John Bolton - February 02, 2026


INDEPENDENCE gets a BOOST from an unexpected source - Rath sets the record straight


Episode Stats

Length

11 minutes

Words per Minute

194.30656

Word Count

2,166

Sentence Count

142

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary

In this morning's show, John talks about Jeff Rath's interview with Vashi Capellas, and why he thinks she's a traitor to Canada. Also, John takes a look at what it means to be pro- and anti-Independence in Alberta.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel 438 AM, Monday, February the 2nd. Hope you're having a
00:00:07.980 great start to your Monday morning. Thank you so much for clicking on this video. I do appreciate
00:00:12.540 it. I want to talk shortly about Jeff Rath's interview with Vashi Capellas, which a lot of
00:00:17.720 people were talking about last night. I don't know that it went viral, but it certainly got a lot of
00:00:23.820 discussion. And depending on what side you're on, whether you're pro or anti-independence here in
00:00:29.080 Alberta, Jeff was either awful in this interview, like Andrew Leach says here, or he was really on
00:00:35.980 his game, as Marty up north says in this tweet on X. I tend to agree with Marty. I think he did a very
00:00:42.440 good job in this interview, but I think people are missing a couple of things. And I want to talk
00:00:46.460 about those this morning. I'll get to one in just a moment and one a little bit later on. The one later
00:00:50.920 on was something that had me thinking, does Ms. Capellas actually believe that what she's talking
00:00:56.380 about here is possible? And by extension, do Canadians actually think what she's talking about
00:01:01.920 is possible? Which is a little bit like this, okay? If you get my drift, okay? So I think Jeff did very
00:01:09.360 well here. A lot of people tell me that they think Jeff is a little too bombastic. Jeff has said that
00:01:16.860 he's rather bombastic to me. But I think we owe Vashi Capellas, this is something I took from this
00:01:25.100 interview that other people aren't getting. I think we owe Vashi Capellas a great debt of gratitude. I
00:01:32.060 think we should send, meaning the independence movement, her a very nice bottle of wine because
00:01:36.020 she gave Jeff Rath a chance to dispel some myths and talk about some things that have been in the media
00:01:41.140 over the last week or so. Now, the first thing was this discussion about people in the independence
00:01:48.280 movement talking to Washington and getting a line of credit with Washington. As David Eby said,
00:01:55.860 those people, meaning the independence leaders are traitors. And by extension, anybody who's part of
00:02:00.900 the independence movement in Alberta is a traitor to Canada. And this is the first thing that Jeff
00:02:07.480 addressed with Vashi Capellas. And here's what he had to say. Hi, Mr. Rath. It's great to meet you.
00:02:12.280 I appreciate you making the time. Well, I really appreciate you having me on today. Thank you.
00:02:14.980 I listened to some of the interviews you've given to other media this weekend, and you were disputing
00:02:19.220 the reporting that garnered all that reaction from the premiers. And I wanted to actually just get
00:02:23.660 you on the record. Oh, sure. The Financial Times piece, I'll stay for the record. It was fake news.
00:02:28.900 I was very, I'm very careful with anybody to say that we haven't been offered any money by the United
00:02:32.920 States. We're not seeking money from the United States. We're conducting a feasibility study
00:02:37.120 on the availability of a sufficient credit facility to get Alberta over the hump in the hypothetical
00:02:43.640 eventuality that Ottawa is going to play hardball and try to cut off our money once Alberta declares
00:02:48.780 itself independent from Canada. No money has changed hands. But if you're sitting on the fence when it
00:02:55.680 comes to the Alberta independence movement right now, listen to the answer to the next question that
00:03:01.700 Jeff gets from Vashia Capellas here. She does ask him who he's meeting with. He basically wants to
00:03:09.660 keep that confidential. He is not talking to Donald Trump. But of course, the trade issues with the
00:03:16.020 United States have to come up. Do the people in the independence movement understand what's going on
00:03:20.960 here, Jeff? You have to understand the issues we've had with the United States. Listen to what Jeff says
00:03:27.940 about how Alberta is being treated by the United States as opposed to the administration in Ottawa.
00:03:36.160 Listen to this.
