John Bolton - Family, Farming & Independence with Tanya Clemens - Let Alberta Decide

00:00:00.000 Hi there, it's John, and welcome to the channel. Great to have you along today, just cruising along

00:00:05.160 in southern Alberta right now on a lovely day. It is a Thursday. I'm going out to visit a friend

00:00:12.560 today, and this is the place she sent me to go. So this is where I'm going to be going today.

00:00:19.200 I'm visiting this spot today. Now, why am I going here? Well, let's go visit my friend and find out.

00:00:25.520 hi it's john and welcome to the channel and i am outstanding in my field today you know i came out

00:00:35.380 that's a stupid joke but i'll stick with it you know when i moved out west i came out here for

00:00:41.320 the mountains and i absolutely love the mountains and alberta is a beautiful place because if you go 0.98

00:00:47.240 just a little bit to the east of calgary you're in the prairies and i'm east of calgary right now

00:00:53.140 and there is a beauty here that you just can't imagine looking off in the distance. The mountains

00:00:58.760 are beautiful. The prairies are beautiful. We live in a wonderful place, but why am I out here today

00:01:03.040 and why am I standing in this field? Well, I'd like to welcome my friend in here, Tanya Clemens.

00:01:08.240 Thank you so much for inviting me out here today in front of this amazing machine. Now,

00:01:12.960 this is a combine, right? Yep. This is a combine, KSIH combine. And I've seen them before, but I've

00:01:18.020 never been this close. I'm going to go for a ride in your combine today. And what are you doing out

00:01:21.840 here. This is October the 1st. And when did you put your crops in? And what are we, what

00:01:27.340 are we going to be, what do you say, getting with the combine and processing with the combine

00:01:33.040 today? Well, we put our crops in, in like April and May, and then they kind of grow

00:01:36.060 all season. And we're always kind of waiting for mother nature to give us the signals or

00:01:41.280 to be kind to us. And now we're a little bit delayed this harvest. We've had quite a bit

00:01:45.100 of rain at the start of the season, but now we're going into the fields and we're actually

00:01:49.380 reaping what we've sown like literally reaping what we've sown so we're harvesting today we're

00:01:53.220 gonna be harvesting wheat so how many acres of wheat do we have out here uh well in this this

00:01:58.900 is a quarter of wheat so this is 160 acres and then we have another half section across the road

00:02:03.620 and then we've got you know thousands of acres spread all over the place so we got lots of wheat

00:02:08.180 you know it's true it's beautiful out here isn't it it is so it is i love it this is definitely

00:02:12.660 my happy place and i love being in my combine and harvesting i don't come down this way very often

00:02:17.780 where the hell am i right now if you tell me where i am we're actually almost directly north of moss

00:02:22.580 lee so aspen crossing where the trains are and the campground right right just basically north of

00:02:27.220 there okay so i'm going to go for a ride in this combine just before we we go out i may ask you

00:02:32.020 some more questions about it but i mean this might be a really crass question to ask but what does a

00:02:36.740 piece of machinery like this cost it's huge it's amazing yeah they're expensive now like we've had

00:02:42.580 our machines for quite a long time and every year we just upgrade them so we're paying the upgrade

00:02:46.500 cost right but to buy a machine outright with a big header on it is upwards of a million dollars

00:02:51.940 now goodness well it's pretty remarkable and uh i just you just showed me the wheat we'll show

00:02:57.220 people a little bit about that when we get up into the combine let's go for a drive i know these

00:03:01.060 things are really high tech i was watching the other day we were on a on a live stream with you

00:03:05.700 and you got gps and everything in these things so it's really remarkable it's changed a lot

00:03:10.420 the technology is remarkable so let's go for a ride in a combine today we're going to talk

00:03:14.660 talk to Tanya, obviously about the Alberta independence movement, things that are going

00:03:18.600 on right now. She's still working hard on that while working on her farm. And we'll find out a

00:03:23.040 little bit about her family as well. I know she's been doing this for a lot of generations,

00:03:26.420 haven't you, your family? Yeah, I'm actually fourth generation on this farm. Okay, so let's

00:03:30.820 take a ride.

00:03:44.660 So, here we are in the Combine, cruising along, and how fast are we going right now?

00:03:59.660 Well, normally we'd be going about three to four miles per hour.

00:04:02.220 Okay, so about three to four miles an hour, and it's actually very comfortable in here.

00:04:07.420 It's a remarkable machine you've got.

00:04:09.140 Now, it runs on GPS, is that right?

