John Bolton - Independence Calendar - Episode #25 (May 24th, 2026)

00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John, and welcome to the Independence Calendar for Sunday, May 24th.

00:00:07.900 I hope you're having a great day today.

00:00:10.080 I'm recording this at 8 o'clock in the morning, as usual.

00:00:13.260 This is going up at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning.

00:00:16.220 It's a pleasure to have you here.

00:00:18.140 And this is going to be a little bit different this week.

00:00:20.460 I said a couple of weeks ago I might take a week off to retool the Independence Calendar.

00:00:25.340 I haven't done that.

00:00:26.520 I think it's important that we do this on a weekly basis,

00:00:28.600 but I think this has to change in a way.

00:00:31.540 The independence calendar started up basically

00:00:34.000 when we got into the petition signing

00:00:35.840 and I would show you a lot of pictures

00:00:37.300 of people out at the side of the road

00:00:38.700 collecting signatures, which was great.

00:00:40.880 But we have to move into strategy, ideas,

00:00:44.040 and how to move forward to win

00:00:45.640 because we have a question in the fall,

00:00:47.620 which I'm gonna get to in just a moment.

00:00:49.660 But what I want you to do now,

00:00:52.060 if you send me anything at johnboltonab at gmail.com,

00:00:56.280 which is my email address,

00:00:57.440 and you have an event happening in the subject line put upcoming event i get inundated with a

00:01:05.420 lot of email pin people are sending me great videos they're sending me links they're sending

00:01:09.780 me all kinds of information it's hard to get through all of it and i've been very bad this

00:01:14.620 week i apologize to you i didn't get to my email and i've just run out of time this week so this

00:01:20.820 is going to be a different independence calendar next week we're going to get to your stuff

00:01:26.400 on a deeper basis. Trust me, I'm going to do that. What I'm going to start off with this week is a

00:01:31.840 few things that are happening and a couple of things that are happening today. So if you're

00:01:35.700 watching this on Sunday, May 24th, here are some things that are happening today. I will be at this

00:01:40.620 event right here, starting at one o'clock. So if you're watching this around 11, at one o'clock

00:01:46.540 today, there is a slow roll happening here in Calgary. We want a lot of people out to this one.

00:01:52.320 As you can see, it starts at noon, meeting and finishing at Centennial High School parking lot, 55 Sun Valley Boulevard Southeast here in Calgary.

00:02:00.400 I will be at this one. I hope you can be there as well. I would love to meet you.

00:02:05.080 There is an event happening out in Edmonton or up in Edmonton. There is this one going on.

00:02:10.280 They've got a roll going on. They're also meeting at overpasses as well.

00:02:14.260 So you get a flag wave and a slow roll.

00:02:16.500 So this is going on today from 1 until 4.

00:02:19.880 Flag waivers at the Collingwood Road and Anthony Hende Overpass at 1,

00:02:24.800 or Lessard Road and Anthony Hende Overpass at 1 o'clock.

00:02:28.820 So you can wave your flags there.

00:02:30.620 And they're having a slow roll starting at 266th Street and 114th Avenue at 1 o'clock today in Edmonton.

00:02:37.260 So I hope you can be part of that as well.

00:02:40.500 Now, something else that's going on.

00:02:42.900 Let's talk Alberta.

00:02:44.200 More on that in a moment with Chris Scott.

00:02:47.440 But Let's Talk Alberta getting very busy. 0.98

00:02:49.780 Check out their calendar over the next week or so.

00:02:53.280 So this is what's going on starting on Monday.

00:02:56.180 They've got an event on Monday night in Brooks.

00:02:58.700 Then they've got their chicken and rib dinner in Lacombe on Tuesday night.

00:03:02.740 They're out on Wednesday as well.

00:03:04.480 They're out on Thursday.

00:03:05.680 And then when they get into June, they've got events coming up on June 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

00:03:11.420 So pretty much every day of the week, if you're interested in getting involved with an event with Chris Scott and Let's Talk Alberta, make sure you go to letstalkalberta.com.

00:03:21.640 So this week was a big week.

00:03:23.960 This week, we got a question for a referendum on a referendum.

00:03:29.460 And here's the question right here.

00:03:32.400 Feel free to read it.

00:03:34.220 A lot of people do not like the question.

00:03:36.120 A lot of people saying that Danielle Smith has pissed off everybody with this question.

