics and you'll
00:00:53.180 remember it. I'm going to get to that in just a moment. So when was this recall petition
00:00:58.560 idea put into place? Well, let's go back and let's look at this story from Global News.
00:01:06.240 This is March 15th, the Ides of March. I just noticed that. Beware of the Ides of March,
00:01:12.660 United Conservative Party. 2021, Alberta introduces recall bill for provincial municipal politicians,
00:01:19.700 school trustees. So I'll just read a bit of this story for you. I know you don't like me reading
00:01:23.820 a lot, but here it is. Alberta has introduced legislation that would allow citizens to organize
00:01:28.300 petition drives to recall members of the legislature, municipal politicians, and school board
00:01:33.160 trustees. United Conservative Premier Jason Kenney says the bill fulfills an election commitment to make
00:01:38.680 it clear that at the end of the day, ordinary Alberta voters are the boss in our democracy. If they lose
00:01:44.340 faith in their elected representatives, they can hold them to account in between elections. And we are
00:01:49.080 in between elections right now. So I don't know a lot about Alberta recall legislation. So I looked
00:01:57.460 it up. I don't know whether anybody else has, but I looked it up. And when I went to the legislation, I
00:02:02.340 realized that the bar for doing this is set really low. I'm just totally stunned that it can be so simple
00:02:10.620 to recall a politician. You know, I thought you would have to do something pretty bad, like commit a
00:02:19.000 crime and be convicted, be proven corrupt, just not show up for work over and over and over again, or be
00:02:25.900 totally incompetent to recall somebody. I thought the bar would have to be set pretty high. And I think,
00:02:31.000 you know, you got to give Jason Kenney credit for this. I think it's a good idea. I think recall legislation is a good
00:02:36.880 idea. And when he wanted this legislation to pass, he had his mind in the right place. Here he is talking
00:02:44.960 about how this system could be abused, which is happening right now.
00:02:50.720 Our next question comes from Angela Leonard Johnson. And she says, do you support recall legislation?
00:02:58.000 Yes, I do, Angela. I personally do. Although it will be up to the members of the new party,
00:03:04.180 as to whether it becomes a policy of the United Conservatives. It has been a wild rose policy,
00:03:10.100 but not a PC policy. I've been fighting for recall in Alberta since I helped to start the
00:03:15.460 Taxpayers Association back in the early 1990s. I just have one condition. I think the thresholds
00:03:25.540 to trigger a by-election as a result of a recall petition have to be high enough to avoid
00:03:33.140 frivolous abuse of the recall mechanism by special interest groups. Now, what do I mean by that,
00:03:40.020 Angela? Well, listen, if we form a united conservative government, we're going to have
00:03:44.820 to make some tough fiscal decisions. And some of the NDP big spending interest groups are going to be
00:03:50.340 ticked off. And if we have a recall law in place, I can see them immediately trying to
00:03:57.460 disrupt the government and prevent us from implementing our election platform by recalling
00:04:04.420 the finance minister or the premier or MLAs. And if the thresholds to trigger a by-election are low,
00:04:11.300 then they might succeed. It won't be difficult in many ridings to get 10 or 15 percent of the NDP
00:04:17.940 supporters to sign a recall petition. So my view, Angela, is that yes to recall as a mechanism for
00:04:26.980 ultimate accountability for the voters, especially if MLAs do something that's just crazy wrong,
00:04:33.140 ethically or otherwise. Despite what Premier Kenney wanted, the threshold to trigger a by-election has
00:04:38.900 been set far too low. And I think you'll agree with me that Premier Kenney at his heart in the right
00:04:43.860 place when this was introduced. It eventually passed. Leave to the side what you think of Jason
00:04:51.940 Kenney and the job he did as Premier. I think you'll agree that getting rid of a bad politician for the
00:04:57.780 right reasons is a good thing. And I stated some of those reasons earlier. And I think when people
00:05:04.820 think of the low threshold, they think of the number of votes. And it could be concerning.
00:05:09.540 If you look at the current recall petitions here, here's a list. There's 14 here. One more will be
00:05:15.060 added. That will be Premier Smith. The reason for going through this process, and the process is
00:05:20.820 the punishment here. The reason for going through this process for Daniel Smith is ridiculous,
00:05:25.700 as most of these things are. If we just look at Demetrios Nikolaitis from Calgary Bow, who's the
00:05:32.100 Education Minister, you see the number of signatures needed on the petition is a little over 16,000. It might be
00:05:38.260 hard to get to. Who knows? Mr. Nikolaitis only won in his riding in the 2023 election with 13,175 over
00:05:45.940 former Calgary City Councillor and far left nutcase, Drew Farrell. But it's the reason why this process is
00:05:55.380 going through. And here's how the process works. Basically, you get the signatures on the petition.
00:06:00.420 You go to basically a referendum in Calgary Bow. And if you get a majority,
00:06:04.980 a little over 50% of those people to recall the politician, they lose their job as MLA,
00:06:10.260 which triggers a very expensive by-election. Now we got 14, 15 of them going forward here.