00:04:12.340 Yeah, it's GPS, so it's got that guidance system.

00:04:15.240 So we have straight lines, and that increases our efficiency

00:04:17.640 because then you don't have overlap, you don't have misses.

00:04:20.840 So that's very helpful.

00:04:21.960 What does it cost to run a machine like this?

00:04:23.960 Do you have any idea, like, on a daily basis?

00:04:25.960 I mean, it's got to take a lot of energy and fuel to keep this thing rolling on a daily basis.

00:04:30.560 Well, it's always measured on the threshing hours,

00:04:33.220 like when you have the rotor engaged and it's actually running and threshing the grain.

00:04:37.260 And that's what is your cost for when you upgrade your machine.

00:04:40.260 And I remember that my dad used to tell me that it was about $300 per minute to actually run this.

00:04:46.760 Wow.

00:04:47.020 But with the cost of diesel doubling in the last little while, we haven't calculated that out, probably because we don't want to.

00:04:54.260 Okay, so we're getting the weed.

00:04:57.020 And how long can you run this machine before you have to dump your load and then come back and start over again?

00:05:03.840 It really depends on the yield of the crop.

00:05:05.820 So anywhere from like 20 to 30 minutes kind of thing is, I guess,

00:05:10.880 it just depends on how well the crop is yielding

00:05:13.880 and how much you're actually putting into the hopper

00:05:15.540 and how fast you get full.

00:05:16.860 So we've got another vehicle over here.

00:05:19.200 I'll take a picture of that in just a moment.

00:05:21.280 Is this what we're going to dump our load in

00:05:23.060 and then they'll take it over and put it into storage?

00:05:25.640 Is that how it works?

00:05:26.220 Yep, that is our tractor and our grain cart.

00:05:28.240 So we will dump into them and then it takes it over to our bin

00:05:30.920 and augers it into the bin and that's where it's stored

00:05:33.240 until we want to sell it.

00:05:34.140 It would be a real pain having to take this over and dump it.

00:05:37.660 Although, do you ever have to do that?

00:05:39.500 Dump these machines over at your bin, or is it always a hopper?

00:05:41.880 The way that we've set up our farms is we've put up a big, huge bin within a large block of land.

00:05:46.760 So lots of times we actually could put a hopper over top of the auger at the bin,

00:05:50.780 and we could go and dump into it that way too,

00:05:52.560 and that eliminates a little bit of manpower and a little bit of equipment out here.

00:05:55.880 But it just depends on, again, the yield of the crop and how things are going. 0.97

00:05:59.820 Okay, so let me just show you what Tanya's doing here. 0.99

00:06:02.560 She's got her wheel down below. 0.97

00:06:04.540 She's turning us around here.

00:06:06.480 And then you can see up above her there, we've got this screen.

00:06:09.300 What's the screen up here to your right do?

00:06:11.740 This one controls like all of our GPS and our mapping.

00:06:14.760 So right now it shows exactly where I am, all of our lines that we have set that are 45 feet across because of our header width.

00:06:22.260 Right.

00:06:22.620 And then I can also see our other combine, my dad driving it for where he is on this map as well.

00:06:28.000 Incredible.

00:06:28.600 And down below, what's this over here just to your right?

00:06:31.140 This one actually controls the whole combine itself.

00:06:35.060 So this is actually like a schematic of what's happening right now with our grain coming in through the feeder house.

00:06:40.340 Goes through the rotor, how fast it's spinning, what the separation is.

00:06:45.060 And then it goes through the sieves, what the openings are on the sieves, and that's what collects the grain.

00:06:50.200 And then the chopper out the back where any excess material, like all the straw and everything,

00:06:55.140 is chopped up and spread onto the ground so that we can have that lay on the soil

00:06:59.140 and gradually get incorporated and have that organic matter saved so you were a teacher is

00:07:03.380 that all right yeah do you still teach at all i don't teach right now i've just been farming with

00:07:08.900 my family and then working a lot on alberta independence and politics so yeah so i i said

00:07:15.060 to you you really enjoy doing this don't you i do i love this part and i think every farmer

00:07:19.700 loves this is the best part of the year because all the work that everyone has put into the fields

00:07:24.180 and into the farm now you're reaping everything that you've sown so this is the the joyous part

00:07:29.700 in fourth generation yes sam so that goes back how many years on this farm uh our farm was homesteaded

00:07:35.940 in 1909 by my great grandpa it was a little bit different back then i'm assuming trying to you

