John Bolton - I Didn't Think The Lineups Would Be A Kilometre Long - Dr. Dennis Modry interview

00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. Great to have you along today. It is Thursday,

00:00:07.880 January the 15th. It is 10.05 Panamanian time. I am in Panama, despite the fact it looks like

00:00:14.580 I'm at Two Jack Lake just outside Banff. I am in Panama right now with the big blue mug of coffee,

00:00:20.260 of course, and I have a guest with me today and I'm very, very happy to have back on the channel

00:00:24.140 once again. It's been a while since I've had Dr. Dennis Moldry with me. Dennis, it is a pleasure

00:00:28.980 to have you here again today and I'm really excited about what we're going to talk about.

00:00:33.020 Thanks for being here. Yeah, wonderful. Thanks for having me on again, John.

00:00:37.460 I was out on Saturday last week, the 10th of January. I was here in Calgary. I was at the

00:00:43.800 Queensland Community Center. I was asked back in December by Jeevan Mangat if I would come out and

00:00:51.380 do an event. I lost my light. I hope that's okay, but if I would do an event with him on January 10th,

00:00:56.720 we ended up having Corey Morgan there along with Dennis Kalma, Eva Chipiuk, and a few friends

00:01:02.860 showed up. It was incredible. Heather Field, one of the other organizers at the event, sent me a text

00:01:09.020 message the day before on January the night saying, I think we're going to get slammed. So what are you

00:01:12.620 talking about? I think we're going to have a lot of people, she said. And oh my God, Dennis, it was

00:01:17.680 incredible. Then I saw the other events that were happening on Saturday night and it seems like

00:01:22.820 there is some kind of momentum. I can feel it here in Panama. There's a momentum growing with this

00:01:29.660 that people want to be part of this now. And I think it started last Saturday night in a big way.

00:01:35.580 What are your thoughts on that? Well, you know, I think you hit the nail on the head, you know, for

00:01:42.140 somebody like myself who's been involved with this right from the get-go, this whole process of

00:01:48.020 educating the public on the rationale and merits of sovereignty. You know, going into this, you never

00:01:54.380 really know, you know, what the response is going to be. I mean, we've had, you know, at our educational

00:02:01.540 events previously, we had lots of people come out. But, you know, when the petition started, it was an

00:02:11.260 expectation that we hoped there would be a lot of people. But I didn't think there would be a flood of

00:02:17.080 people. I didn't think that the lineups would go on for kilometers, you know. And this is the kind of

00:02:24.740 thing that we're seeing. Mitch and I were up in Fort McMurray on Saturday. And it, I mean, it went on

00:02:33.560 for hours, for several hours where people were lining up to come in. And then I did an event in Millet

00:02:41.380 on Monday. And for about four hours, from about six o'clock till 1030, people were four and a half

00:02:52.000 hours, people were signing. And my job was to entertain them as they were coming in and just

00:02:58.540 answering questions and that sort of thing. And it was a lot of fun. And then last night in Red Deer,

00:03:05.620 and this is the second event in Red Deer. And again, it went from like 630. We got there about

00:03:13.160 630. But the lineup just went forever. And that too went till 1030 last night. But the thing that's

00:03:20.200 interesting is the enthusiasm and the age range. There were young people there. There were older

00:03:28.820 people there. There were middle-aged people there. There were people on crutches. There were people in

00:03:33.460 wheelchairs. I mean, you know, this, this is a grassroots populist movement, like Alberta has never

00:03:44.320 seen before. And perhaps never in Canada has there been a movement like this, other than maybe what

00:03:51.520 was going on with the trucker convoy. But, but I think I think what's happening here, John, is that

00:04:01.060 sovereignty, the concept of Alberta becoming a sovereign country, cuts across all political

00:04:07.500 stripes. Because it does not matter if you're a union member, or you're a schoolteacher, or a nurse,

00:04:15.220 or you're in the private sector, it just does not matter. The economic benefit that people recognize,

00:04:22.760 the cultural benefits, the preservation of your values, it, I think this is, this is, this is going

00:04:33.500 to be world changing. I think Alberta is going to be the example for the world of what people can

00:04:39.760 accomplish when they come together. When I was out at the event last Saturday night, Corey Morgan,

00:04:44.720 he wrote the Sovereignty's Handbook. And if you hear just the first part of his book, he talks about

00:04:50.360 trying to start a movement about 20 years ago, and he said it just kind of fizzled out, it didn't have

00:04:55.520 any momentum. Back in 2019, I went to a event here in North Calgary, when I first started getting

00:05:01.020 involved in this. And I saw about 1200 people show up at an auditorium in Calgary. And then I saw it

00:05:06.380 kind of fizzle out after that, there were a lot of different groups who were wanting independence,

00:05:10.280 and they weren't working together. And then when this group got together, now Stay Free Alberta, 0.99

00:05:16.140 Mitch Sylvester, yourself, others going out talking around the province, it seems to have brought

00:05:20.260 everybody together. I met Jeevan Mangat, who worked with the Wild Rose Independence Party,

00:05:26.140 Ron Roberts from the Independence Party, other independence groups, they're all together.

