John Bolton - May 17, 2026


Independence Calendar - Episode #24 (May 17th, 2026)


Episode Stats


Length

17 minutes

Words per minute

193.56657

Word count

3,432

Sentence count

193


Summary

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

A judge threw out a petition calling for a referendum on Alberta's independence from Canada. What does this mean for the possibility of a referendum in October? And what does it mean for those who have been out canvassing and collecting signatures?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the Independence Calendar.
00:00:06.060 It is episode number 24 this week, Sunday, May the 17th.
00:00:10.420 I hope you're having a great Sunday and a fantastic weekend as well.
00:00:14.300 I tip the big blue mug of coffee to you today.
00:00:16.520 It's been a bizarre weekend here weather-wise in the Calgary area.
00:00:20.680 I was in Canmore on Friday and Saturday.
00:00:23.240 We had snow.
00:00:24.460 The roads were slushy as can be yesterday.
00:00:26.720 It's all melted away.
00:00:27.700 I call it white, lumpy rain.
00:00:29.040 I hope the weather is better where you may be today.
00:00:32.280 A little bit different on the Independence calendar right now over the last couple of weeks.
00:00:36.180 It certainly has been a little bit different.
00:00:38.660 We're not seeing a lot of pictures coming in to the email address,
00:00:41.380 but if you'd like to email me, johnboltonab at gmail.com is my email address.
00:00:47.420 Those pictures were coming in fast and furious for many weeks,
00:00:51.000 but not right now because we're not collecting signatures anymore.
00:00:54.640 Now, I don't want this to be overly political on the Independence calendar.
00:00:58.620 I want it to be a joyous occasion.
00:01:01.160 We do have some things coming up that you can take part in
00:01:03.560 if you're interested in the independence movement.
00:01:06.300 But right now, kind of a lull.
00:01:08.360 And I know that there are various groups around the province
00:01:10.800 that are going to be looking for your help moving forward
00:01:13.100 because there is hope for us to get a vote coming up in October.
00:01:17.960 It was an interesting week.
00:01:19.000 We had this story pop up.
00:01:20.700 Judge overturns Elections Alberta's approval of separation referendum petition.
00:01:26.040 A minor setback right now.
00:01:28.000 We're going to hear from Keith Wilson, the lawyer. He's going to explain what this means and whether we will have a referendum question in October.
00:01:35.480 And I do have some video from Mitch Sylvester. Mitch, gracious enough to talk to me minutes after that decision came down earlier this week.
00:01:43.540 And he's got a message of hope for you, and particularly the people who were out there canvassing and collecting signatures.
00:01:50.520 Really what this decision said to me, and it's pretty simplistic, was if you have the initiative
00:01:57.700 and you've got a group of people who have the initiative to want to ask their government for
00:02:01.800 something, and in this case, a question in a referendum, if there's a group of indigenous
00:02:06.760 people who don't like it, we have to ask them first. Now, that doesn't seem much like democracy
00:02:12.000 to me, but that's what I've got out of this decision earlier this week. This story right
00:02:17.260 here from the Western Standard. Sylvester files appeal of decision to quash Alberta independence
00:02:22.840 petition. State Free Alberta CEO Mitch Sylvester filed an appeal on Friday of Justice Shana Leonard's
00:02:29.180 ruling to shut down the Sylvester's Alberta independence petition by quashing the chief
00:02:34.400 electoral officer's decision to issue his group a petition. And moving down to the bottom, Premier
00:02:40.260 Danielle Smith said her government intends to appeal the decision as well, claiming that the
00:02:45.200 UCP intended for the citizen initiative process to be permissive. We think that this decision is
00:02:51.440 incorrect in law and anti-democratic, and we will be appealing it as a result, Smith said on
00:02:57.980 Wednesday. It's interesting for a lot, from a lot of the people who are part of the independence
00:03:02.660 movement, they're not taking this lying down. They're going to stand up and fight. Jeff Rath
00:03:07.400 with this, he posted this on X. Mitch Sylvester files appeal of judicial decision to kill citizens