00:07:41.380 know re you know reap what you've sowed and we didn't have quite a machine quite like this

00:07:46.100 we've only had gps for maybe you know 20 25 years so it's really changed a lot even for

00:07:51.540 somebody like your dad who's out here today and you said he's about 80 years of age is that right

00:07:55.380 yeah dad's almost 80 years old and what he has seen change in farming in his lifetime

00:07:59.860 is probably the biggest change that we would ever see in history because his his dad when he was

00:08:05.140 farming they actually had at some points having horses pulling plows and and farming very much

00:08:11.380 in that style and now my dad is driving like a million dollar piece of equipment with all this

00:08:16.340 technology which is really tough for a person to go from a very simpler manual-based labor-based

00:08:24.180 style of farming to now being driven by technology and gps and all these systems is it a is it a

00:08:31.040 stressful life because you do you said you are getting you're doing this later than you should

00:08:36.560 have we had a lot of rain we certainly did earlier this year when i have a lot of rain i just can't

00:08:41.260 go on my bike but you're looking out here looking at your crops and you're concerned about that and

00:08:46.100 you're very concerned no doubt when you don't get a lot of rain there are years like that as well

00:08:50.080 is this a stressful life because you don't know year from year what your yield will be and what

00:08:55.660 you're going to get out of your fields after the work right yeah it's very stressful in that you're

00:08:59.720 at the mercy of mother nature all the time and at the at the mercy of markets and decisions being

00:09:04.700 made by governments that don't understand what our lifestyle and what we're trying to do out here is

00:09:09.660 so you're always at the mercy of something and the input costs are always something where you're

00:09:13.820 taking a huge risk by inputting your crop and hoping that you get enough return at the end that

00:09:19.280 it made it profitable but it's also one of the most rewarding jobs I think that you can have

00:09:23.900 there's that deep connection to the soil and the land and it's really hard to explain I think

00:09:28.860 sometimes but it's the happiest place I have to be is out here and like this big huge field like

00:09:36.780 you can't see anything except field basically from here and the blue sky and it's the best place to

00:09:42.000 My wife said, what do you, I said, I have to leave the house.

00:09:44.100 I'm going to be gone for a number of hours today.

00:09:45.500 She said, where are you going?

00:09:46.420 I said, I'm going to the grocery store.

00:09:48.700 Well, really, I mean, we're, ladies and gentlemen, groceries, they're not grown in grocery stores.

00:09:54.840 That's where you get them.

00:09:55.720 It's because of people like Tanya and thousands of other people across the country.

00:10:00.240 And people do this all the way around the world.

00:10:02.100 It's the reason why you have food.

00:10:03.860 I mean, we're getting wheat today.

00:10:05.380 You want bread?

00:10:06.180 You got to have wheat.

00:10:07.020 And chances are, the weight that we're getting right now with this amazing million-dollar machine may be responsible for the toast you have tomorrow morning.

00:10:16.700 Who knows, right?

00:10:17.660 Yeah, that's correct.

00:10:18.580 So what we'll do is, well, I'm going to just kind of enjoy my ride a little bit.

00:10:21.800 I want to talk to you more about farming, obviously.

00:10:25.880 You know, the challenges for farmers when it comes to dealing with government, I know that's been a problem in the past.

00:10:30.820 I've had discussions since I moved out to Alberta about that.

00:10:33.260 And I do want to talk to you about the Alberta independence movement where we're driving as well.

00:10:36.740 But thanks for having me out today.

00:10:37.900 This is an experience I've never had before.

00:10:39.680 Thank you.

00:10:40.280 Yeah, well, thank you for coming.

00:10:41.240 I love sharing this with the rest of the world

00:10:43.020 so people know what their connection is to agriculture

00:10:45.620 and what this industry is like.

00:10:47.020 And you know, it's amazing.

00:10:47.960 I'm out here.

00:10:48.380 I'll take some pictures of the field.

00:10:49.660 I'll do some covers and whatnot so people can see it.

00:10:52.160 Off in the distance over there, there's an oil well

00:10:55.260 and it's pumping oil just over to the right of us here.

00:10:59.060 It's pretty amazing.

00:10:59.800 So Tanya, this is just an amazing experience for sure.

00:11:03.400 Awesome. I'm so glad you're here.