00:03:40.480 but this is a referendum on a referendum coming up in October this year. This is not the up and

00:03:46.760 down vote on Alberta independence that a lot of people wanted. Now, the other night when I heard

00:03:52.160 her, because I was watching her like most of the province and probably the country and people

00:03:56.460 around the world, I immediately thought this, Premier Danielle Smith just sitting on the fence.

00:04:02.980 And that's what I initially thought when I heard her the other night and she gave us that question.

00:04:07.840 But after some thinking, some contemplation, I guess you could say, I ended up coming to the

00:04:14.520 conclusion that Daniel Smith may have saved the independence movement. If she didn't give us the

00:04:18.640 question you just saw, we wouldn't have a question at all. I asked Mitch about that in the interview

00:04:23.020 I did with him. He wasn't happy with that contention. I'm not going to show you that part

00:04:27.960 because I just want to show you the interview with Mitch and why he was upset with what Daniel

00:04:33.020 Smith said, but I think Danielle Smith was upset with the court ruling against Stay Free Alberta.

00:04:38.400 And this was the only thing she could do to allow us to have a question in the fall. So what else

00:04:42.420 have we got coming up on the independence calendar today? Sorry for the long preamble to this. I

00:04:48.620 spoke with Keith Wilson shortly after Danielle Smith gave us the referendum on the referendum,

00:04:54.000 a segment of that interview with Keith coming up. I do have a segment of an interview with Mitch

00:04:58.320 Sylvester. The first question I asked Mitch, are you pissed, Mitch? Absolutely. And then we're

00:05:05.060 going to have a bit of an interview with Chris Scott, Relentless for Independence. I did talk

00:05:10.860 with Chris, of course, from Let's Talk Alberta, as I mentioned earlier. Here's the thing, Chris,

00:05:15.140 I owe you an apology. It took us forever to get this interview in the can, and it was a good one.

00:05:21.480 But unfortunately, I spoke with Chris just prior to Danielle Smith making this announcement of

00:05:26.860 this question. So part of the interview was out of date, but we're going to talk about Let's Talk

00:05:32.180 Alberta and his plans moving forward when it comes to the independence movement. Let's start

00:05:37.100 off with the interview with Keith Wilson shortly after Danielle Smith announced this question for

00:05:43.420 the referendum on a referendum. That is why I'm announcing today that I will be requesting our

00:05:49.260 government add an additional question to the October 19th referendum vote announced previously.

00:05:54.340 The additional question will be, should Alberta remain a province of Canada?

00:06:00.280 Or should the government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution

00:06:05.240 to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?

00:06:11.940 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. Thursday, May 21st, 8.07 p.m.

00:06:16.660 It's past my bedtime, I have to say.

00:06:19.360 I'm usually up. I was up at two o'clock this morning, but this is an important interview right now.

00:06:24.500 And I'm so pleased and honored to have Keith Wilson joining me here to talk about what we heard Premier Danielle Smith say tonight.

00:06:32.920 So basically, Keith, what I heard her say is we're going to get a vote on having a vote.

00:06:40.720 That's what I heard. And I'm hoping that you can turn some lemons into lemonade here,

00:06:46.620 because there's not a lot of people happy with this right now.

00:06:49.940 We do get a vote, but I'm a little bit concerned about what's going on here. 0.92

00:06:53.020 I said online, Danielle Smith isn't sitting on the fence.

00:06:56.840 She is the fence tonight.

00:06:58.240 What are your thoughts?

00:06:58.820 What were your initial thoughts when you heard this this evening?

00:07:01.760 Well, it was a bit of a body blow, for sure.

00:07:05.480 You know, in my view, John, the reasons for Alberta to become independent are so compelling.

00:07:12.640 And I have yet to hear even one kind of half good reason why we should stay.

00:07:19.680 So if I were king for a day, I wish we could be independent tomorrow.

00:07:24.960 And that would even be waiting too long.

00:07:28.660 But when I sit back and I look at this strategically and I put my litigator's cap on and I try and be realistic about the playing field.

00:07:36.640 And what I see is, first of all, we've had the wild card of the courts.

00:07:42.640 And there's nothing that she can do or I can do to fix that.

00:07:45.940 So this strategy, and she was clear about that in her speech or her address,

00:07:51.100 that this is designed to try and mitigate the impact of that

00:07:53.940 while keeping us moving forward.