00:03:37.020 Can you understand how on the face of it, Canadians would view some Canadians outside of the ones that
00:03:42.620 support your cause, who are not necessarily unempathetic to the frustrations expressed by
00:03:47.820 people in this province, but who would view the idea of, you know, people here meeting with
00:03:53.580 a government that has, you know, spoken the way it has about this country as a whole as problematic and
00:03:59.660 seeking money to make this happen?
00:04:01.800 I understand that there's a lot of Ontarians and people in Quebec that suffer deeply from Trump
00:04:06.660 derangement syndrome, but we're not doing anything untoward. It's absolutely, you know, from our
00:04:11.020 perspective, we're just conducting due diligence on behalf of our fellow Albertans. We're serious
00:04:15.160 professionals. I mean, I'm, you know, I've argued cases at the Supreme Court of Canada, for goodness sake. I mean,
00:04:19.620 you know, we take what we're doing very seriously. And obviously, the attitude of the United States towards
00:04:24.660 Alberta independence, which incidentally is overwhelmingly enthusiastic, is something that informs our
00:04:30.860 movement going forward. And quite frankly, the Trump administration shows Albertans far more respect than is shown to
00:04:36.780 Albertans by the government in Ottawa. Do you think three of us could get a meeting with Tim Hodgson to talk about the
00:04:41.400 need for a pipeline to the Pacific Northwest so that David Eby can't continue to hold us hostage? Of course not, because they
00:04:48.060 want us to be held hostage. We get more respect in Alberta from the United States administration than we do from the
00:04:55.300 administration in Canada, which kind of takes me back around to the reason I want Alberta to leave. I think I've said
00:05:02.280 before, if you were to ask 10 people who want Alberta independence, the number one reason why they want us to leave
00:05:07.480 Canada, probably all of them would say money. And I think that's a big reason why we want to leave. But really, to me, it's
00:05:13.780 number two on the list. Number one is, and I've called Canada this before, Canada is the country of
00:05:19.980 no. We get no respect from Ottawa. We get no respect from Canada. We want to build things. We want to get
00:05:28.340 things done. That's what Alberta wants. We want to get our products to other places in the world. We want
00:05:33.800 to become more prosperous. And what do we hear from Ottawa? No, you can't do that. And if we leave, we won't
00:05:39.540 have to ask anymore. We can just get things done. Ottawa sees Alberta as their bank account. We get no respect.
00:05:47.900 So if you're sitting on the fence, think about that. Okay. And then we get on to this. Vasya goes on to say that,
00:05:55.860 well, what are you doing here, Jeff, when it comes to this line of credit? Are you moving from one master, meaning
00:06:01.740 Ottawa, to another master, the United States of America? And this is what Jeff had to say.
00:06:07.040 To the people who support your movement, are you not kind of moving from one master to another?
00:06:11.840 The entire world runs on credit. How much does Canada rely on the United States? If Secretary of Treasury...
00:06:18.600 Sure, but you're pitching independence.
00:06:19.520 No, no, just let... So what? If Secretary Besant wanted to end Canada tomorrow, it would take one memo to all of the bond
00:06:27.400 rating agencies, Moody, Standard & Fitch, and Poors, to say that Canada's a poor risk because of all the various things
00:06:34.020 that the United States is going to do with Canadian credit, and Canada would be over. So Canada is being
00:06:39.320 supported by the United States. So just stop with this silliness and try to create this conflation
00:06:44.740 somehow or other between the Alberta independence movement and, you know, being beholden to the
00:06:49.860 United States. I know it's a fear-mongering talking point of the mainstream media with regard to Alberta
00:06:54.440 independence, but we're not buying into it. It's ridiculous.
00:06:56.380 In this last clip, and I'm going to play a short little bit of the clip you're about to watch in
00:07:01.940 just a moment, because there's something really interesting here that I saw. I don't think other
00:07:05.900 people are catching on to. See if you catch it. But it's sort of the theme of what we're getting
00:07:11.380 into here. Vashi talks to Jeff here and says, listen, you're convincing people you're going to be
00:07:16.480 truly independent, but you're not because you're going to be dealing with the United States.