00:05:30.220 Everybody's in on this right now, and everybody's working together. So I don't see any fracturing,

00:05:34.460 and I see it growing. And you're right, I saw young people out last Saturday night,

00:05:38.140 we had a young man who just moved over here from Ukraine, had some concerns about, you know,

00:05:42.920 people coming from other countries saying, I moved here to Canada, why do I want an independent

00:05:46.960 Alberta, but he seemed really enthusiastic about it as well. We do have naysayers, though. And the

00:05:52.020 thing I'm noticing, and I talked to you about this the other day, we're starting to see,

00:05:56.240 wow, some of the insults coming from the rest of the country, it's remarkable. And within Alberta as

00:06:02.340 well, even hearing things from senators, and I don't think that can slow this movement down. I think

00:06:07.420 there's a lot of positivity here. And much of what we're having said about us is totally untrue.

00:06:14.640 Yeah, well, you know, for people to make disparaging comments about the values and about

00:06:24.660 individuals that are involved with and want a better Alberta, they want greater freedom and

00:06:31.240 prosperity. I think they actually denigrate themselves because what when they say the sorts

00:06:37.860 of things that they do, it's so classless, that they just descend to, to a level of disgrace to

00:06:48.580 themselves, that I think it, it only fans the flames of, of Alberta sovereignty. And the reality is,

00:06:58.220 John, is that they, they resort to those kinds of comments, and ad hominem comments, because they

00:07:06.560 don't have any arguments that, that would be persuasive in the other direction. As an example,

00:07:15.100 what could Canada possibly offer Alberta that would be better than being completely out from under all

00:07:21.720 federal regulation and taxation? And for everybody, whether you're a union member or a

00:07:28.200 worker in the private sector, you know, and you may want a 10 or 12% increase in your wage, just

00:07:34.680 because of what's happened to the cost of living. Well, being out from under all federal regulation

00:07:40.100 and taxation means two things. One, your income will virtually double in the province of Alberta

00:07:47.460 within a year or so, not even probably more than a year. And second, the cost of goods and services

00:07:55.240 that are free of regular federal regulatory costs and taxes, fuel costs, GST, etc. means that the,

00:08:04.040 your purchasing power increases in two directions. One, you have more money to spend. And two,

00:08:11.560 the cost of goods and services are less. This is so fantastically beneficial for an individual for their

00:08:19.000 family and to plan for their retirement, that there is absolutely nothing that the federal government

00:08:25.080 can offer Albertans or people in Saskatchewan that is superior to getting out from under. And this is,

00:08:32.120 this is Quebec as well. Quebec wants the same thing.

00:08:34.440 Steve McLaughlin Interesting you say that. I was talking to my wife before I,

00:08:38.040 before I started this interview. I said, is there anything you would be interested in asking Dr.

00:08:42.120 Modery? My wife is the smartest person I know, as far as I'm concerned. She said, is there anything

00:08:46.200 we can learn from Quebec? Obviously, there's going to be discussion about the independence

00:08:51.320 movement out there as they've got a new leadership campaign starting with Legault resigning the other

00:08:56.200 day. It's going to be interesting later this year with an election. But back in 95, there was an

00:09:00.520 election there. Is there anything you think we could learn from what happened then? I'm sure you remember

00:09:04.200 that quite well.

00:09:04.920 Steve McLaughlin Well, I do. I do remember it very well. And I think part of the part of the issue of

00:09:12.200 what was occurring in Quebec at that time was that those who were in favour of Quebec remaining in Canada

00:09:22.280 pulled on the heart, tried to pull on the heartstrings of people. And that may have been the final

00:09:28.040 persuasive aspect to it. But there was one other thing. And that was that there were fears of losing

00:09:39.640 out on equalization, for example, if Quebec became a sovereign country, and how would they survive?

00:09:45.320 And the interesting thing in all of that is that when we met with Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon,

00:09:51.320 the leader of the Parti Quebecois in mid-September, he came to Calgary to meet with us.

00:09:55.880 Steve McLaughlin Yes, I remember.

00:09:57.000 Steve McLaughlin We met with them. But when asked, why did he want to take Quebec out of Canada?