00:07:56.060 So I agree with that aspect.

00:07:58.640 Because the choice that people will have on October 19th now

00:08:02.120 is to vote to stay in Canada.

00:08:04.540 In other words, everything's fine.

00:08:06.260 We don't need anything changed.

00:08:08.540 Or, you know what?

00:08:10.320 I'm not I definitely you're going to be in two camps you're either going to be like you and me

00:08:14.800 clear as day the right thing to do which is to vote for independence so yes I want you the Alberta

00:08:20.360 government to hold a specific standalone referendum on the only one question stay or leave and that's

00:08:27.060 what I want you to do that's what I'm voting but then I know a whole bunch of people and the polls

00:08:33.020 bear this out who don't want to leave but are very unhappy with Ottawa this allows

00:08:39.880 those people imagine two scenarios john where in october 19th scenario a is that reluctant

00:08:46.600 separatist the reluctant separatist is given a choice stay or leave they're going to vote stay

00:08:54.340 now another scenario they're given a choice that they either vote to stay or they vote

00:09:00.940 to require the albertic government to hold an independence referendum that reluctant

00:09:06.820 um federalist that are you know reluctant separatist someone who's wants canada to work

00:09:14.340 but isn't happy at all can vote for that second question right and if we can get them to vote for

00:09:20.960 that we will have a few months to get them to go even further and the other thing that's going to

00:09:26.840 happen is two things let's be honest with ourselves and let's be really self-critical here

00:09:33.460 um we're all working hard tremendous effort by volunteers my wife was one of them canvassers

00:09:39.960 I saw how many hours she put in and how hard she worked and I know so many others just remarkable

00:09:45.300 but the reality is we haven't progressed from a grassroots campaign to a serious campaign

00:09:51.760 the truth is that the forever candidate group Lukasik and others have a campaign and they just

00:10:00.100 opened their campaign office and we don't even have a campaign on the independent side we've got

00:10:06.020 a lot of good intentions we've got a lot of volunteers we've got a lot of energy but we

00:10:11.000 don't have a sophisticated strategy so i really don't think if it was an up or down vote on

00:10:15.500 october 19th we'd win it i think we'd lose and it's all over so this gives us time to get our

00:10:21.620 act together and uh uh to to convince the people to make it that don't want us to leave but are

00:10:31.140 concerned about ottawa to vote for the referendum and then get them over to our side which is you

00:10:39.380 know what the right thing to do it'll allow the work of the transition council there's the alberta

00:10:43.680 transition council that i've been working on we had our first meeting last week and we're getting

00:10:47.860 underway. It'll allow for that white paper to come out that'll describe the details of how

00:10:53.100 Alberta can seamlessly transfer, transition from a province to nationhood. So it gives us a chance

00:11:00.400 to get our act together and get us in a winning position. Let me play it from Premier Daniel

00:11:08.660 Smith's side here and maybe defend her a bit. Now, don't throw anything at your screens if

00:11:13.520 you're watching this right now because people are upset. Was this her only play? Because our

00:11:18.560 petitions are held up in court. Lukasik's question, would it have been held up in court? Would there

00:11:24.920 have been court challenges for that? Would we ever get that question to a ballot on a referendum in

00:11:30.660 the fall? Was this her only play in this situation? So how I gamed it out, and I'd previously gamed

00:11:38.000 this out, and that's why I was able to react so quickly. I hadn't gamed out her question

00:11:42.020 because i didn't see that coming that was really creative i thought what i gained out was if she

00:11:48.280 announces tonight that on october 19th it's up or down vote in other words you either vote to stay

00:11:55.040 or leave just like brexit was stay leave and then the first nations the few of the chiefs that are

00:12:03.340 acting as political opportunists for ottawa in my view um uh convince another ottawa appointed judge

00:12:13.840 to shut down the provincial referendum then we're completely on ice yeah you know i'm gonna phone

00:12:22.000 you up and say hey let's go on a bike ride to banff man right yeah not that that's a bad idea

00:12:27.420 but you see that we'd be completely shut down yeah this the way she did it and i listened

00:12:32.740 carefully to her words she's right the courts can't touch this one and it keeps the power with

00:12:38.660 the people in the meantime and allows the rest of us to get our act together there's one more

00:12:43.580 variable too that's probably not obvious at all i'm a student of american politics i always follow

00:12:48.640 american politics really close one of the reasons i do that is it's my way of not getting overly