00:06:16.180 So chances are some of these are actually going to be successful. But it's the reasons. And here's
00:06:22.500 the reason. This is regarding Demetrios Nikolaitis, applicant's opinion of why the recall of the member is
00:06:28.100 warranted. I respectfully request the recall of Demetrios Nikolaitis, Alberta's Minister of
00:06:33.380 Education and MLA for Calgary Bow. His record demonstrates a clear failure to support public
00:06:38.740 education. Prioritizes privatization, committing to an increasing charter private school funding from
00:06:45.380 42 million in 2022 to 561 million by 2027. Moving along here, there's more in here.
00:06:52.100 Furthermore, Mr. Nikolaitis continues to dismiss Alberta's role in promoting fossil fuel disinformation
00:06:57.060 in schools across the country. This is an ideological disagreement. And this should not be enough to
00:07:03.300 trigger this petition. Unfortunately, the parameters for Elections Alberta and the Chief Electoral Officer,
00:07:09.060 who is Gordon McClure, aren't put out in the legislation. It's really ridiculous.
00:07:16.500 Now, Mr. Nikolaitis has responded. And listen to this. This is perfect.
00:07:23.380 Thank you for your letter regarding Jennifer Yeremis' application under the Recall Act.
00:07:29.140 A recall of an MLA should not proceed when the stated reason is dissatisfaction with government policy
00:07:35.300 rather than a failure in the member's core duties. The member for Calgary Bow was elected in 2023,
00:07:41.140 giving them a mandate to represent constituents and support their party's platform.
00:07:46.900 Using the recall process to overturn an election based on policy disagreements
00:07:51.540 undermines stable governance and the electoral process. Recalls should be reserved for breaches of
00:07:57.540 public trust, ethical violations, or dereliction of duty. Not a shortcut to trigger a new election over
00:08:04.820 political differences. This recall targets the governing party, not the individual. Hear, hear.
00:08:11.060 I would argue with you that Mr. Nikolaitis won in the riding of Calgary Bow because most people agreed
00:08:17.140 with him ideologically. The person who wants to recall Mr. Nikolaitis doesn't. So they're but hurt,
00:08:24.580 and they're upset about it, and they're going through this. Just to get back at the United 0.86
00:08:29.380 Conservative Party. Here's the process on the Election Alberta's website. I mean, there's not
00:08:36.340 much to do here. A $500 application fee and provide 100 words or less stating the reason for the recall.
00:08:42.980 That's about it. And nowhere in here does it say you have to have a good reason to do this.
00:08:47.620 It's interesting because if you look at recall legislation, this is British Columbia, it's pretty
00:08:52.340 much the same thing. They get 200 words and it only costs 50 bucks. Here's the one for Danielle Smith.
00:08:59.460 The reason for recalling or going through this process with her is ridiculous. They approved the
00:09:04.500 recall petition for Danielle Smith, say organizers. She's not on the list on Elections Alberta yet.
00:09:10.580 Organizers of a recall petition for Alberta Premier Daniel Smith said Wednesday that the Elections
00:09:14.740 Alberta has formally approved the petition. Elections Alberta has not yet posted the approved petition for
00:09:19.540 Smith. But Post Media has seen a letter signed by Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure approving the
00:09:24.900 recall application. Applicant Heather V, whose last name is being withheld for safety reasons after she
00:09:31.700 and other organizers received threats, said Wednesday that the petition against Smith was started over
00:09:37.700 concerns about her lack of presence and meaningful engagement with the community. Is this a good enough
00:09:43.620 reason to recall the Premier of Alberta? You know, most people would think that having a party leader as your MLA
00:09:54.100 or the Premier of the province was a benefit to your riding.
00:09:59.780 And Premier Smith is very busy. She's not going to be in her riding as much as most other MLAs.
00:10:04.820 You have to understand that. Now, this reminds me of something else. This is making a mockery of the
00:10:12.020 electoral system. This is an abuse of the system, much like this was an abuse of the system. You
00:10:21.220 remember the long ballot. It started in Carleton with Pierre Polyev and Bruce Van Joy during the election.
00:10:27.940 It moved on to the by-election in Battle River Crowfoot. How many people ended up on the long ballot?
00:10:34.500 200? It made a mockery of the system, much like this recall petition.
00:10:39.300 They changed the rules for the election in Battle River Crowfoot so it couldn't be abused. And they
00:10:44.980 need to change it permanently. Polyev calls for law to block long ballot protests that abuse democracy.
00:10:51.620 Good word. Abuse. I don't know whether this has been suggested, but it should change so this can't
00:10:59.220 happen again. Just as the Alberta government right now should change this legislation regarding these
00:11:04.900 recall petitions and these signatures that are needed. Because there could be more of them.
00:11:09.380 Changes to recall legislation not being considered this session. Alberta government, an article from
00:11:14.740 just a couple of days ago in CTV News. They should change the legislation right now.
00:11:20.500 And said that they can't do this. The only people that would be upset are the people who
00:11:25.300 started these petitions and the far left nutcases. I think most people agree this is wrong. It's an abuse of the
00:11:31.140 system. It makes a mockery of the system. And rewrite the legislation so the parameters are set so that
00:11:37.300 recalls can actually happen. But they have to be for a legitimate reason. Thank you very much for
00:11:43.780 watching. If you liked the video, please give me a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel. Ring the bell
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