00:11:06.740 so we've just stopped for a minute here and here's the combine from the side and naturally up at the

00:11:20.940 top there you can see tanya's flag and uh those of you who were at the legislature last october

00:11:26.640 might remember that she had that flag on that hockey stick that's the same hockey stick from

00:11:32.380 last year at the legislature same one that's why the flag is a little tattered looking sure there

00:11:36.560 you go so there you go so what are we gonna do right now i'm just gonna take you back up into

00:11:40.400 the back of the combine because we're full so you can see the wheat heats up in there and

00:11:44.480 yeah just kind of the process of what happens here let's go check it out this is pretty cool

00:11:48.400 yeah we're all filled up now so we're just waiting so we can dump our dump our weed out

00:11:53.440 hopefully i can do this it's an amazing thing it's so big hopefully i can do this with one hand

00:12:01.360 here we go there we go a little noisy but

00:12:11.200 wow

00:12:16.320 so that's all the wheat we've collected just from doing that little pass back and forth

00:12:22.800 yeah wow

00:12:26.640 and i don't know like we all we all get right out of the combine i love it

00:12:30.400 actually is pretty good. I had some earlier, but yeah, so it does quite a hell of a job getting

00:12:35.100 the weed off the chaff, right? It does a pretty good job, yeah. And I was doing headlands, so my

00:12:40.840 dad will be really mad, actually, that this is making any kind of clip on media or anything.

00:12:45.540 There's a little bit more stuff in it than normally would be a cleaner sample, but

00:12:48.640 I was doing headland and cleaning up some weeds, too. Absolutely amazing. Look at that. So we're

00:12:54.320 going to dump this, and we'll start it up again, but look at the country around here. Let me just

00:12:57.840 a spin around pretty amazing it's just beautiful out here it really is and there's there's the

00:13:05.680 hopper they'll be coming along we'll dump our wheat in there actually this one coming in i

00:13:09.440 think is where we're going to dump our wheat but here we go over here and i don't know you

00:13:15.840 can see it way off in the distance you can kind of see an oil well but it's kind of just off the

00:13:20.720 horizon there we actually grow four different crops wheat and barley and peas and canola so

00:13:43.600 right now we're harvesting wheat we added peas into our rotation a few years ago because it's

00:13:48.800 nitrogen fixing itself so then that limits a little bit of the nitrogen you have to apply

00:13:54.320 which is very expensive now the price of ammonia and hydrous and fertilizer nitrogen everything

00:14:01.280 has gone up so much so you you plant this wheat when when did it go in the ground uh this would

00:14:07.680 have been sometime like end of april beginning of may and so through this through the summertime

00:14:13.120 what's going on uh on the farm what kind of things are you doing as a farmer when you know

00:14:18.400 that you've got your you've got your weed in the ground you're just waiting to harvest it

00:14:23.120 are you out here watering it do you have to water the the weed or anything like that please pardon

00:14:27.440 me i'm ignorant of this stuff i really don't know these are great questions and there's lots of

00:14:31.280 people that do water their crops right throughout the season i see them yeah they're close enough to

00:14:35.840 irrigation canals or they're in water districts where they have access to water out here it is

00:14:40.400 dry land farming so we don't have access to water that we can water them right so it's called dry

00:14:45.040 land farming because we're really at the mercy of mother nature and how much water she wants to

00:14:48.720 grant us. We do have some land up by Strathmore that has irrigation and we're busy in the summer

00:14:55.200 monitoring that and making sure that all of that crop is getting watered. But otherwise other

00:14:59.760 farmers would be doing their haying operations during the summer time. My husband was doing a

00:15:05.040 ton of trucking and hauling our grain to market from last season because we had sold that. So

00:15:11.600 So, yeah, there's always something to do.

00:15:13.860 But the summer is a little bit less busy, definitely, than seeding and harvest.

00:15:18.000 When you were younger, did you think about being a farmer or you are a teacher?

00:15:23.900 Was that what you were planning on doing for the rest of your life?

00:15:27.140 And then you've kind of got back into the farming or is it always gone hand in hand?

00:15:30.440 You've always done both.

00:15:31.720 Well, I knew farming was always going to be part of my life.

00:15:34.060 I was born and raised on the farm.

00:15:35.700 And I think we're really blessed to have that lifestyle of growing up on the farm.

00:15:39.340 It's very different than other ways of being raised, I think.

00:15:44.140 We had a lot of freedom, a lot of time out in nature, running on haystacks.

00:15:49.460 I don't know, building different rafts to go paddling across sloughs.

00:15:53.620 It was a really neat, blessed upbringing.

00:15:59.660 And then I chose teaching primarily because my primary goal was to always be a bump.