00:12:53.920 involved in canadian and alberta politics as i follow a country that i have nothing to do with so

00:12:58.000 one of the things that's happening right down in the us is the the midterms are coming up in

00:13:03.360 november and there's a lot of concern that trump's going to lose control of both the senate and the

00:13:08.300 house okay um and one of the issues that's a swing vote for independence is his treatment of canada

00:13:16.040 they see everything he's doing is hostile to canada and they they're angry at him for it they

00:13:22.040 don't realize that here in Alberta, we see him more as somebody who will help Alberta achieve

00:13:27.440 its potential. So he would be under a lot of pressure. So imagine we had the up-down vote

00:13:32.460 in October and imagine we won it. And then negotiations fall apart with Ottawa. They

00:13:38.960 block us through bad faith negotiations, which many of us expect they're likely to do. And then

00:13:44.180 we need Trump to recognize a unilateral declaration. And he can't because he's worried

00:13:50.260 is going to lose too many seats in the midterms, right? So we want that to happen after November.

00:13:57.140 So having a vote in February or March allows us to do a number of things that I think we can

00:14:05.300 make these lemons into some refreshing lemonade. The full Keith Wilson interview right here on the

00:14:11.420 channel. Now, overnight, I had a chance to think a little bit about what happened with the question

00:14:18.000 from Danielle Smith, our premier. So did Mitch Sylvester. I knew Mitch was not going to be happy.

00:14:24.680 And I'm including this segment, probably the first eight minutes of the interview I did with Mitch,

00:14:29.380 and you can watch the whole thing. It's on the channel. I'm including all of this for you,

00:14:33.440 because this is basically what Mitch told all of the volunteers and canvassers on a Zoom call the

00:14:39.380 other night. If you missed out on it and you didn't see it, this is pretty much the same thing Mitch

00:14:44.860 said then so i asked mitch are you pissed and here's what he had to say i want to i don't think

00:14:52.540 i've ever started an interview with a question quite like this but are you pissed absolutely

00:14:59.820 okay it's a good thing i did an interview last night okay so let's go back through the history

00:15:06.780 here i if you've got five minutes for this i this is very important so when we started the leadership

00:15:14.380 review when i was with take back alberta when we had fired jason kenny we fired jason kenny because

00:15:21.020 of all of the things that we're seeing again right now what we're seeing is a premier that doesn't

00:15:27.020 have our best interests at heart a premier that is saying all the right things but having a party

00:15:32.780 on the roof in the middle of lockdown so here we are in a situation uh where we and you know i mean

00:15:40.620 take back alberta was this was basically responsible for putting danielle in power

00:15:45.500 uh they had the original uh conversation and basically uh said that we would support danielle

00:15:51.900 and uh away we go so as a consequence to that as a as a northern leader for take back alberta i

00:15:57.100 hosted danielle about nine times okay so we've had multiple conversations uh and we've gone down this

00:16:03.980 path and and you know we started i hosted her for three premier's dinners uh you know i i've raised

00:16:10.220 more money for her than anybody in the first premier's dinner that i had for her it was after

00:16:15.580 she had won the leadership of the ucp and she was going into election so we hosted a premier's dinner

00:16:22.300 with 800 people at 250 a plate and i gave her 75 of the funds so that she could fight her fight

00:16:28.860 against the ndp to to win the to win the election we had the next premier's dinner we do all that

00:16:35.340 manner of stuff and in the meantime uh we're in contact and we're trying to build things we're

00:16:39.660 trying to get things going so after she became premier she comes out and she says uh that you

00:16:45.740 know alberta pension is a no-breaker all right and as as a leader of the independence movement uh

00:16:52.540 you know not at all at the same level i am now but as leader of the independent movement then

00:16:57.820 i said you know what that's one of the things that we're going to need uh to bring alberta

00:17:03.340 to make alberta free and independent nation is is a pitch plan so she goes out there and she said

00:17:08.620 this is an absolutely a no-brainer we go out there we do 100 town halls on alberta pension

00:17:13.260 based on that direction and we move the needle from 30 to 55 percent and then she backs away from

00:17:18.860 it okay then six or eight months later uh you know she's she's now elected premier uh she's

00:17:28.540 she's in full she's been in office for a year year and a half and um then our people are grumbling

00:17:35.180 i'm hearing grumbling from our people like she's been there for a year and a half to expect more