00:03:13.740 Democratic rights in Alberta. Stay application to be filed on Tuesday. A lot of people sending
00:03:18.140 me things like this. Let me get my face off the screen so you can see the whole thing.
00:03:21.860 Albertans will decide our future, our vote. We want to fight back and we're going to fight
00:03:27.140 until we get our vote. Now, a lot of people responding to this decision earlier this week.
00:03:34.720 And one of them was Keith Wilson, the lawyer. This is what he had to say about the decision
00:03:39.000 and how things will go moving forward.
00:03:43.080 Nothing in the decision from the court today,
00:03:45.800 the Court of King's Bench,
00:03:47.720 on the unusual legal challenge
00:03:52.020 from a few First Nations chiefs
00:03:55.140 in any way at all
00:03:58.220 restricts or limits
00:03:59.860 the effect of the Supreme Court of Canada 1998 decision,
00:04:04.420 nor the clear and unchallenged,
00:04:08.300 unquestionable right and authority of the smith government cabinet to set an independence question
00:04:15.660 for october 19th so be very clear in your mind about that this does not end the prospect for
00:04:23.180 a referendum on independence in any way at all when i spoke to mitch earlier this week just
00:04:29.260 minutes after this decision came down i asked him about something that was really concerning me
00:04:34.860 and it was the petitions which are sealed up in boxes at elections alberta and edmonton i was
00:04:40.540 concerned about those petitions mitch had this to say and he had a message of hope for you
00:04:45.020 particularly those people who collected the signatures all of the great canvassers across
00:04:49.580 the province now what i'm concerned about and i'm sure a lot of people who worked very hard
00:04:54.860 over four months you saw those boxes when you handed them in you had a big grin on your face
00:04:59.740 those people sitting in the snow what happens to the signatures they were sealed up they're sitting
00:05:04.960 at elections alberta for all i know you counted them thank god we know there's over 300 000
00:05:10.000 signatures there are these going to be destroyed all that work and never be counted because of this
00:05:15.800 judge's decision well i don't think you should look at it that way okay uh i think i think that
00:05:22.520 what happened when we collected 301 000 signatures is we showed the premier and the ucp government
00:05:28.320 that there's 301,000 Albertans that are prepared.
00:05:32.040 And I believe the number is actually real.
00:05:34.220 I know that the number is actually real.
00:05:36.400 Our process was very stringent.
00:05:38.600 I wouldn't be surprised if there was any attrition in those signatures.
00:05:41.820 They had to be signed by the person that was actually signing the paper
00:05:46.560 to authorize that they were actually there.
00:05:48.800 They had to be vetted according to living in Alberta or not, their age.
00:05:54.600 And they had to have a physical address.
00:05:56.320 and then the canvasser had to sign off on it.
00:05:58.940 So there's lots of steps there.
00:06:00.520 But the way you have to see this is that you all showed up,
00:06:03.920 you participated, you did the work,
00:06:06.700 and you told the Premier of Alberta,
00:06:08.320 look, there's 301,000 people that have the courage
00:06:10.880 to sign this petition.
00:06:13.080 That number is not going to change whether they destroy it or not.
00:06:16.640 That number is the message.
00:06:19.340 And, you know, they play around with it and say what we needed.
00:06:22.040 They asked for $177,000 to trigger the referendum vote.
00:06:26.620 They got $301,000.
00:06:27.980 So our premier, right from the beginning, was going to be tasked with making this call.
00:06:32.400 And you've showed her, in a large way, that you want to vote on Alberta independence.
00:06:37.200 So don't ever despair and say that all the work that we've done was for naught.
00:06:41.100 It was totally not for naught.
00:06:42.580 This would not be happening without that.
00:06:44.920 And so you should all continue to be proud of yourselves, as proud of yourselves as we all are, for all the work that went into that.
00:06:51.400 And, you know, it's not for naught at all.
00:06:53.980 As a matter of fact, like I said, I'll repeat it.
00:06:55.920 Without that, we don't have a chance moving forward.
00:06:59.240 Thanks a lot to Mitch for that great message.
