00:00:22.380And it started on Monday at Elections Alberta in Edmonton.
00:00:25.780I'm going to put some video underneath so you can see what was going on.
00:00:28.480I left here at around 5 o'clock in the morning. I got up to Edmonton at 8.30 thinking I could help out, but there were already a lot of people there.
00:00:37.580By the time Mitch Sylvester arrived at around 12.30, escorted by Mr. and Mrs. Albertan and dozens of other people from Bonneville, there were hundreds of people who showed up.
00:00:48.860I said to Mitch Sylvester in an interview I did with him the other day, I'm usually the person
00:00:54.060who's shaking my fist at the wind, but those flags looked beautiful in that wind last Monday.
00:01:00.100It was an extraordinary day. When Mitch showed up, Jeff Rath was there as well. They were
00:01:06.140welcomed like conquering heroes, and the hugs were all around, the handshakes as well. It looked like
00:01:13.220Mitch had a tear in his eye, and I've said this story before, but it's a good one. Jeff Rath
00:01:17.860And it looked like the big guy himself had a bit of a tear in his eye as well.
00:01:22.360I went up to him later, shook his hand, congratulated him.
00:01:24.900And I said, Jeff, did you have a tear in your eye?
00:01:27.820And he looked at me with a big grin on his face with that big hat.
00:01:36.680But I think everybody had a tear in their eye on Monday.
00:01:41.400I was honored to be there and incredibly honored to introduce Mitch.
00:01:47.380One year ago, most of us did not know the name of this man right here.
00:01:53.240And in less than a year, he's brought us one step away from Alberta independence.
00:02:01.660Might I introduce CEO, Stay Free Alberta, Mitch Sylvester.
00:02:07.960well well john actually i don't like those things all right actually john i have to correct you on
00:02:21.560that you guys brought us here without you guys none of this happens so just understand
00:02:30.600how important you are and how important you're going to be moving forward
00:02:35.560You stood in the cold. You got abused. People yelled at you. People yelled at us on the way here.
00:02:46.760We had this one guy with a mask on yelling at us on the way here.
00:02:51.980So what we did with all of our boxes is we took a picture of canvassers and we put a different picture in front of every one of our boxes because this represents all of you.
00:03:05.560Mitch, with a great speech, a very gracious speech in front of hundreds of people and
00:03:12.400dozens of people came from the media as well. I did tweet this out, but I took this picture.
00:03:18.740Nobody else has this. I was standing right behind Mitch when this was taken. Isn't that remarkable?
00:03:24.660Now, I'm going to show you something right now that some people, that nobody has seen actually,
00:03:29.040other than me because I was standing behind Mitch when he signed off on the signatures and here's
00:03:35.120that video. People want this. And Mitch signed off on, as Jason Levine said here, Alberta
00:03:51.620Independence petition succeeds, 301,620 signatures. This October, for the first time,
00:03:59.740Albertan's voice will actually matter. We decide. You bet. Now, I want to go back to the picture I
00:04:05.440showed you earlier. Now, some of you already know this. Some of you might not know. If you only
00:04:09.640watch the Independence calendar and you've sent me pictures here in the past, I've got a little
00:04:13.940bit of a treat for you. Now, let's take a look at the picture I showed you earlier. This is Mitch
00:04:17.640in front of the crowd, this piece of paper sitting on one of the boxes that has petitions in them.
00:04:22.740And if we look at this picture here, you can see Mitch leaning over them with Jeff Rath right there.
00:04:28.120And you see all the pictures on the sides of these boxes. Now, these pictures are your pictures.
00:04:35.760I got in touch with Mitch last week and I said, what if we put the pictures of people canvassing
00:04:42.280on the sides of the boxes? And that's what people saw when they were at Elections Alberta.
00:05:43.640Right now, what I want to do, though, is talk about something that's very important, fundraising.
00:05:49.220It's going to be very, very important going forward.
00:05:53.160I've heard we need upwards of $5 to $10 million to fight this.