00:17:39.180 they're expecting more and nothing's happening so we have the opportunity to meet and i

00:17:45.820 explained to her that uh premier the people are not happy

00:17:50.780 and she said why is everybody so angry i said because you're not getting anything done

00:17:56.300 so i said you know what there's no silver bullets in the world but i think what we

00:17:59.180 should do is we should and this is just a suggestion and of course you're the boss

00:18:02.620 well you can make the decision we should do a new alberta bill of rights so we went down that path

00:18:10.060 and we lost rights it turned out to be an unmitigated disaster

00:18:15.580 we didn't and and our perspective my perspective was after the lockdown and covid we were going to

00:18:23.180 make this a feel-good moment for the ucp and for the entire province as far as i was concerned it

00:18:28.540 was a win-win there was absolutely no way that you know after all the lockdowns and all the

00:18:34.140 losses of rights and freedoms that we had that we shouldn't address that new alberta bill of rights

00:18:38.540 and i thought it would be a feel-good moment for the whole party for the whole province and

00:18:44.060 everybody and it was a win-win situation for every alberton so what do they do they take rights away 0.99

00:18:50.060 from us they pass this they put this stupid bill out and everybody goes nuts five days before the 0.91

00:18:57.260 sgm and we had basically gone out there and got all these people to come to the sgm based on the 0.98

00:19:05.500 fact that we were going to get gun rights your property rights um you know bodily autonomy

00:19:10.620 informed consent all of those things and they called me when i freaked out on the part that

00:19:16.140 this bill came out and none of that stuff was in it and i said you know what honestly

00:19:21.180 we'll make it better but this is like three days before the sgm and i was angry i said you know

00:19:28.620 what you guys this is not at all what we discussed this is not at all what we're doing

00:19:31.900 so they said oh we'll make it better after the after this they said okay we'll give you four

00:19:36.540 things we'll give you property rights uh gun rights bodily autonomy another thing whatever it

00:19:42.540 was oh informed consent have we got any of that no well well no just let me finish now it's just

00:19:51.020 couple more minutes okay okay so so here so then we we got this all done we got the sgm we brought

00:19:57.260 sixty five hundred sixty five hundred people to the sgm to support danielle smith and she wins

00:20:03.580 with a 90 plus percent approval rating so fine after it's all done they repass the bill exactly

00:20:12.460 in the same format they didn't change anything so i called them i said uh what are you guys doing

00:20:18.860 why would you not take this opportunity to make Albertans better off and take this opportunity to

00:20:26.840 be a big PR thing so that everybody's happy and you know what they told me we'll weather it okay

00:20:35.140 we don't care we don't care about people's rights we don't care about making people's

00:20:39.560 rights better we're gonna weather that so that's that's a second thing so now here we are running

00:20:46.280 in this we've got a whole bunch of people that want the free and independent alberta

00:20:51.480 they lower the threshold to 177 000 clearly telling us that this is something they want us to do

00:20:58.840 and then they get us to this point they send us out there to collect 300 000 signatures

00:21:03.560 we're running around doing their bidding absolutely following the rules and what was

00:21:09.320 those 300 000 signatures for so we could get a vote at independence so what now we have to vote

00:21:14.600 to have a vote on independence and here's here's the fly on the ointment now this was brought to

00:21:20.520 my very close attention a year ago they said okay so be aware that the longer they kick this down

00:21:28.200 the road then they're going to get into election cycle mode and then you can't have a referendum

00:21:34.120 in a year of an election so then they're going to say well okay if you vote for us

00:21:40.520 then uh we're going to give you a referendum which is gonna be two three years down the road

00:21:44.600 which is going to be exactly what the liberals and everybody else want so they're playing games

00:21:51.840 with us again so here's the same job okay okay okay i'm i'm i'm all right and so so absolutely

00:22:02.780 they're playing games with us the premier has 700 000 albert is telling her what they want

00:22:08.860 and it doesn't seem to make any difference so and i i basically clearly put this out to everybody

00:22:16.200 over there i said look this is how this is looking to me right now you're either globalist or you're

00:22:22.980 not okay so the lines are becoming clearer you're either on that side or this side and unfortunately

00:22:32.300 I just can't understand how, you know, the people that we pick and trust that are here from Alberta that put us on all of these paths, one after the other, got us running around, doing all the bidding, thinking all the while that if we do the work and do the work correctly and come in, you know, that we're going to get a vote.

