John Bolton - Independence Calendar - Episode #21 (April 26th, 2026)

00:00:00.000 whoo all righty this is tyson bringing you this week's independent calendar john's got some great

00:00:06.620 stuff coming down the line stay tuned but before he gets here let me squeeze something in here real

00:00:11.380 quickly happening this sunday right here in edmonton at 38 15 gateway boulevard the mega

00:00:18.780 blue mile convoy and flag wave will be taking place starting at 1 p.m to 4 p.m this is going

00:00:25.300 to be epic if you've never been a part of one of these things man you're missing out we just want

00:00:29.980 to invite you to come on out here and get behind this movement, man. All you need to bring is your

00:00:35.000 excitement, your energy, your enthusiasm. Wave the flag, deck out your cars, dress in blue, man, and

00:00:41.360 just be a part of this movement. Let's make history. Like I said, this is awesome. Woo!

00:00:46.560 Now back to you, John. Thanks.

00:00:51.720 Hi, it's John, and welcome to the Independence Calendar for Sunday, April 26th, the 21st

00:00:56.940 episode. It's a pleasure to be with you today. And what a day today is, April the 26th. I just

00:01:03.640 want to take you over to Stay Free Alberta's website. And if you look way up there at the

00:01:08.340 top of the screen on this yellow bar, last day to sign the petition, Sunday, April 26th, find

00:01:15.120 a location. And of course, you can always search for locations and signing information

00:01:19.420 at Stay Free Alberta. But if you haven't signed the petition, today is your last day. What are

00:01:25.720 you waiting for? And some people are still out there doing it. I want to just look back on the

00:01:32.660 last almost four months. It was January 2nd when this all began, when the petition signing campaign

00:01:39.740 began. It was several days before people actually got badges to sign people up. So many people over

00:01:46.540 the last several months have said to me the first time that they heard of an event happening where

00:01:51.400 they could sign a petition, was back on January 10th. That was an event that had Eva Chippyuk, 1.00

00:01:56.880 Dennis Kalma, Corey Morgan. I was there. It was put together by Jeevan Mangat and Heather Field

00:02:01.760 at the Queensland Community Center. And Heather told me the other day, we got 2,200 signatures

00:02:08.740 that one night. We jammed the neighborhood. And that was not an outlier. That happened everywhere.

00:02:15.120 And you remember seeing the pictures and you saw drone photos and everything of what was going on

00:02:20.680 all around Alberta after that date. And more and more people got their badges to sign people up.

00:02:27.240 I've been out visiting them. You've been out visiting them. You may have visited one to sign

00:02:31.260 up on the petition. And it has been a real honor to go out and meet these people. I've said here

00:02:37.980 before, I've said it many times, I'm going to say it again. You know, I have a YouTube channel and

00:02:43.240 I do my part here. I get a chance to talk to some of the leaders of independence. I get to do this

00:02:48.220 show every week. But it's been the people out on the front lines that have really, really inspired

00:02:53.820 me. And those are the ones I admire. When I go out and they say to me, thank you for all you do,

00:02:59.260 I always turn it back on them. And I say, thank you for all you're doing. I would be announcing

00:03:04.760 that somebody was out on a cold day in February or March. The canvassers would be out on a cold

00:03:11.520 day in February and March. My heartfelt thanks to you. I've called you the heroes of independence

00:03:17.680 all along. We're waiting until May the 4th, rather, and Mitch will be delivering these

00:03:23.460 signatures to Elections Alberta. Looking forward to seeing that, but thank you so much. It has

00:03:30.680 been amazing. A lot of people over the last several weeks have said to me, they're going to

00:03:36.040 be glad when it's over. I'm sure a lot of people are thankful that they don't have to be out

00:03:41.340 collecting signatures. And I'm looking at today's weather in Calgary on April the 26th, and it's

00:03:47.120 snowing. It's cold. It's not very nice out there. We've got your submissions coming up here

00:03:52.340 on the calendar today. And a number of people have sent me messages from the submission saying,

00:03:59.600 I'm glad I don't have to be out in the cold. But once again, thank you, canvassers. We really

00:04:04.640 appreciate what you've done. Now, I've received hundreds of photos here on the calendar since I

00:04:09.500 started doing this 21, 22 weeks ago. And I'm hoping I can get them all together in one video,