00:16:05.260 And I wanted something that would work with me being a bump

00:16:07.880 because I thought that was the most important job that I could possibly do.

00:16:11.140 So I chose teaching for that and absolutely love teaching as well.

00:16:15.060 And my days in my classroom with my kids were some of my happiest days for sure.

00:16:18.640 I'm wondering, I was just thinking while you were talking about working on the farm,

00:16:22.280 living out here and doing this,

00:16:24.760 does working on a farm teach you a good work ethic, do you think?

00:16:30.160 I think it totally can, yeah.

00:16:31.940 I wouldn't say that that's mandated, but yeah, it definitely does teach you a good work ethic.

00:16:37.880 And you learn it by the example of the people who are teaching you that.

00:16:42.060 My dad is a very hard worker.

00:16:43.740 My mom is a very hard worker.

00:16:45.120 They've built something pretty amazing from all their efforts over all the years.

00:16:49.180 So I think that's been instilled.

00:16:50.820 And they've had three daughters in all of us girls.

00:16:54.580 And your family going to continue along with farming?

00:16:58.300 I can't imagine ever getting out.

00:17:00.100 Yeah.

00:17:00.840 Good stuff.

00:17:01.780 Well, we'll come back in a moment.

00:17:02.980 We'll talk about the Alberta independence movement.

00:17:05.340 You're doing both at the same time.

00:17:07.360 you're farming. We were on a live stream the other night. I've seen you on two live streams

00:17:11.560 and now I think out of this combine. It's been just remarkable. And I did a live stream earlier

00:17:17.360 today and I said, I'm visiting a friend on a farm and everybody said, say hi to Tanya for me. They

00:17:22.380 thought about you, the farm geek, right? So anyway, we'll come back in a moment. We'll talk a little

00:17:26.680 bit about the Alberta independence movement as well. Having a great time out here. I've never

00:17:30.420 done anything quite like this. It's quite an experience. That's awesome.

00:17:37.360 having a great time in the combine with tanya clemens and they've got you know they could talk

00:17:56.400 to each other between the different combines here um i'm just wondering how do you find time to do

00:18:03.040 independent stuff when you're out here on the combine all day i know that you've been kind of

00:18:07.760 um doing two things at a time but this takes a lot of your time up doesn't it yeah well i feel

00:18:13.520 like i'm always struggling a little bit to try to do everything well but it's a balancing game and

00:18:18.880 luckily my family is very accommodating so they know that if i'm booked at conferences or speaking

00:18:23.680 events or interviews or whatever they are happy to cover and that is i'm very grateful for that

00:18:29.760 But otherwise, I'm trying to do the best that I can with my volunteer time to independence and also keeping our farm rolling.

00:18:38.120 Family. This is a family affair out here.

00:18:40.220 How do you think things are going right now?

00:18:41.620 You had to buy the house a couple of weeks ago.

00:18:44.060 You're returning the favor here today, although I have to say your yard's a little bit bigger than mine.

00:18:48.420 Not as pretty for me.

00:18:49.900 Well, I've got flowers. You've got weed.

00:18:51.840 I think this is beautiful in its own way, isn't it?

00:18:54.620 It is. It's very beautiful.

00:18:56.040 So how do you think things are going?

00:18:57.280 It's been a few weeks, I think, since you've been out of my place.

00:18:59.760 We're less than three weeks away from a vote, it's October 1st as we record this.

00:19:05.140 Are you feeling confident about things?

00:19:06.920 I'm feeling really good about things actually.

00:19:08.560 I think that one of our big goals when Keith and I started Let Alberta Decide was just

00:19:13.220 to make sure that this conversation was happening out there in the world, that people were talking

00:19:17.000 about it and feeling like it was okay to talk about Alberta independence.

00:19:20.500 And that is definitely happening because we're getting interview requests from Germany, France,

00:19:25.000 UK, all CBC across the country, like all different news stations. So the world is actually talking

00:19:31.200 about this. So that was kind of the first step. And then we were trying to get the messaging across

00:19:36.120 about what is actually on the ballot, this referendum. And it is not an independence

00:19:40.820 referendum yet. We might get to that point. But what is on the ballot is an option one and an

00:19:47.060 option two. And option one is voting for the status quo and the continued path that Canada

00:19:52.260 is traveling down or option two is trying to provide that leverage and negotiating strength

00:19:57.780 to our provincial government to negotiate with ottawa on behalf of albertans