00:22:53.700 and then they put this judge in and I mean let's not pretend that this is all accidental

00:22:59.780 this judge comes in here fixes in I told that to Jeff in private conversation as a matter of fact

00:23:07.620 Jeff wanted to to go to court I said Jeff don't bother going to court we're going to lose

00:23:11.300 it doesn't matter how good your case is we're not winning the fix is in they already know what

00:23:16.000 they're doing and I mean we're just talking between us here and to everybody else so I said

00:23:21.240 don't even bother going. So here we are, of course, that's the way it turned out. And now

00:23:26.840 our premier is using that court case to say, well, you know, we're going to break Aboriginal

00:23:34.340 rights. Well, it's clearly in the Canadian constitution that we're not. I'm sorry, say

00:23:39.200 that again. I missed a bit. So we're not infringing on Aboriginal rights. It's in the Canadian

00:23:44.220 constitution that this process does not infringe anybody's rights, including theirs. So what I'm

00:23:50.660 saying to you is it doesn't matter what the law is apparently in this country anymore and then they

00:23:56.300 use it to their very best advantage uh to absolutely quell and and suppress the people now

00:24:02.100 if you my phone rang every second uh last night for three or four hours our people are not happy

00:24:10.100 and that interview in its entirety is here on the channel i do challenge mitch a little bit

00:24:16.000 but Mitch and I are in good terms and he certainly always has a comeback and it was a pleasure to

00:24:21.500 talk to Mitch once again. Now, what are we doing moving forward? Well, again, if you do want to

00:24:26.300 get in touch with me, johnboltonab at gmail.com put upcoming event or words to that effect in

00:24:32.640 the subject line if you're sending me an event or an activity you've got coming up when it comes to

00:24:37.360 the referendum campaign, I guess is what we can call it right now. Somebody who's been very busy

00:24:42.380 and is getting busier is Chris Scott with his Let's Talk Alberta events happening around the

00:24:48.340 province. Very often if you go to one of these events, if you pitch in some money, you'll get

00:24:52.500 fed as well. I did talk with Chris. We did talk just prior to Danielle Smith making this announcement

00:24:59.300 the other night. My apologies to Chris for not using the full interview, but some of it was out

00:25:04.140 of date. But I did talk to him about his plans moving forward. And here's my discussion with

00:25:08.740 Chris Scott. I know when you speak, you speak for 15 or 20 minutes when you're at your events.

00:25:14.400 This is a very simple question, and I don't want you to go on for 15 or 20 minutes. But independence,

00:25:22.060 why? Can you answer that for me? Why are you somebody who wants independence? You know,

00:25:27.460 you're a bit of a, may I say, a folk hero from what happened through COVID, and people know you

00:25:33.420 because of that. You've risen up. I remember seeing you speaking back then, thinking here's

00:25:37.860 a guy who's a leader. I remember when that happened, but why independence for you? And

00:25:42.820 has anything just recently happened or was it, and you mentioned six years ago,

00:25:48.980 was it that that pushed you over the edge? It was kind of a, well, first of all,

00:25:53.780 thank you for those kind words. I really appreciate that. But it's kind of a hole in the bucket type

00:25:58.180 thing. You know, I got in a situation where the government, I was fighting the government.

00:26:01.820 I had to learn about that. What do I have to do? Well, you got to go through this process. And if

00:26:06.620 you don't like the laws, you have to get them changed. Okay, I don't like the laws. How do we

00:26:09.500 get them changed? And then you run into this situation with Alberta and Western Canada, where

00:26:13.900 it doesn't matter if we don't like the governance that we're under, we can't influence it. We can't

00:26:19.320 change it in this situation. So it's not actually independence that I'm after. Independence is

00:26:24.880 simply a means to an end. The goal for me is sovereignty. And that is Alberta, Albertans

00:26:31.580 being able to chart their own course forward without being determined by people that are

00:26:37.720 thousands of kilometers away from them that don't suffer the consequences of the policies they impose

00:26:42.740 on them. That's what it is. So what's the difference between sovereignty and independence

00:26:47.680 for you? How do you weigh those two things? Well, sovereignty is a concept. Sovereignty means

00:26:53.860 that you can make the decisions that influence your future as best we can as humans, which is

00:26:59.200 very little, honestly. Independence is being separate from the group that's making the

00:27:09.080 decisions. So sovereignty, Quebec has sovereignty. They really do. They act it, right? They live it.