00:05:57.520You have to understand the CBC will be fighting us with their $1.4 billion.
00:06:02.300With your $1.4 billion, which is taxpayers' money, the federal government will pour money into Alberta to convince Albertans to vote no on independence.
00:06:11.820So I asked Mitch Sylvester about this earlier this week about fundraising.
00:06:17.240And if you want to send money, the time is now.
00:06:21.800I think we're in a really important time right now for raising money, are we not?
00:06:25.940In between the end of the petition campaign and the beginning of a possible campaign for a referendum, once that is called,
00:06:34.560can the app collect boundless amounts of money right now if people were wanting to contribute
00:06:41.080to independence and is that what we want people to do right now oh absolutely so so our our our
00:06:48.020list is so big that if everybody would give us 40 we'd absolutely roll over this so what i'm saying
00:06:58.940to you is we need funding now. Now we're in the final stages. This is it. We're all in here.
00:07:05.080You can donate any amount of money at all anonymously to the Alberta Prosperity Society
00:07:09.960right now. And we're in a period where we don't have to disclose who these donors are. So if you
00:07:16.120want to anonymously donate, you can donate to the Alberta Prosperity Society and go to the website
00:07:22.200at app albertaprosperityproject.com i believe that address again is albertaprosperityproject.com
00:07:30.920just go over to the website work your way over to the donate page click on it and make a donation
00:07:36.440now it will really help out we're going to need the money to get over the finish line and win
00:07:42.120this thing now the number of events happening right now are down a little bit everybody taking
00:07:47.720a little bit of a break, but I can tell you that Let's Talk Alberta is still very busy with events.
00:07:53.520Go over to Let's Talk Alberta dot com and you'll come to this page. Chris Scott leading the way
00:07:58.940with this. Actually, I'm doing an interview with Chris on Tuesday. Should have that interview up
00:08:03.600on Wednesday on the channel. But here are some of the events that are coming up over the next
00:08:07.480little while with Let's Talk Alberta. They literally have hundreds of events planned up
00:08:12.440until October. You've got this one on Monday in Cold Lake. Some of these events have pierogi
00:08:18.980dinners and other dinners involved as well. Okotoks, this one coming up on May the 13th
00:08:24.940with various different speakers as you can see. Tuesday, May 19th at Wainwright. They're going
00:08:30.920to be having an event near Rocky Mountain House at the Arbidus Hall Wednesday, May the 20th.
00:08:36.520One on Thursday, May 21st at Round Hill, the Round Hill Community Center.
00:08:40.800and a chicken and rib dinner coming up in Lacombe on Tuesday, May 26th,
00:08:45.300and a new date for Sex Myth Friday, June 5th.
00:08:48.020So keep looking for those events with Let's Talk Alberta.
00:08:51.640They certainly are a lot of fun to go to, and you can check them out.
00:08:55.640Now, one of the big things that's going to be discussed in the coming weeks and months
00:09:00.840leading up to the independence vote is the Constitution.
00:09:04.900People want to know what it will look like,
00:09:06.880and I know that they've been talking about this for months.
00:09:09.120The Alberta Women's Independence Network has been having a series of interviews over the last couple of weeks, which I've been involved in, and they've got one coming up on Monday night, May the 11th, 5 o'clock, actually late in the afternoon.
00:09:23.140Jason Levine will be hosting Bruce Pardee, Dennis Kalma, and Matthew Rowley to talk about their vision for a constitution, and they want you to take part in this one.
00:09:33.200If you've got any questions, be sure to chime in.
00:09:35.980If you're watching the live stream, it will be live streamed on Jason's channel, my channel,
00:09:40.320and the Alberta Women's Independence Network as well.
00:09:43.820I had a chance to talk with Jason Levine, Angela Tabak, and Kathy Flett about this important
00:09:49.540discussion on Monday, May the 11th, and let's take a look at that interview right now.