00:07:01.180 You should be proud of yourself for sitting in the snow for four months through the wintertime collecting those signatures.
00:07:06.680 And a lot more coming up from Mitch in the interview I did earlier this week.
00:07:10.320 I'll put a link in the card at the end of this video so you can watch it.
00:07:14.100 He said the mother of all rallies coming up soon.
00:07:18.320 So we'll be sure to let you know about that when it happens.
00:07:20.760 Something else that's been happening regularly up in the Edmonton area over the last several months.
00:07:26.200 They've been having slow rolls and meeting at overpasses.
00:07:30.140 Our friend Tyson Rojovich up there working so hard for the independence movement.
00:07:34.400 I had a chance to talk to Tyson about something coming up in Edmonton just next weekend.
00:07:39.520 And I spoke with him earlier this morning.
00:07:41.620 It has been rather quiet over the last couple of weeks as we've kind of got out of the signature signing campaign and into this.
00:07:49.900 while waiting for court decision campaign.
00:07:52.640 We got one earlier this week,
00:07:54.060 waiting for another one as an appeal
00:07:55.720 has been submitted by Jeff Rath,
00:07:58.500 Mitch Sylvester, and Stay Free Alberta.
00:08:00.980 But events are happening
00:08:02.020 and people are trying to keep the energy going.
00:08:04.240 Our good friend Tyson Rehovich from Edmonton
00:08:06.260 joining us here on the channel today
00:08:08.300 on the Independence Calendar.
00:08:09.580 Tyson, great to see you again.
00:08:11.620 I know you've been one of those people
00:08:13.540 who's had boundless energy
00:08:14.860 when it comes to the independence movement.
00:08:16.800 You're trying to keep things going
00:08:18.240 and you're having another roll coming up next weekend on Sunday.
00:08:22.300 Can you tell us about it?
00:08:23.940 Yes, absolutely.
00:08:24.760 May 24th, we're implementing Phase 2.
00:08:28.580 We're shifting gears from the signature collection.
00:08:30.600 Now it's time to bring awareness and get people ready to vote.
00:08:33.900 That's the whole thing that we're focusing on right now
00:08:36.340 is get the mindset to get out there October 19th and vote.
00:08:38.640 We still believe it's going to be October 19th, no doubt.
00:08:43.440 So you've been out there.
00:08:45.720 You're getting people together to get out of their vehicles,
00:08:48.460 to put their flags on their cars, their vehicles,
00:08:50.620 and cruise around Edmonton.
00:08:52.000 You've got one coming up on Sunday.
00:08:54.100 You've taken a bit of time off.
00:08:55.320 You had Mother's Day.
00:08:56.640 We've had the May 24 weekend go by this weekend,
00:09:00.020 but you're getting back out there on Sunday, May 24th,
00:09:02.980 actually on Victoria Day, the actual date this year.
00:09:06.160 What's going on?
00:09:06.860 How can people participate in this?
00:09:09.320 We're doing a combination of the slow roll and overpass.
00:09:12.740 so those those that want to take part of the the slow roll will meet in atchison at one o'clock
00:09:19.020 at 266 114th avenue that'll be where the slow roll is and then we'll we will be taking over
00:09:26.600 two overpasses that are along the anthony hende which is collingwood road and the anthony hende
00:09:32.620 and lasar road and anthony hende so we're starting with two so we just want to invite everybody to
00:09:37.560 come out there and wave flags and stuff like that and uh like i said we'll be putting up banners
00:09:41.560 that say vote October 19th independence that's the whole thing we want to drive this message
00:09:46.060 all into people they know what to do on October 19th. What are you hearing from people you know
00:09:51.120 you're I've spoken to you so many times here on the on the calendar and I've met you a couple of
00:09:56.300 times what are you hearing from people right now what is their energy like how are they feeling
00:10:00.160 about what's been going on you know we had this setback in court this week I had the interview
00:10:05.820 with Mitch Sylvester he's saying people should be proud of what they're doing we've had Keith
00:10:10.620 Wilson, the lawyer, saying that we're going to go ahead, that the province can still say there will
00:10:15.120 be a referendum question in October. What are you hearing on the ground from people right now?
00:10:22.040 Well, in most part, like I said, you know, it's a large group, right? So in most part, like I said,