00:20:01.940 with strength that we've never ever had before and it would be really interesting to go into

00:20:06.260 an independence referendum knowing what ottawa was willing to do to try to keep alberta and if

00:20:12.340 they're really serious about us wanting wanting us to stay within confederation well and it's

00:20:16.820 interesting i know you haven't had a chance to watch this news conference that happened earlier

00:20:21.220 today um so i i don't know that you can comment on this very much but danielle smith and mark

00:20:27.460 carney they were in fort mcmurray and they tried to toss us a bone today with a pipeline but there's

00:20:33.700 really no investor in the pipeline and they really didn't move it along any further than it had it

00:20:39.140 was yesterday um and this is a bone they're trying to to toss to us right now and i i did a i did a

00:20:45.460 live stream earlier saying don't bite at this bone this is a this is more of a reason for us

00:20:50.740 to vote for option two because here we are again having to beg the federal government to get

00:20:55.300 anything done in this province to get the pipelines that we want and they're not getting

00:20:59.380 rid of the laws and regulations and everything that's in the way to get us the prosperity that

00:21:03.380 we truly want i know you haven't seen that and you'll be able to comment on that later but we're

00:21:07.540 no different than we were yesterday jenny after this to me it sounds mostly like another pinky

00:21:12.340 promise that we're in the face right that the government's going to fulfill us at some point

00:21:16.580 And if it was such a great idea and was so advantageous for us, why would a private industry not be involved in it or be advocating for it?

00:21:24.800 And plus, there's only one small piece of the puzzle.

00:21:26.960 Like the Alberta sovereignty movement is not just about pipelines.

00:21:30.580 It's about our culture, all the economics, the constitutional change we need.

00:21:34.780 And this is just such a small piece of the change that we actually need for Alberta to do better.

00:21:40.060 And, you know, it's interesting.

00:21:41.840 And you're probably the same way as I am.

00:21:43.420 I wake up in the morning thinking about independence.

00:21:45.500 Do you think about that too?

00:21:46.700 You go to bed at night too, right?

00:21:48.000 I wake up in a panic every day going, oh my gosh, what stuff do we have to do to make

00:21:51.260 sure that this gets across the finish line?

00:21:53.000 I want people to think about this.

00:21:54.520 And this is what I woke up this morning thinking.

00:21:56.020 I started, here's a number, I'm going to throw it at you.

00:21:57.760 And I'll see if you can, you'll know what I'm talking about, perhaps.

00:22:01.800 62%.

00:22:02.760 Does that number ring a bell with you?

00:22:05.260 Something that happened about five years ago, 62%.

00:22:08.680 Do you remember what that was?

00:22:10.160 That was the equalization referendum in 2021.

00:22:12.980 Yes, yes. And this is what Alberta has to go through to get something and doesn't get it,

00:22:20.080 even though they voted 62% in favor of getting rid of these equalization payments.

00:22:26.000 And when Jason Kenney, the premier who's fighting against us and wants to keep Canada,

00:22:30.840 Alberta and Canada in the status quo, when he went to the feds, they basically told him to go take a hike.

00:22:35.840 And so did the provinces.

00:22:36.800 I don't think they even returned this call.

00:22:38.180 No, they didn't. So this is the kind of thing you need to think about, folks.

00:22:41.340 This is how Alberta is treated.

00:22:44.100 This is something we voted on, and we're no further ahead, even after a vote, 62%.

00:22:50.380 That's a pretty good majority, I think.

00:22:54.340 So, you know, I hope to God people are thinking about this.

00:22:58.060 And do you think there's a lot of people out there right now who are kind of holding their tongue

00:23:02.200 and will walk into the voting booth and then click off option two?

00:23:07.220 I feel there's a lot of those people out there.

00:23:08.980 Definitely is. Because if you have any presence on X or any social media or in the media and are speaking about Alberta independence or the benefits of choosing option two, there is a lot of backlash and anger at some point.

00:23:25.940 So I think that there's a large group of people that just don't want to be subjected to that, that crass and that rudeness and not being able to have a civil conversation.

00:23:35.440 But when they get to that ballot box and it's just them and it's anonymous and it's quiet and they know the significance of where Alberta is at, they will be more than happy to vote for a better path for Alberta.

00:23:46.280 Yeah, there's those people who say they don't even want to put a sign up in front of their house because they're afraid of what their neighbours will do or might say to them.

00:23:52.860 And, you know, I've got the signs up in front of my house and we've seen in the last couple of days and it really infuriated people the other day, the city of Calgary hauling down some Let Alberta Decide signs.