00:09:54.480I wanted to talk to these people you see on the screen right here about something I think
00:09:58.560is of great interest to people moving forward when it comes to the Alberta independence movement.
00:10:04.080As you can see, I've got Jason Levine here, Angela Tabak in the bottom right,
00:10:08.700and Kathy Flett in the bottom left. And Kathy and Angela have been part of the Alberta Women's
00:10:14.820Independent Network, which I have been very happy to be part of, proud to have started off this
00:10:19.900series of interviews over the last several weeks, talking about Alberta independence. But other
00:10:24.780issues as well have got into the discussion. And we've got a discussion coming up tomorrow night
00:10:30.480that Jason will be hosting to talk about the constitution. And this is something that I know
00:10:36.340that has been discussed for months. And I think they've had a constitution for the most part
00:10:40.840drafted for an independent Alberta since before Christmas last year, although it's being tweaked.
00:10:46.740It's sort of, I guess we could say a living document at this point. And we're going to have
00:10:51.860an interesting discussion about this on Monday night with three terrific guests, which Jason
00:10:56.380will tell us about in just a moment. But I wanted to talk to Kathy and to Angela first. First off,
00:11:01.220thank you for letting me be part of this. I started this off a couple of weeks ago. Tell
00:11:06.100us about the Alberta Women's Independent Network and why you're doing this. Maybe Angela, you can0.99
00:11:10.840start this off. Sure. And thank you so much, John, for being a part of this. It's been so exciting.0.67
00:11:16.400So the Alberta Women's Independence is actually Independence Network.
00:11:21.860that's all right it's something that we started a little over a year ago and our
00:11:26.720whole focus has been in engaging Albertans with a focus on women who
00:11:32.120perhaps historically personally have not had a lot to do with politics who
00:11:37.340have not been a part of the conversation that we find ourselves in
00:11:42.140now in Alberta and so what we've been doing is we've been going across the
00:11:46.940province we've been meeting in people's homes in local restaurants cafes and even town halls
00:11:53.900speaking to albertans and inviting them to become a part of this really important conversation
00:12:00.220and so we've been doing the last three four weeks a speaker series that kathy can kind of tell you
00:12:08.220a little bit about sure so as we were going around uh literally the whole entire province of alberta
00:12:15.340the same questions kept coming up and the same concerns kept coming up and so uh another gal
00:12:21.420that works with us came to us with this document that colonel redmond had written not very long
00:12:27.260ago just a couple of years ago and said what about these six pillars what if we explore these six
00:12:31.180pillars and uh we said okay and then the idea just morphed into this into this series that we've done
00:12:38.860and the idea was to get our local podcasters alberta is filled with amazing local podcasters
00:12:44.700you two are two of many, and some subject matter experts. And those subject matter experts did not
00:12:51.520need to be from Alberta. They could be from anywhere. And the conversations in these podcasts
00:12:59.080that we've had exploring these six pillars have gone in directions that we couldn't have even
00:13:03.600imagined when this idea first came to be. And now there's a hunger for more. People don't want it to
00:13:09.620stop. They want us to keep going. So we will. Yeah, we'll get to you in a second, Jason. You're
00:13:14.000waiting patiently there, but I do have a question for Angela and for Kathy right now. I had Tanya
00:13:19.300Clemens on the channel a couple of months back, and I said, do you think, Tanya, it's important
00:13:24.780for women to have a strong voice in this movement? I know, Kathy, you're out speaking in different
00:13:29.520events, and obviously you've got this voice here with the women who put together this network in
00:13:35.260this series of interviews. How important are women's faces and voices going forward in the
00:13:41.180independence movement? Either one of you can take this question. Well, we are literally 50%
00:13:46.380of the population. So if we want to achieve Alberta independence, we've got to have the
00:13:53.300women on board. And the fact of the matter is, is that as women, we're just wired differently than
00:13:59.880men, not better, not worse, just different. And we see things in a different way and from a
00:14:06.060different perspective and what I just noticed is that like for myself personally a lot of the
00:14:11.900messaging that was coming out about Alberta independence was not appealing to me it was not
00:14:16.620addressing the things that I was particularly concerned about and so as I started talking to
00:14:23.300other women in my neighborhood I realized I was not alone in that and um and so yeah we've got
00:14:29.560to have messaging that hits all demographics and that that is able to speak to all demographics
00:14:37.580across Alberta if we are going to be successful. Okay, you know, after after you came back with
00:14:43.000that terrific answer there at the stop, I thought, you know, that was kind of a dumb question. You0.98
00:14:47.780are 50% of the population. Jason, I want to find out about this event tomorrow night.