00:04:15.240 nice and tight so it's not too long, and put all those pictures on my channel very soon. Maybe I'll

00:04:20.660 use it in an upcoming independence calendar. So let's take a look at some of the things you can

00:04:25.380 take part in as we move forward. Things are going to get real busy now. It's hard to believe, but

00:04:29.540 it's going to get even busier. I hope everybody can take a little bit of a break after the petition

00:04:34.420 signing. But State Free Alberta is kind of winding down right now with events out there, but Let's

00:04:40.600 Talk Alberta, as you can see on the screen. They're very busy. They're looking at having more than

00:04:45.180 200 events talking about independence across the province between now and October. So there's

00:04:51.160 probably hardly a day of the week where you won't be able to go out to one of these events.

00:04:55.240 LetstalkAlberta.com is the website. I want to bring this to your attention right here. Let me

00:04:59.280 get myself off the screen because I'm kind of in the way here. But I heard from Laura. Laura gets

00:05:04.920 in touch with me and sends me Let's Talk Alberta stuff. This event is coming up on Saturday, May

00:05:10.160 2nd, Whistle Stop Cafe, Mirror Alberta, speakers and musical artists galore, live auction and

00:05:16.300 donated collectibles. Now, Laura says, if you would like to donate something, you can do that

00:05:22.520 for the live auction on May 2nd, include your business card or some information, drop it off

00:05:26.880 at the Whistle Stop Cafe, or you can mail it to Let's Talk Alberta, P.O. Box 105, Mirror Alberta,

00:05:34.420 T0B3C0. And again, just drop that off at the whistle stop. Probably the best thing to do at

00:05:43.480 this point, simply because it's getting rather late. And we've only got a few more days before

00:05:47.840 that event comes up on May 2nd. Now, I'm going to get my cat. This is Blue. Say hi, Blue. Let's

00:05:53.120 get my cat down walking across here. Here are some of the events and activities that are happening

00:05:57.520 over the next little while when it comes to Let's Talk Alberta. Many different speakers here. This

00:06:03.700 one coming up Tuesday in Tilly. These two ones, next ones here, Gibbons and Forestburg start at

00:06:10.160 5.30 and they're going to have pierogi dinner for you. So you might want to check that out.

00:06:14.740 When I was in Dalburn a couple of weeks ago, I was out for pierogies and it was fantastic,

00:06:20.560 provided by Chris Scott. You've got this one coming up in Lloydminster. This one's coming up

00:06:25.600 on April the 30th. This should be a good one as well. Of course, there was the fundraiser I just

00:06:30.160 told you about once again. And then this one coming up in May in Beaumont. So lots of activities

00:06:35.780 coming up. If you're looking for something to do, by all means, check that out. And something I do

00:06:41.800 want to show you, and I think this is a lot of fun. You're going to like this. Saw this on X this

00:06:47.300 morning. It was posted with Rise of Alberta. CBC told them Alberta independence means becoming

00:06:52.620 American. And they've been yelling at the blue pickup trucks all afternoon. I don't know who

00:06:57.120 did this when this was done i don't even know if this is ai it's hard to know anymore but you're

00:07:02.000 gonna love this enjoy all right just through the hedges here we've spotted a mated pair of elbows

00:07:08.080 up yes canadaus a highly vocal suburban species identified by its red and white plumage paid off

00:07:16.160 home and deep emotional bond with federal talking points having prospered in a more affordable era

00:07:21.520 they now survive on legacy media, nostalgia and televised reassurance. Watch this.

00:07:28.880 Mark Carmy is the best leader Canada has ever had. Impressive. Fully conditioned. But when

00:07:34.480 Alberta independence enters the environment, the pair becomes highly agitated. 0.99

00:07:42.480 Traitor! Traitor! Fascinating. A classic territorial display. That is incredible. 1.00

00:07:48.560 And you know what's amazing about it? It's true. Thanks to the person who put that together. I don't know whether it's real. I don't know if it's fake. If it's real, it would have had to be recorded during the summertime. But thanks to whoever did that.

00:08:01.860 You saw Tyson off the beginning of the Independence Calendar today. Tyson, doing a lot of great work for the Independence Movement. Thanks, Tyson, for what you're doing. Wanted to bring this up once again. This is happening on April 26th, so today as I record this, 1 to 4 o'clock, 38th Avenue and Gateway Boulevard, Mega Blue Mile and Flagway. They're having a convoy as well. You might want to check that out.