00:24:03.160 in Calgary itself, and they're not supposed to be doing that kind of thing.

00:24:07.300 We've seen a lot of vandalism from the other side.

00:24:10.020 Our side just wants an opportunity to vote on another vote.

00:24:13.820 That's all this is about. It's not even binding, is it?

00:24:16.280 Yeah, and I find it's funny that it is so polarizing,

00:24:19.040 because when you talk to Albertans across the province,

00:24:21.520 we're pretty unified in agreement that Ottawa's treatment of Alberta

00:24:25.460 has been punitive, and we don't like the way that we've been treated.

00:24:29.360 But yet when we talk about independence or about this referendum

00:24:32.560 on a referendum it becomes so polarizing but it is a conversation that needs to happen and it's

00:24:37.360 the most important conversation that alberta has ever faced so we need to approach it as adults

00:24:42.000 and be able to have some civil discourse about it to make sure that we're choosing the best path

00:24:46.080 well i mean even jason kenney in the debate with uh with keith uh back a couple of months back

00:24:52.480 he even admitted to that that there have been some problems and you know there's that old saying

00:24:57.520 what's the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different

00:25:01.360 result that's what jason kenney that's what pier polia that's what daniel smith that's what mark

00:25:05.760 carney that's what they had nenshi that's what thomas the kazik want and these people that's

00:25:10.240 the definition of insanity look at those people they're all the same they want the status quo

00:25:14.560 they're expecting a different result from a country that's been well this is going back you

00:25:19.120 know people people i'm sure your father can think back to the national energy program

00:25:23.040 i moved out here 15 years ago i hear about it all the time it was something that people out

00:25:26.880 east didn't really even know much about we'd heard about it we did not know how deep the pain

00:25:31.200 was from that and that's going back 40 years and it continues to this day this province yeah so why

00:25:37.120 would we not want to try for some change and vote for option two empower a provincial government

00:25:43.200 with that negotiating strength see what ottawa delivers and if alberns are really happy with that

00:25:48.320 and they like the proposal for our new place of the confederation then we still have that

00:25:52.720 next referendum where they could vote against independence or as i suspect ottawa is not going

00:25:57.840 going to come to the table with anything of any substance and then at least we're one step closer

00:26:02.200 to being able to stand on our own two feet and provide some kind of a better future for our

00:26:07.060 children and future generations of albertas yeah you know it's it's this is challenging i think of

00:26:11.520 what bruce party said i remember when he said it the first time he said you realize you guys have

00:26:15.620 to win twice they've only got to win once yeah so let's let's you know give us an opportunity to get

00:26:20.560 that second opportunity really i mean it's it's bizarre to think about it but i remember when

00:26:25.060 daniel smith announced that we're going to have a referendum on a referendum um it really kind of

00:26:30.020 you know kind of struck us all pretty hard but we got to win this first one to get to the second one

00:26:34.700 and uh thanks to all the different groups let alberta decide i think of my friend jason levine

00:26:39.480 cory morgan you're on with us both of us the other night um uh talking he's out there cory's

00:26:45.100 been putting up signs i think of albertans for freedom and i think about um even chris scott

00:26:50.700 who's not one of the third-party advertisers out there rolling around in a big RV trying to convince

00:26:55.540 people thanks to all the people that are working so hard it's been it's really been quite remarkable

00:27:00.020 hasn't it all with all the tears and the words that's been put into this it has it's been a

00:27:03.580 really great journey actually and met some of the greatest people along this path too yeah we met

00:27:08.460 some great friends you know I met you and I know hey not cool and now I'm sitting in a combine

00:27:13.780 combine okay so we'll wrap this part up right now but I'm just wondering um do I make an all right

00:27:19.180 farmer i've just been sitting here watching i'm just wondering you're gonna have some of the best

00:27:22.900 farming footage good stuff well we'll wrap things up in a bit we're gonna do a few more rows here

00:27:29.620 and i'm enjoying myself this has been quite an experience for me we'll wrap it up and uh it's

00:27:34.520 gonna take a while to put this one together but it's been really fun thanks for having me out

00:27:37.780 here thank you so much for coming i appreciate it we still got more to talk about

00:27:49.920 So we're just wrapping up here out on Tanya's farm.

00:27:53.060 It's amazing.

00:27:53.740 You know, we've done quite a bit out here,

00:27:56.760 but you've got a lot of land still to do this way.