00:14:52.200What do you think? I mean, obviously, women have have to have a voice in this. And as1.00
00:14:56.680As Angela so deftly said, there are a little bit more than 50% of the population.
00:15:36.900We're going to then have Bruce Pardee,
00:15:39.680who's going to be on the other end of the spectrum there,
00:15:41.880talking about a completely different radical change,
00:15:44.360which is less power for the government and a smaller size for the government.
00:15:50.580And then right there in the middle, we're going to have Dennis.
00:15:52.540because he's going to be talking about how we can make changes
00:15:55.960and take something like the Canadian and the American Constitution
00:15:59.500and merge them together to make a much better, stronger constitution,
00:16:02.700something people are a little bit more familiar with
00:16:04.920and understand that ends up in a republic.
00:16:07.640So I'm excited to have all three of these gentlemen
00:16:09.520having a conversation tomorrow evening
00:16:11.280to talk about a spectrum of options and conversations
00:16:14.860about how a new constitution for the nation of Alberta
00:16:17.200can be materialized for the people, by the people,
00:16:20.160and then at one point ratified by the people.
00:16:22.540I'm looking forward to that one. Yeah. And I know Dennis, I mean, Dennis has been working on the
00:16:27.000constitution for Alberta and I've talked to him about this for several months now. And I know
00:16:32.500he's had discussions with Bruce as well about this, and I'm sure he's taken in some information
00:16:38.360and probably tried to integrate some of what Mr. Party has to say. Bringing Matthew Rowley into
00:16:44.100this is interesting as well. I've had a chance to speak with him. I just want to point out that
00:16:49.200recording this on Sunday. So Monday night, we're going to be doing this. And you're going to be
00:16:53.260speaking with Matthew Rowley on Monday morning to discuss what he has to say. A lot of people don't
00:16:59.600want the monarchy involved. Matthew's involved in that as well. But what do you think? I know,
00:17:04.580Jason, you're doing this on Monday night because you've got a bit of a background and you've talked
00:17:08.960about the Constitution quite a bit. Do you think we can marry two different systems together to
00:17:13.620get something that a majority of Albertans will agree upon if we get our independence in October?
00:17:19.200Well, I think what most Albertans want is a different system, one that has representation, is a lot more fair, and it does listen to the people, along with a lot more direct democracy, where the people have a say in what happens throughout the government.
00:17:33.560It's not once every four years, four years that we actually have this.
00:17:37.020Now, Matthew Rowley's position is a little interesting because he's not saying let's take the current Canadian system and work with it.
00:17:43.120he's saying let's go back to the original one which is before Pierre Elliott Trudeau changed
00:17:48.620it and messed it up his perspective is it was actually perverted at that point in time and it
00:17:54.480was functioning fine before then so he's actually advocating to go back to and repair the Canadian
00:17:59.740system before that and start there but what I really enjoy about having this conversation at
00:18:04.700this point is a lot of Albertans are waiting for the how like how do we get this done the why is
00:18:10.440pretty clear to many people at this stage the how is not so clear and about 20 of canadians and you
00:18:16.480can assume it's about 20 of albertans do like the commonwealth and they do like the king being part
00:18:22.180of the head of state so that's still a large chunk of people that shouldn't be ignored so matthew
00:18:26.540bringing that conversation to the table i think is important but the one thing that all three of
00:18:30.840these gentlemen have in common is we need to have a new system that uh has to start with independence
00:18:36.520for Alberta. So this is not about repairing inside of Canada. This is about a new nation
00:18:41.180and how we should birth it. So Monday, May 11th at 5 p.m. And of course, you'll be able to see it
00:18:48.000on Jason's channel. I think we're going to be streaming it on my channel as well. So I hope
00:18:51.160you'll watch it. Kathy, I want to ask you this. You've got a small group of women right now
00:18:55.820arranging these events. Can people get involved with your organization and how do they do that?1.00
00:19:01.120Easily. Absolutely. The easiest way is probably just connect with us on our social media pages.