00:08:23.580 And if you're in the area, they're actually having the final date to sign at Edmonton at that spot.

00:08:29.100 So go out there, sign the petition, be part of the independence movement.

00:08:32.720 Now, I do receive a number of things here from people in my email at johnboltonab at gmail.com.

00:08:39.380 I try to read as many things as possible.

00:08:42.740 And I try to read all your email.

00:08:44.380 I can't respond to all of them.

00:08:45.880 If I do, it's generally rather short because I do get a lot of email.

00:08:49.380 But I received this from Fred.

00:08:50.720 I told him I was going to read just a bit of this.

00:08:52.640 I found this fascinating, and let's take a look at what Fred wrote me. This was a PDF that he sent

00:08:57.720 me. It is time, after spending 32 years in the Canadian military, thank you for your service,

00:09:03.600 Fred. Having the Canadian flag on my uniforms and on the aircraft I flew, it's time for me to stop

00:09:09.360 pretending that the Canada I chose to serve could be resurrected and brought back to life.

00:09:15.460 Like the Canadian flag in this photo, my country has faded and been torn by the elements and

00:09:21.440 suffered from the winds of change. Like me, it has served its purpose and needs to be replaced.

00:09:27.460 I'll go down to this paragraph right here. I've given up on ever seeing the Canada that I was

00:09:32.380 proud of return. To all veterans and folks who have seen these changes and abhor them, I encourage

00:09:39.220 you to replace your flags and support the Alberta independence movement. And this is the picture

00:09:44.160 that he sent to me.

00:09:51.080 Thanks for the letter, Fred.

00:09:52.380 I appreciate it.

00:09:53.580 Now let's take a look at this week's submissions from you.

00:09:56.400 We are Alberta, child and free.

00:10:00.540 Forged by word and destiny.

00:10:03.940 All right, here we go this week.

00:10:05.680 And not as many submissions this week as in all the weeks before.

00:10:10.360 But I figured it would be that way this week

00:10:12.340 because a lot of people have handed their badges in and there hasn't been quite as much petition

00:10:17.040 signing this week. Although people are out today, if you're watching this on April 26th,

00:10:22.060 people are out today still getting signatures as of today. So let's start things off with Elizabeth

00:10:27.540 who says, welcome to the Republic of Alberta. Patty sent these three pictures in a blue roll

00:10:34.720 from Fort McLeod to Blairmore. Thank you so much for these beautiful shots, Patty. From Neil with

00:10:40.900 Mr. and Mrs. Albertan out on Highway 1. Thanks for that. Another from Neil. Not sure if it's the same

00:10:46.660 Neil, but I had to do a double take on this one. This at the Lethbridge Visitor Center, a converted

00:10:53.560 van with a hydraulic 40 plus foot flagpole with this amazing Alberta flag on the top. Thank you

00:11:01.600 for this. This is just incredible. A couple of quick videos for you here. If you've been in Alberta

00:11:07.360 this week or anywhere where it's been windy we have been fighting the wind for sure check these

00:11:13.120 out from Jeff let's go and then we've got this from Chris and Roxanne and with the subject and

00:11:22.680 this is what the subject of the email I got was even Bieber a beavers sorry start over again

00:11:28.080 even beavers want to separate this is east of Drayton Valley let's go check this out

00:11:34.560 Look at this gorgeous beaver dam. And if you zoom in, you can see that even the beavers

00:11:43.500 want to separate. And then Emily. Emily says, we turned our stroller into a mobile signing station

00:11:52.420 and our baby didn't mind. Ha ha. I love this, Emily. Thanks so much. Whole bunch of pictures

00:11:58.160 here from Maria. And Maria talks about being windy in Airdrie. And it has been windy all

00:12:03.900 across southern Alberta. I think the whole province this week. Thanks to Maria for all these pictures.