00:27:59.120 So it's going to be how many more weeks

00:28:00.480 before you finish up out here, Tanya?

00:28:02.220 Well, I'm hoping it's under three weeks, but we'll see.

00:28:05.060 I would love for it to be done before the rally on the 17th.

00:28:07.540 So how many hours are you going to be out here today, by the way?

00:28:09.460 I'm going to be heading out pretty soon.

00:28:10.680 I've been out here since I think around 11 o'clock.

00:28:12.880 It's going on two right now.

00:28:14.360 We'll usually go until midnight or 1 a.m.

00:28:16.440 if the weather lets us.

00:28:18.560 Really?

00:28:19.080 Yep.

00:28:19.380 So you're going to be out here all day.

00:28:20.260 So you've got big lights on this.

00:28:21.320 I noticed lights on the back of it.

00:28:22.660 So it must look pretty, it must look like a space landing at night.

00:28:26.400 It is kind of space.

00:28:27.760 It looks a little bit like alien-like when we're out here at night.

00:28:30.320 Are you feeling excited about the next couple of weeks?

00:28:32.560 We've got, it's the 1st of October today as we record this on a beautiful day.

00:28:36.820 We couldn't have a better day to do this, by the way.

00:28:38.820 Hopefully we have nice weather on the 17th for a big event coming up at the legislature, right?

00:28:44.440 Yeah, we'll be at the legislature at 3 p.m. is when the rally starts.

00:28:48.100 We've got a whole slate of great speakers and a ton of great people coming to it.

00:28:52.880 And I think it's going to turn out to be one of the biggest rallies in Alberta's history.

00:28:56.980 I'll put up the information in post-production here.

00:29:00.220 And you can get a bus if you haven't got a way of getting there.

00:29:03.320 I'm going to try to take a couple extra people myself this time.

00:29:06.080 So if you're, and I know a lot of people who don't have vehicles, you can get in touch with me.

00:29:09.460 Maybe I can take you up to Edmonton because I'm going to be there.

00:29:12.300 I'm going to be emceeing the event.

00:29:13.420 I'm excited about it.

00:29:14.340 I really am.

00:29:14.640 Yeah, we're so grateful you're doing that too.

00:29:15.800 And your website's got a lot of information on how people can get out the vote.

00:29:22.000 LetAlbertaDecide.com so they can just go there and find out how to do that.

00:29:25.800 You know, bring people in and get them to vote and get them out on October the 19th.

00:29:30.280 Up until October 19th, that is going to be the single most important thing I think that we can do now is the get out to vote strategy.

00:29:36.100 And the way that we have set it up, it's a web-based app.

00:29:39.160 It's very easy to use and it relies basically on the grassroots principles of taking ownership for your friends and neighbours.

00:29:45.340 and ensuring that they're getting out to vote.

00:29:47.840 Yeah, and the last week is going to be important, very important.

00:29:51.640 The referendum in Quebec was decided in the last week back in 1995.

00:29:56.060 That's going to be very important.

00:29:57.960 Don't get tired.

00:29:58.820 I think at times they're trying to wear us out.

00:30:00.920 Are you worn out?

00:30:01.880 I'm quite tired, yeah.

00:30:03.140 I'm just trying to balance it all, but I'm not losing my spirit or my fight for it.

00:30:07.080 That's exactly the way I'm feeling about this.

00:30:09.100 Thanks, Tanya, for having me out here.

00:30:10.300 You're a blessed person living out in this area.

00:30:12.680 I know.

00:30:12.960 And I'm blessed to know you.

00:30:14.080 And we were talking, I think we actually got it on, got it recorded, but we've met some really nice people.

00:30:21.460 Yeah, this journey has been full of really great people.

00:30:24.120 I've said a couple of times, this has been one of the most, probably the most consequential thing that's happened in my lifetime, other than getting married.

00:30:30.980 And I've never had my own children, so I can't talk about that.

00:30:34.280 So this has been an amazing experience meeting people like you.

00:30:37.280 Oh, thank you. And that's ditto.

00:30:39.040 So we'll see you later. I'm out on Tanya's farm. It was a great day here.

00:30:42.740 It was a fun time in the Combine.

00:30:44.440 If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up.

00:30:46.640 Subscribe to the channel.

00:30:47.500 Ring the bell for notifications.

00:30:48.900 Give it a thumbs up for Tanya, and we'll see you in the next one.

John Bolton - October 02, 2026

Family, Farming & Independence with Tanya Clemens - Let Alberta Decide

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