00:10:03.640 And he said, we want to preserve our language, our culture, and we want to get out from under

00:10:08.120 federal political corruption. But then he referred to equalization. He said, we don't need equalization

00:10:13.880 payments. If we're out from under all federal regulation and taxation, our fiscal capacity surplus

00:10:20.360 more than exceeds, significantly exceeds the money that we would be losing from equalization.

00:10:28.200 Steve McLaughlin So they want out as well. But think about what he said. We want to preserve

00:10:33.480 our language and our culture. Culture is something that is being wrested asunder out here in the West,

00:10:40.520 because the values of Ottawa are not necessarily the values of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Central and

00:10:47.480 Northern BC. And we see that reflected in every federal election.

00:10:51.400 Steve McLaughlin Yeah. And I remember, and I remember back then,

00:10:54.920 it was all about being a distinct society as well. And I brought that up here. I think Alberta is a

00:11:00.440 distinct society. I think we've, you know, I think Confederation worked for a long time,

00:11:05.080 but I would think it's starting to come apart. And the other thing I think about as well,

00:11:08.840 Corey Morgan mentioned this, he said back during that campaign, they started way behind and they got

00:11:14.920 darn close to winning. You know, we have to pick up 10 to 15 points here to get over the top,

00:11:20.280 get over that 50%. But I think we can do that. And that's something we certainly can learn from it.

00:11:24.760 I think the momentum is showing that we can get over that 50%.

00:11:28.120 Steve McLaughlin Yeah. Well, I'm very confident of that for two primary reasons. Three, actually. One,

00:11:35.960 Steve McLaughlin Just recently, I didn't expect to see the massive, and I'm not talking trivial,

00:11:43.320 massive lineups of people coming to sign of every age. That's number one. Number two, from our many

00:11:51.400 town halls previously, that we've had in the last four years, so many people would say to us,

00:11:57.720 Steve McLaughlin All of my family members or the people at work are in favor of sovereignty. And

00:12:04.200 they may not have registered with us, so we never had a clear idea. But we've heard that. And then the

00:12:10.360 final piece was that 2021 referendum on ending equalization in Alberta and 62% of Albertans voted

00:12:19.320 to end equalization. Well, if you ask the question now of those same people, if the only way you could

00:12:30.120 get equalization would be for Alberta to become a sovereign country, how many of that 62% would vote

00:12:36.760 in favor of sovereignty? And I think the momentum is stronger now than it was in 2021. So I'm very

00:12:46.440 confident that when people talk about the one-third, one-third, one-third, I think we're talking more

00:12:53.080 about, to be honest with you, I think we're talking more about 60% in favor, 10% to 20% unsure, and the

00:13:03.240 balance opposed to Alberta sovereignty. So I think it's a very different paradigm than what the polls are

00:13:10.920 telling us. And the polls are not accurate, I don't believe. Yeah, it's interesting you bring that up,

00:13:15.960 because I've made that point a number of times that is 61 to 62% voted to get rid of equalization.

00:13:21.400 The only way, the only way that's going to happen, it will never happen if we stay in Canada. The only

00:13:28.040 way that's going to happen is if we have an independent Alberta. Do we know, are we keeping

00:13:31.400 track of how many signatures we have? Do you know if there's any way of knowing that right now? I mean,

00:13:35.400 there's just so many signatures. You're not yet? No? Yeah. Well, you know, I mean,

00:13:39.000 we are keeping track, but this becomes a decision of the leadership as to how much is revealed, you

00:13:50.920 know, because our objective is not just the threshold. Our objective is to get over a million,

00:13:58.280 well over a million signatures on the petition, and the rationale for that is to make a statement.

00:14:04.120 I mean, you know, although the provincial government wasn't elected with a secession mandate,

00:14:11.320 for a sovereignty mandate, the political realities on the ground is to read the tea leaves, right?

00:14:18.680 And as Ralph Klein used to say, find a parade and get in front of it. And so this parade, I believe,

00:14:25.000 is so massive that it's political suicide for the provincial government not to start getting in front of

00:14:30.520 it. And I think we can make that point by May the 2nd, or maybe a few weeks later when Elections

00:14:39.320 Alberta validates the number of petition signatures. But that's the point, you know.

00:14:47.800 Discussing with the Premier previously, I've said to her, I said, I think we have over a million

00:14:52.120 supporters already. Her comment was, show me the numbers. And I said, happy to win. And so the win is

00:14:57.800 after we've completed this petition process. And she has said publicly she will respect the result

00:15:06.520 of a referendum. And if she respects the results of a referendum, that means she has to subsequently

00:15:13.160 take the lead to achieve sovereignty for Alberta subsequent to that successful referendum,

00:15:20.120 period. And that's where we are. So she'll have to do that, I believe, to be credible with her base.