00:10:27.020 we already know this stuff is coming. You know, we're ready for this. This doesn't change anything
00:10:30.320 for us. I mean, we're ready for whatever comes. I mean, the spirits are still high. We're still
00:10:34.760 really excited. Of course, you know, nobody wants setbacks. But I mean, we know this isn't a
00:10:39.160 surprise and there's going to be more coming we're ready for it man we really are so so what do you
00:10:44.240 want what do you want people to do next week obviously you know i've seen people with some
00:10:48.080 amazing uh setups on their vehicles absolutely with flags and whatnot and they've got basically
00:10:54.360 bicycle racks that have been reconfigured vehicles with all kinds of flags on them um you just want
00:11:00.860 people uh to bring out flags or um or anything they can to kind of wave the banner for independence
00:11:06.320 next week well for for the convoy yeah like i said you know that's the whole thing deck out your car
00:11:11.840 deck out your car so you stand out but also we'll be implementing things like as we roll
00:11:15.920 over different phases we do want to you know put some things whether it be magnets on the cars that
00:11:20.160 you know say vote october 19th for independence because we're really going to drive that message
00:11:24.320 home and um like i said same as like i said the overpass bring your flags dress in blue man just
00:11:29.760 bring your you know your excitement and stuff like that engage with traffic and like i said we'll put
00:11:33.680 up banners like i said it'll be just like a mega commercial is what it'll be okay terrific good
00:11:38.880 stuff keep it going and keep us up to date and all the things you're doing up there keep in contact
00:11:43.360 with me i'd like to pass along more information we've been hearing although it hasn't been
00:11:48.160 confirmed yet that there might be a mega rally coming up mitch sylvester i think he called it
00:11:52.640 the mother of all rallies could be coming up absolutely so we don't know where that's going
00:11:57.200 to be right now we've people have been saying maybe the 30th we don't know that that's happening
00:12:01.760 at the legislature mitch wasn't uh quite um committed to any particular place at that point
00:12:07.600 but no doubt you'll be involved as well yeah absolutely and i just wanted to touch quickly
00:12:12.160 when you when you're asking about how with the atmosphere they're like honestly things are
00:12:16.320 working in our favor the worse it gets what i'm seeing is that people are just coming together
00:12:20.560 like like i said you know talking about this mega rally it's it it'll be huge because like i said
00:12:24.960 people are tired of it so the more they come at us the more people come in and unite so we're just
00:12:29.200 pumped about that that's right you're absolutely right we we hear about setbacks and people just
00:12:34.940 become more committed to the absolutely tyson thank you so much for what you do for the alberta
00:12:40.340 independence movement again i'm meeting at one o'clock 266 street and 114th avenue in atchison
00:12:46.940 i guess you roll out about 45 minutes later you get everybody together you roll out you've got
00:12:51.440 people gathering at these different overpasses and you're going to kind of drop by those places
00:12:55.140 as well so it should be an absolute party next week and for people who have been part of the
00:13:00.680 independence movement and you haven't done anything like this to go out and meet other
00:13:04.120 people it's a joyful experience isn't it Tyson it really is honestly like I said when we first
00:13:09.740 first started doing this like I said it feels like family community you know like I said I really
00:13:14.740 look forward to just seeing the smiles on people's faces every time I get out there like I said we
00:13:18.320 just have a great time you said it's so patriotic it is it really is Tyson thanks so much we'll
00:13:23.800 talk to you again soon. Thank you, John. Have a great day. Thank you. It has been quieter.
00:13:28.360 We don't have people out collecting those signatures right now, but people are still
00:13:31.560 doing things and you're going to start seeing things ramped up as we get to the point where
00:13:35.420 we do have a question on a referendum. This is going to come, folks. I want to thank Steve for
00:13:40.760 sending this link to Facebook. Steve's saying that they had a mirror day parade here. And let