00:07:21.100 Listen to what Jeff has to say. My point is you have convinced people and lots of them who have
00:07:26.780 stopped me here that, you know, what is what awaits a separate and free and independent Alberta is
00:07:32.620 true independence. No, there's no such thing as true independence. Do you think your supporters
00:07:37.280 understand that? Stop interrupting for a second. 90% of our trade is north and south with the United
00:07:41.880 States of America. So all of this phony, we hate the Americans. Canadians should be afraid of
00:07:46.940 Americans. Alberta must be completely independent from the United States of America.
00:07:50.720 We don't live in a vacuum. So even the premise of your question, quite frankly, and with respect,
00:07:55.140 is quite silly. So you don't, so you, you basically don't envision, for example, ever being
00:08:00.640 like truly free for, of the United States, even if the administration switches. The premise of your
00:08:05.380 question is completely silly. I, nobody ever envisions a day where the Alberta economy is completely
00:08:14.000 decoupled from the economy of the United States of America. 90%, nine zero percent of our trade is
00:08:19.640 north and south. So that's not going to change if a Democrat gets elected. All of our relationships,
00:08:24.960 business relationships, familial relationships, et cetera, will remain. That doesn't make us less
00:08:30.520 independent. I mean, the premise of your question, again, with respect, is quite silly.
00:08:34.180 I'll take it. That's okay. I'll leave it on that note.
00:08:36.060 Jeff is trying to explain to her that even with an independent Alberta, we will be dependent on other
00:08:43.120 countries, just like every other country that does trade is dependent on other countries. Alberta does
00:08:49.660 90% of its trade with the United States of America. That's more than Canada does. What is it? 75, 80%.
00:08:55.940 But Ms. Capellas just won't have it. And this is, you know, Jeff calls her silly,
00:09:02.440 but I'm almost thinking she's slipping into the realm of stupidity when she talks about this,
00:09:08.300 because for some reason, she seems to think Alberta can rid itself of any dependence on any other
00:09:14.600 country. And that includes the United States of America. And I started thinking, does she think
00:09:19.120 Canada can do that? Because I know so many of the elbows up people that don't want anything to do
00:09:23.920 with the United States of America. And that's never going to happen. She actually says this,
00:09:28.440 and this is what really struck me from this final question that she asks of Jeff Rath. And here it is
00:09:34.020 again, again, slipping into the realm of stupidity here. So you, you basically don't envision,
00:09:39.240 for example, ever being like truly free for, of the United States, even if the administration
00:09:44.540 switches. The premise of your, I mean, a Democrat could be elected. The premise of your question
00:09:48.440 is completely silly. I tend to agree with Jeff that some of the questions were rather silly,
00:09:53.560 but I'm glad she asked them. It allowed him to get information out there, particularly about the
00:09:58.940 line of credit. I had a lot of people this week say, I wish they'd never brought it up. It's going to
00:10:03.400 drive people away from the independence movement. No money has changed hands. This is just part of
00:10:08.440 the process. I do think we should send that bottle of wine to Vashi Capellas because she asked some
00:10:14.620 good questions. And I think it did a great service for the independence movement. I think Jeff did very
00:10:19.880 well here. I think he should shy away from talking about Ottawa and its masters in communist China.
00:10:26.740 I don't know that I included his comments like that from this interview in the clips that I showed you,
00:10:31.340 but he did mention it a couple of times. I tend to want to lean towards the positive aspects of
00:10:37.540 Alberta independence as opposed to bashing Canada and the Canadian government. I know that's hard to
00:10:42.960 do because we do have grievances, but I don't think you're doing yourself a great service by talking
00:10:49.160 about that in these interviews. But overall, it was a good interview. What do you think? How do you
00:10:53.620 think Jeff did? And do you think this helps the independence movement or it impedes the independence
00:11:00.100 movement and drives people away from it? Let me know in the comments. If you like the video, give it a
00:11:04.120 thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, ring the bell for notifications. I will see you in the next one.