00:12:08.880 Also from Bill in Castle down in Edmonton, he says he's not going to miss standing out in the cold

00:12:15.540 now that the petition signing is over. Jeff back again with this signing off from Freddie's Freedom

00:12:21.520 Corner after Freddie reached his goal of 200 signatures with the last signer arriving at the

00:12:27.300 scheduled finishing time of four o'clock. Well done to Jeff and Pamela with all of these great

00:12:33.480 pictures. And we're going to end this one off with some AI. At least I think it's AI. I think it

00:12:39.240 better be AI. All right, let's get this petition signed for Alberta independence. Yes, time to

00:12:47.620 dance and celebrate our freedom. Thank you so much for all your submissions this week. I do

00:12:56.520 appreciate it. It's going to be a little bit different over the coming months when it comes

00:13:00.120 to submissions. But if you've got anything you'd like to send to me, just email me, johnboltonab

00:13:05.420 at gmail.com. The things you're going to see on the calendar in the coming months are going to

00:13:18.080 look different. Obviously, the pictures we've seen over the last four months have been mostly

00:13:21.480 about the petition signing campaign, but keep them coming. I do appreciate it. Now, it has been

00:13:27.620 pretty remarkable. I've received hundreds of pictures here from different people over the

00:13:32.140 last four months, and we've seen some remarkable things for sure. But I think one of the most

00:13:36.900 iconic pictures that will come out of this is one we saw from around the world. And earlier this

00:13:43.520 week, I had a chance to talk to a man who signed up five people in Egypt. His name is Mike Schnell,

00:13:51.340 and here's part of the interview from earlier this week.

00:13:57.620 In just a moment, we're going to have a special guest here, and this is a fun one, I have to say.

00:14:03.900 You know, we're at the final weekend of the petition signing, and God love all of the canvassers that have been out there for the last four months through some pretty nasty weather.

00:14:13.940 And, you know, I do the Independence Calendar on Sundays.

00:14:16.980 I've done it for, this is the 21st week in a row, and I've received some amazing pictures.

00:14:22.380 I remember when everybody was fascinated when we saw people down in Yuma, Arizona.

00:14:26.600 And then we started seeing people in California and everybody was amazed.

00:14:30.520 We've seen pictures of people on mountaintops signing the petition.

00:14:34.760 There's a helicopter in the background in this picture you're looking at right now.

00:14:38.320 But I have to say, and I bet you most people would say they never thought they would see something like this.

00:14:48.160 We never thought we would see the Alberta flag in Egypt at the pyramids.

00:14:55.400 And the man you see on the screen right now is the guy signing the petition.

00:15:00.720 And there's the shirt.

00:15:01.740 I'd like to welcome Mike Schnell.

00:15:03.500 Mike, thank you so much for talking to me today.

00:15:06.340 I appreciate it.

00:15:07.220 It's good to see you.

00:15:08.720 Great to be here.

00:15:09.580 Thanks for having me, John.

00:15:10.820 You know, we get a real thrill out of this one.

00:15:13.380 I've had people comment on this.

00:15:14.740 Can you imagine that there's the Alberta flag in Egypt and there's a pyramid in behind and

00:15:19.960 there's you signing this petition?

00:15:21.940 How did this all come about?

00:15:23.700 Tell me what your thought process was, obviously leaving Alberta to go to Egypt.

00:15:29.160 So we had some friends that moved in down the street from us here.

00:15:32.680 I live in Cougar Ridge in Calgary.

00:15:34.560 And they had moved here from Egypt and they just had little kids.

00:15:39.200 And so we took them over a plate of cookies, you know, welcome wagon thing and welcome to the neighborhood.

00:15:45.040 And we became pretty good friends.

00:15:46.520 In fact, my wife taught their children, a boy and a girl.

00:15:50.420 They were just little at the time.

00:15:51.600 taught him piano for a few years and uh you know we got invited to their graduations and so on and

00:15:58.000 and uh we weren't close close friends but you know good enough friends right sure and uh they

00:16:03.680 regarded us as their best friends in canada and that's great and uh anyway uh back in uh oh shucks

00:16:11.200 december or january we get this phone call from them and they say hey our son's getting married

00:16:15.440 in Egypt. Would you like to come to Egypt for the wedding? And I mean, I'll be honest with you,

00:16:21.740 Egypt wasn't really on my bucket list. And I thought, yeah, why not? In our church,

00:16:27.620 we're studying the Old Testament. So of course, you've got Egypt is a big part of the Old Testament.