00:13:46.700 me just read what he said to me. He said, canvassers and independent supporters got together
00:13:51.460 to take part in the parade creating a float. Mr. and Mrs. Albertan had the beast there too. We took
00:13:57.800 first place in the non-profit category and Albertan took second place. And here is the ribbon for
00:14:03.800 first. Let's move along here for some other pictures. There's Mr. Albertan and here is one
00:14:09.520 of the vehicles. Mrs. Albertan there with her flag. And of course people with a lot of beautiful
00:14:15.620 Alberta flags here. Dogs getting involved. There we go. People at the side of the road
00:14:22.120 and some video as well of people with their vehicles and all the flags. Thank you so much
00:14:27.200 for this. A couple of the ribbons on the wall. More video as well. Thanks a lot for this link,
00:14:33.400 Stephen. I do appreciate it very much. And here's from inside the vehicle as well as people went
00:14:38.400 down the street in mirror. I appreciate you sending that to me. If you've got any pictures
00:14:42.600 about Alberta independence and all, you can still send them to me at johnboltonab at gmail.com.
00:14:49.380 Now, there are events going on that you can go out to. And if you haven't been convinced that
00:14:54.600 Alberta independence is for you yet, you might want to go out to some of the events that Chris
00:14:58.280 Scott and others are doing for Let's Talk Alberta. Okay, but here's Let's Talk Alberta,
00:15:03.960 letstalkalberta.com. Some events that are coming up right here. We've got Wainwright coming up on
00:15:09.660 Tuesday, May 19th. The Arbitus Hall, Rocky Mountain House area coming up on the 20th.
00:15:15.440 This one, Round Hill on the 21st. We've got a chicken and rib dinner on the 26th coming up.
00:15:21.600 And there'll actually be some music played at this one as well. $50 at letstalkalberta.com,
00:15:26.840 the website I just told you about. And moving ahead for one in Sexsmith on Friday, June the
00:15:31.860 5th. More events going up on a daily basis, basically, from Let's Talk Alberta, letstalkalberta.com.
00:15:39.000 Now, I want to introduce you to somebody. We've heard about people being attacked when they were
00:15:47.700 out collecting signatures on petitions. We've heard about businesses that were friendly to
00:15:53.580 the independence movement, people trying to boycott them, stop people from going there
00:15:58.260 to have their meals and whatnot. And I met somebody on the weekend that has been back
00:16:03.820 and forth with me with email over the last, oh, I don't know, probably the last two months at
00:16:11.040 least. Let me show you a picture of my friend, Abraham. This is out in Canmore. That's Abraham
00:16:15.520 right there with his beautiful blue flag. And as you can see, other people with their blue flags
00:16:20.340 in behind. Abraham, very much involved in the independence movement, collecting signatures as
00:16:24.960 well. Here he is with his vehicle in Canmore, one of the most beautiful pictures we've seen of a
00:16:30.260 setup when it comes to collecting signatures. And here I am with Abraham just on Thursday night
00:16:36.120 when I visited his restaurant. Now, Abraham has had people trying to boycott his business
00:16:42.500 in Canmore because of him being involved in the Alberta independence movement. He's got
00:16:47.800 a fantastic restaurant. Here is their webpage right here. It's called the Bankhead Restaurant
00:16:53.980 and Lounge with some terrific food. I enjoyed myself very much on Thursday night with my wife
00:16:58.560 there. I went back for a great breakfast on Saturday morning as well. Had a terrific omelet
00:17:04.280 with the smashed potatoes, which I recommend as well. But if you can go out and support Abraham
00:17:09.680 in Canmore, drop by there and say, I sent you. He's a super guy. We had some great discussions.
00:17:16.260 And these are the type of people who are getting backlash simply because they want
00:17:20.680 a democratic vote on Alberta independence. Thank you so much for watching. I do appreciate it.
00:17:27.020 Send me your pictures, your videos, anything you've got left over from the Alberta independence movement.
00:17:32.160 I will try to focus on them on an upcoming independence calendar.
00:17:36.720 You can get in touch with me once again at johnboltonab at gmail.com.
00:17:41.640 I'll see you in the next independence calendar.