John Bolton - February 02, 2026


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

Topics
alberta independence movement and US credit discussions
Hosted by
John Bolton
Mentioned
Jeff Rath Vashi Capellos David Eby Marty Andrew Leach Donald Trump Tim Hodgson Besant Poors John
Something’s Off… Are We Repeating Last Year’s Chaos？ - Are we in a DOOM LOOP？ Team CANADA is DEAD! Done, deceased... stone cold GONE

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

194.31

Word count

2,166

Sentence count

161

Harmful content

Toxicity

8

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

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

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

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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. 0.96
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 0.99
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. 0.97
00:08:34.180 I'll take it. That's okay. I'll leave it on that note. 0.67
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, 0.91
00:09:02.440 but I'm almost thinking she's slipping into the realm of stupidity when she talks about this, 1.00
00:09:08.300 because for some reason, she seems to think Alberta can rid itself of any dependence on any other 1.00
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, 1.00
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, 0.98
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. 0.86
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.