00:19:06.220so we've got one on x and we're on facebook as well you can sign up for our newsletter so you
00:19:11.500can stay in the know of everything that's that's going on and if anybody wants to have a home
00:19:17.260meeting let us know we're happy to come we'll go wherever like we keep saying have wheels we'll
00:19:23.180travel and and we will we'll go wherever and um always looking for ladies too who are willing to0.86
00:19:29.500to do what we do right like it's better angela and i are happy to do it but more hands make0.54
00:19:36.380light work and so anybody else who wants to learn the presentation that we give to be able to do it
00:19:41.420themselves we're happy to equip them to do that as well and angela wrap things up with you here
00:19:45.900you're obviously looking for people who are coming out who are going to ask difficult questions as
00:19:49.820well i know by looking at let's talk alberta kathy you've been involved with that very much
00:19:54.700making having discussions they're always looking for objections because they want to counter those
00:20:00.780objections i suppose it's the same you're looking for people who are sitting on the fence who are
00:20:05.100dead set against uh independence here in alberta absolutely and this is also one of the opportunities
00:20:11.180that we have for tomorrow night because it will be live streamed if there are folks that want to
00:20:15.420get involved that have questions or have objections please get on with the live stream we'll be
00:20:20.860following the chat we're going to try to answer as many of those questions as we can um and it
00:20:27.660is an opportunity for people to ask questions we asking questions is part of the discussion
00:20:33.900it's probably the most important part of the discussion that we need to have and we need to
00:20:38.700as Albertans get back to being able to have hard discussions and be able to kind of duke it out
00:20:47.180in a really polite and respectful way if we're gonna find the best solution for our province
00:20:52.860it's got to be we've got to be able to look at all the different angles and honestly assess each
00:20:58.620each idea and eventually come to that the best solution possible thank you very much
00:21:04.540angela kathy i appreciate you very much thanks for including me in this jason as always a pleasure to
00:21:09.980talk to you good luck with this discussion bruce party dennis kalma matthew rowley five o'clock
00:21:15.420Monday. Of course, you can check it out after that on Jason's channel. Be sure to subscribe
00:21:20.780to Jason Levine, for goodness sakes, everywhere. If you aren't, you should be. And it'll be on my
00:21:27.820channel as well. The best to all of you. Thank you for joining me as we record this early on Sunday
00:21:33.260morning. I appreciate your time. Be sure to look for more interviews with the Alberta Women's
00:21:38.820Independence Network in the future. And thanks again to them for making me part of it. Now,
00:21:44.740I do want to end on this. I just have to say that this picture does my heart good. This is Mitch
00:21:50.600and Jeff Rass standing behind the boxes they handed in on Monday at Elections Alberta. And
00:21:56.380there are your pictures on those boxes. I want to say thank you so much for contributing to the
00:22:02.020independence calendar over the last 23 weeks and sending me those pictures. I had no idea
00:22:07.620this is how a number of them would be used. Your pictures are on the boxes sitting at Elections
00:22:13.760Alberta right now. I put this video together last week. A lot of people said they really
00:22:19.600enjoyed it. I figured I'd finish with it once again. Here are your pictures with a great song
00:22:24.860provided by Jeff Kloos. This is called The Freedom Line. Thanks for watching. I'll see you on the