00:27:16.980 They say, no, we're not going to, they actually passed legislation that said they're not going

00:27:21.920 to use the Clarity Act. Do you know that? Did you know that? I did know that. Yeah, this is their

00:27:25.820 concept they are they're sovereign they act it they live it um and they want to be independent

00:27:31.120 because that's full sovereignty but they're they're two distinctly different things independence

00:27:34.980 means you're you're you're on your own uh as like as a nation sovereignty means you can you can make

00:27:42.840 your own decisions and chart your own course forward what do you think um i i did a video

00:27:47.960 last week saying um carnie is going to throw us a bone and we got the bone um of course

00:27:54.000 Daniel Smith signing off on this industrial carbon tax. And of course, we've got to sign

00:27:59.780 off on a giant carbon sucking machine and all these things are happening before we ever get

00:28:03.780 a pipeline happening. What do you what do you think of this that's going on right now? That's

00:28:08.520 the bone that they threw us. They're trying to entice people to stay in Canada, trying to get

00:28:13.540 some of the independence people to move back to the other side. How are you feeling about what's

00:28:17.740 going on right now? And do you think any of this makes any difference? No, they didn't throw us a

00:28:23.000 own they actually clubbed us with something yeah they have this this anti-human agenda where human

00:28:28.580 beings should somehow have to be depraved of of things of energy and prosperity and for the for

00:28:34.540 the greater good and they've used this pipeline as a way to impose that on us i'm sorry but carbon

00:28:40.040 tax doesn't do doesn't do anything for us nothing good doesn't change the climate and and the 0.55

00:28:44.800 numbers speak for themselves you've seen it like the output of china and india compared to us

00:28:48.660 whatever um putting sucking co2 out of the air and putting in the ground we actually don't know

00:28:54.180 exactly what it's going to do we don't know the effect it's going to have on our farmland

00:28:57.540 um there's there's tons of evidence to suggest that we're actually carbon dioxide deficient

00:29:02.420 right now so this isn't this is absolutely not a win it is a trojan horse designed to confuse

00:29:08.420 and fool people into adopting and accepting policies that go against the very idea of human

00:29:13.940 flourishing while pretending it's about our prosperity it is not about our prosperity and

00:29:19.440 and and the rest of the world at the same time it seems to be moving away from this stuff and

00:29:23.580 carney seems to be doubling down on it at the same time yeah yeah it's not this isn't a it's

00:29:29.480 not a campaign for a greater world this is a campaign for greater government control that's

00:29:34.000 what it is and and we see it in a lot of the legislation that's coming out they all have

00:29:37.700 these little things hidden in them that take some of our rights and our liberties away and tell us

00:29:42.300 for our own good. I mean, looking back over history, we can find dozens of examples of

00:29:47.560 times this has happened to different societies, and it's never gone good. So these are the types

00:29:52.900 of things that we really need to talk about, because I believe that governments of all levels

00:29:57.520 are doing a very good job at confusing people and fooling them into accepting their own demise,

00:30:04.040 really. Well, you know, back during the COVID time, people wanted to speak out about what was

00:30:09.620 going on. Their speech was taken away. We're seeing that happening even faster now. I think

00:30:13.860 it was George Washington who said, if freedom of speech is taken away, then deaf and dumb, 0.97

00:30:18.940 we shall be led like sheep to the slaughter. And this is the kind of stuff that really concerns me.

00:30:22.860 I'm sure it does you as well because of what happened to you during the COVID years. When

00:30:27.280 it comes to the independence movement, Chris, I'm just wondering, what do you think we should

00:30:32.000 be doing moving forward other than getting to talk to people? How do we get the army of people

00:30:38.980 that we had out there for four months and sat out in snow drifts,

00:30:43.280 how do we get them involved with spreading the message of Alberta independence?

00:30:47.340 Because the other side is going to be heavily funded,

00:30:50.880 and I've said it to a number of people here on this channel,

00:30:53.680 heavily funded by government dollars, which is our money.

00:30:58.140 They're going to be using our money against the Alberta independence movement.

00:31:01.700 How do we get these people busy and get that message out there?