00:16:33.940 So I thought, well, why wouldn't we want to go to Egypt? So let's go. So we made all the

00:16:38.380 arrangements and showed up there for the wedding. And along the way, I was scheming and

00:16:45.360 dreaming in my back of my mind. And I thought, well, I'm going to take an Alberta flag and I'm

00:16:50.280 going to take a couple of pages from my canvasser book and my little badge. And because I can throw

00:16:57.160 that all in a backpack pretty easy. And anyway, the day came, we went to the pyramids and I said,

00:17:06.520 okay, this is it. This is where we're doing this. And I got my wife and another young girl

00:17:13.560 uh to you know hold the hold the alberta flag up behind me and and i signed the petition and and i

00:17:20.600 got five signatures on that petition oh from alberta if you can imagine so it worked out really

00:17:27.480 well and then our guide said whoa whoa whoa you got to take that down they said they don't like

00:17:31.640 anybody uh using the pyramids for any kind of promotion for anything doesn't matter if it's

00:17:37.560 political or sports team or anything you can't do that and so the flag was probably only flying for

00:17:44.280 about a minute and a half and we folded it up and put it away that's amazing it's just an amazing

00:17:50.380 picture uh just looking at it right now put it up on the screen again so people can see it

00:17:55.020 and there you are wearing the exact shirt that uh now are you a canadian citizen are you an alberta

00:18:00.520 citizen are you old enough to vote i'm just wondering mike you got that information right

00:18:04.940 while you were there.

00:18:05.780 A hundred percent.

00:18:06.860 Yeah, a hundred percent.

00:18:08.360 I got that.

00:18:08.980 I got their driver's licenses.

00:18:10.480 I got all the, all the proper stuff.

00:18:12.620 I'm a proper canvasser.

00:18:14.000 I've got over a hundred signatures.

00:18:15.780 Good for you.

00:18:16.540 That I've personally, uh, uh, signed up.

00:18:19.660 And then, uh, and then I'm with a small team, uh, about six or seven of us.

00:18:24.460 And we've got about another eight or 900 signatures on our little team.

00:18:28.220 First off, thank you very much for doing what you've done.

00:18:30.420 Getting, getting signatures, working with the group that you've been working with.

00:18:34.340 people say to me, John, thanks for all you do. I do a little bit. You've done a bit too, Mike.

00:18:40.560 Everybody's done their bit, right? It becomes a big thing, right?

00:18:43.740 And you know what? You know what, John? We're just ordinary, average, everyday people. None

00:18:48.660 of us are brilliant. None of us are connected. None of us have special status in the community.

00:18:55.320 We're just ordinary, average, everyday people.

00:18:58.620 Well, we like to call it grassroots, you know, and that's what this whole movement's been about.

00:19:02.360 And you know what, Mike, we've been part of something that's pretty historic here.

00:19:06.060 This is really never been done before.

00:19:08.660 And I appreciate it.

00:19:09.740 We'll put the picture up at the end again, because it's worth seeing again.

00:19:12.740 But this was one of the highlight moments, I think, of this petition campaign.

00:19:17.540 Everybody loved this.

00:19:19.440 And you know what?

00:19:20.180 I think this inspired people.

00:19:22.140 I think people saw this and said, if somebody could go to Egypt

00:19:25.380 and sign the petition, I can too.

00:19:27.420 So thank you so much, sir.

00:19:29.020 And thank your wife and happy birthday.

00:19:31.820 Well, thank you. 0.99

00:19:32.880 You look great for 70, and that's a damn good-looking shirt you're wearing, Mike. 0.97

00:19:36.520 Thank you. 0.97

00:19:38.820 All the best to you.

00:19:40.760 Okay, thanks, John.

00:19:42.800 My thanks again to Mike for doing that.

00:19:44.640 I appreciate it.

00:19:45.580 And who knows what kind of pictures and videos we're going to see between now and Referendum

00:19:50.280 Day in October.

00:19:51.920 Before I leave, once again, I'd like to say thank you so much to all the canvassers for

00:19:56.320 all the hard work over the last four months.

00:19:58.640 We appreciate what you've done.

00:20:00.240 we know that we're going to have an amazing amount of signatures announced when they're

00:20:04.840 finally counted. And again, we're expecting Mitch Sylvester to be delivering your petitions and all

00:20:10.280 the work you've done on May the 4th. I hope to be there. Thanks a lot for watching. Contact me,

00:20:16.500 johnbolzenab at gmail.com. I'll see you in the next Independence Calendar.

John Bolton - April 26, 2026

Independence Calendar - Episode #21 (April 26th, 2026)

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