00:15:32.520 It's exciting. I know you've been very busy. I've been at events where you've been speaking.

00:15:37.080 I know you've been to this right from the beginning. You're one of those people.

00:15:41.480 You're an original one who's been working hard and going out around the province. I know that you're

00:15:46.360 you're very busy as well. And I just expect the numbers to grow over the next little while.

00:15:51.160 Again, I think something really crazy happened when I was out on Saturday night and we're inside about

00:15:57.000 50 minutes, 60 minutes into the event. And somebody walked in and said, there's 2000 people outside.

00:16:02.280 And we were like, you're kidding me. And all they wanted to do was, it was just, and we're like,

00:16:06.680 you're kidding. And I went out before the event and the line was growing faster than I could walk along it.

00:16:11.640 Yeah, it's just something going on here. And I can feel it here in Panama. I can, Dr. Modry. I can feel it.

00:16:17.720 Well, you know, just to share something really sort of amusing and uplifting is,

00:16:23.160 I have a friend in Columbia. He used to live in Calgary. And when we were working

00:16:30.600 together with the Alberta Prosperity Society, the Alberta Prosperity Project,

00:16:34.760 he created a lot of material for us. And he was recently back visiting family here. And I think

00:16:43.560 he's got family in Wainwright, actually. So I had an opportunity to meet him. But he sent me a note

00:16:49.320 yesterday, absolutely thrilled to see what has happened. And I think he's very proud that he was,

00:16:57.400 you know, part of growing this movement, because there have been thousands of people who have

00:17:03.720 contributed. And every person who comes to these events right now is an ambassador for Alberta

00:17:10.760 Sovereignty. And they know that they have an obligation to share the information and the

00:17:17.400 enthusiasm with their friends, family, colleagues as well. And so this is how this grassroots movement

00:17:24.840 is growing. And I'm so excited to be part of it, of course.

00:17:29.880 We're happy to have you. We're so glad that you are part of this. From Columbia to Panama to Alberta,

00:17:34.600 around the world, this is growing. StayFreeAlberta.com is the website. I remember what

00:17:38.680 Mitch said back on October 25th, the legislature. Just give a bit of your time. You know, if everybody

00:17:43.400 involved here gave an hour, it's just an hour, we'd have more than a million hours of volunteer work.

00:17:48.680 Go out and sign the petition. You'll feel better. And, you know, I, again, I said back in 2019,

00:17:53.800 I went up to my very first meeting when it came, it was called Wexit back then. I got a hat then,

00:17:57.880 I remember there were people were so excited about this and a lot of questions were being answered.

00:18:02.520 And I felt a small part of it then. It kind of waned for a few years as things kind of got

00:18:06.760 hectic here in the province. And over the last year, I've just been so proud to be part of this

00:18:11.000 as well and just have a little part in it. And everybody who signs a signature will feel the

00:18:14.840 same way. So we hope people will go out. Now you're going to be out obviously at a lot of events

00:18:18.840 coming up and there are dozens. We've got that big one coming up on the 26th, what I'm excited

00:18:22.920 about at the BMO center in Calgary that might just blow the roof off this thing. If we get 6,500

00:18:28.360 people sitting there at the BMO center. Yeah. Who knows? I mean, I mean, it, um,

00:18:34.120 golly, you know, I'm some people, even 10,000 people showing up, you know, and so we'll see,

00:18:41.720 you know, how, uh, how, how it all works out. But right now there's tremendous building enthusiasm.

00:18:49.080 It's growing like wildfire. Yeah, it is. I feel like I feel being away from my province,

00:18:55.480 my home, my country, I feel like I'm missing out on something, but I'm glad that you could,

00:19:00.680 you could talk to me today so I could be part of it again. I'll put this video up on Friday morning,

00:19:04.760 which will be January the 16th. I appreciate it so much. It's always good to talk to you. Hope to see

00:19:09.880 you real soon. Probably on January 26th, I'm going to be home just a few days before that. And we'll see

00:19:14.520 you then Dr. Modry. Thanks so much. John, enjoy the rest of your holiday with your wife and family.

00:19:21.000 Fantastic to chat with you. Take care, buddy. Thank you, Dr. Dennis Modry. And if you liked the

00:19:26.040 video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, ring the bell for notifications,

00:19:29.400 stay free, alberta.com, go over there, volunteer, become somebody who signs up people for the petition,

00:19:35.000 donate, you're going to need some money for that as well to help out this cause. We'll see you in the next one.

00:19:44.520 Thanks.

00:20:04.040 Bye.

John Bolton - January 16, 2026

I Didn't Think The Lineups Would Be A Kilometre Long - Dr. Dennis Modry interview

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