00:31:05.200 well you know big question huge question yeah and there's a lot of different specific action

00:31:13.620 items you could do like for instance you could get involved with let's talk alberta become a

00:31:18.440 regional or a community lead and and grow teams that are that are doing events and getting the

00:31:23.760 information out there we want to build a structure so that when people you know they want to talk to

00:31:28.500 a group of people well they have a structure and resources and things that can help them do that

00:31:32.620 that's what we want to do you can get involved in your um your your choice of political party

00:31:37.940 and work democracy from the inside out you can you know talk to your mla you can there there are so

00:31:44.800 many things that that we could be doing as individuals but the biggest thing is we we need

00:31:49.680 to decide each of us needs to decide where is it exactly that we want to go what is it that we want

00:31:55.540 to accomplish and we need to focus on that and we need to go there because as we go there there's

00:32:01.320 all these things that come from the sides and they distract us. There's a politician going to

00:32:04.860 save us over here and there's a pipeline MOU over there. Well, is it going to get us to that place

00:32:10.460 we know we need to go? No. Okay. We're going to keep going. And there's dozens and probably

00:32:16.980 hundreds of things people can do right now. But you mentioned the money thing, like they're using

00:32:21.240 our taxes. Unions compel their membership, their membership fees. They're using union money to

00:32:27.960 fight to fight this the status quo is well equipped well organized well armed and well funded

00:32:33.340 and that's what we're against so we really need to use every avenue possible you're out there all

00:32:38.780 the time chris how are you feeling about the way things are going right now well i have a different

00:32:44.680 perspective than some um i don't get terribly excited when things don't go my way anymore i

00:32:50.400 mean of course when traffic is bad i'm kind of cursing under my breath or above my breath in the

00:32:55.460 car. But I do believe that there's a bigger plan than what we could ever imagine. I believe that

00:33:01.900 it's a perfect plan. And that's why I say like with this referendum question, it's going to be

00:33:06.380 the question that we're supposed to be asked, period. If it delays the outcome that we want

00:33:12.580 by a year, that's exactly what's supposed to happen. And we, you know, myself, I just trust

00:33:18.220 in that plan above what I believe the plan should be. So I don't get too worked up.

00:33:24.580 It sounds like you're a stoic, but it also, when you're talking about a plan, are you talking about like a spiritual plan? Is that what you're looking at too?

00:33:31.060 Yeah, I'm talking, this is a capital P plan from a capital G God, and it's bigger than any of us could ever understand.

00:33:37.200 All right. Well, listen, it's a pleasure to talk to you. I have to have you back on the channel again. I hope things work out.

00:33:43.260 Chris, it's great to see you. Best of luck to you. Be safe out there. You're traveling around a lot. Say hi to the folks that you're out there talking with and out presenting with.

00:33:53.920 that you've got some great, wonderful people.

00:33:55.820 I want to get Zane Novak on and Ben Crane.

00:33:57.800 I enjoyed them when I was out in Delbron.

00:33:59.440 So I got their cards and I got their information.

00:34:02.080 I've had Corey on here.

00:34:03.740 You know, you've got Kathy Flett out there

00:34:05.140 and many other people.

00:34:06.300 So thanks very much for what you're doing.

00:34:07.980 And I'm glad I could finally get you on the channel.

00:34:10.280 I'll have you on again real soon, okay?

00:34:12.340 Sounds good. Thanks, John.

00:34:13.400 A great discussion with Chris.

00:34:14.960 I'll have him back on the channel real soon

00:34:16.780 along with a lot of other people

00:34:18.440 as we get into the referendum campaign.

00:34:21.220 A reminder again,

00:34:22.460 I'll see you at 1 o'clock at Centennial High School parking lot, 55 Sun Valley Boulevard, on May 24th,

00:34:29.140 which is today, if you're watching this, on Sunday, May 24th.

00:34:33.080 I hope to meet you there.

00:34:34.420 Let's have a great rally, a great slow roll.

00:34:37.040 It should be a lot of fun.

00:34:38.740 The independence calendar will change.

00:34:40.520 It's going to be different over the next couple of weeks.

00:34:42.400 I'm going to retool it.

00:34:44.900 Obviously, as we get into the referendum campaign, I want you to participate as well.

00:34:49.400 More on that coming up in upcoming weeks.

00:34:51.780 Thanks for watching the Independence Calendar. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, ring the bell for notifications. I will see you in the next one.

John Bolton - May 24, 2026

Independence Calendar - Episode #25 (May 24th, 2026)

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