John Bolton - Keith Wilson on INDEPENDENCE - Get ready to Vote Alberta

00:00:00.000 help them understand there is a process, that this is a safe path, it's a viable path,

00:00:07.200 and it's one that by every measure will lead to them, their children, and their grandchildren

00:00:13.420 having a better life and a better future. Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. I hope

00:00:21.120 you're having a great day today. I do have my big blue mug of coffee. Thank you so much for being

00:00:26.540 here today. And I've got another one of my interviews in a series of interviews with people

00:00:31.660 when it comes to the independence movement here in Alberta. And I think it's going to be interesting

00:00:35.840 today because I don't believe Keith Wilson, who my guest is today, is a member of the Alberta

00:00:41.380 Prosperity Project, but he's a strong advocate. As a matter of fact, when I introduced him at the

00:00:46.840 legislature in Edmonton on October 25th, he had written down in his bio, fearless advocate for

00:00:53.340 Alberta's sovereignty. But I also think we can get an interesting perspective from Keith because Keith

00:00:58.440 was a lawyer who represented people involved with the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. I think Tamir Leach was

00:01:04.520 one of the people he worked with. So I think we can get an interesting perspective on the independence

00:01:10.180 movement here in Alberta compared to that. And also talk to Keith about independence in the aftermath

00:01:17.040 of what happened over the last week. And that would be the budget from the Liberal Party, which I think

00:01:22.480 is going to be a catastrophe for Alberta and Canada as well. So I'd like to welcome to the channel,

00:01:27.660 Keith Wilson. Thanks, Keith, for being here. I do appreciate it.

00:01:31.200 John, great to be here.

00:01:32.800 Well, Keith, you know, I met you for the very first time at the Alberta legislature on the 25th.

00:01:38.440 Amazing, amazing day for the I Am Alberta Independence Rally. I didn't have a chance to talk to you very

00:01:44.640 much. I know we've been trying to set up an interview to talk to you about the independence

00:01:48.520 movement here in Alberta. Just just your thoughts on what happened that day. I wanted to get your

00:01:52.580 insight. Well, it was inspiring. You know, that rally was organized on very short notice. And

00:02:01.840 normally to get that kind of a turnout would require six to eight weeks. It was less than three.

00:02:09.800 You know, people had already made plans for other things. So we would have had more numbers

00:02:16.100 had we given more notice. But it was inspiring to see the number of Albertans that took the time

00:02:23.940 from to drive from various parts of the province to stand in what could have been a cold that really

00:02:29.200 cold, you know, miserable November day. But fortunately, it wasn't. So I was very impressed.

00:02:34.760 Yeah, it was it was a wonderful day. And just looking out at the sea of blue flags was pretty

00:02:39.640 remarkable. So I went back and watched what you had to say. I watched it earlier this morning,

00:02:44.500 I was standing right beside you on on the stage, and you opened up your speech in Edmonton saying,

00:02:49.440 there is a darkness if we don't make the right choices. What did you mean when you said that to

00:02:55.300 start your speech in Edmonton? Sure. Well, the unfortunate reality is the trajectory of Canada is clear.

00:03:04.760 And it's not good. And each week that goes by, and if it's not each week, it's each couple of weeks,

00:03:12.080 and some weeks, it's several things within a week, remind us of that. What we've just recently had is

00:03:19.100 the budget. And we've got the, you know, the largest deficit ever. When you when governments print money,

00:03:28.400 when governments borrow money, they devalue the value of your own money in your bank account and

00:03:35.160 your paycheck, they make the cost of living more expensive, they make everything that much more out

00:03:41.100 of reach, they harm the middle class. We have the federal laws relating to censorship that are coming.

00:03:53.260 And soon we may not be able to have these discussions because they don't like what we have to say.

00:03:58.820 The hallmark of civilization, the hallmark of humans, of our ability to progress is our ability to engage in

00:04:07.760 free speech. So the disastrous, ideologically driven policies of the federal government, we have the largest,

00:04:18.640 the third largest reserve of oil and gas in the world, we have the potential to be richer than Saudi

00:04:23.880 Arabia or Dubai. Yet, the federal government has deliberate policies to stop our potential. So when

00:04:33.860 you look at all of these things, we're moving in a very dark direction. It's very troubling. There's many

00:04:41.020 other examples I could give. But that's a flavor for some of the difficult situation we're in and in

00:04:50.000 the dark direction that Canada is going. And hence, the opportunity and the reason why Alberta should 0.71

00:04:58.220 free itself from this madness and set a course of freedom and prosperity for Albertans and our kids.

00:05:03.780 You kind of led me into my next question, because I've done a little bit of homework on you,

00:05:07.520 Keith. Sure. I was watching some videos earlier this morning, and it took me back to one that

00:05:13.120 Ezra Levant did with you about seven months ago. This is just prior to the federal election. And I

00:05:17.820 actually, this is paraphrased a little bit, but pretty much what you said, a quote of what you

00:05:22.480 said to him regarding Mark Carney. Okay. Because Carney had just been, I guess, just, he just got his job

00:05:30.880 as the prime minister at this point. But you said, if he follows through on the things he's written

00:05:34.560 about in his books and his policies that he holds near and dear in his heart, net zero and all this

00:05:40.460 other extremist nonsense, that also his wife holds dear to her heart, Jibo and Trudeau are going to

00:05:46.180 look like a cakewalk, unquote. Now, how are we doing? You mentioned the budget. You've talked about,

00:05:53.400 you know, the things that are hurting Alberta from an independent standpoint. How are we doing after

00:05:58.920 this budget? It just looks like a nightmare and a catastrophe to me. Well, I think what I now see in

00:06:05.860 Carney, because he was a bit of a chameleon, right, going into the election, is my assessment of where

00:06:14.760 things stand right now is Mark Carney has not given up on his green utopian vision of the future, has not

00:06:22.980 given up on his alarmist paranoia, scary monster, oh my God, you know, climate change may result in a net

00:06:34.160 average temperature change in a year of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Yeah. The horror of it.

00:06:41.380 And so, but he's, there's an element of him that's a pragmatist and a realist. And what he's doing is

00:06:53.620 he's looking around the world and he's seeing a number of countries moving away from failed green 1.00

00:06:58.540 policies and seeing the economic carnage and the destruction of their industrial base and their job

00:07:03.840 base and their wealth creation and employment and realizing some countries are moving away from this

00:07:11.460 green agenda. But he thinks he can be the role model, that Canada rather can be the role model and he's

00:07:21.260 going to show them how to do it. And we're going to be the guinea pig and we may not survive the cage.

00:07:28.960 Right. Do you think, do you think this will push more Albertans to the independent side? You know,

00:07:36.800 I've heard you say, Jeff Rath, I just did an interview with him. He said the same thing. You've

00:07:40.620 got 35% of the people in the province of Alberta who are wanting independence. You've got 35% who are

00:07:48.040 dead set against it, against it. You've got those people in the middle and those are the people we

00:07:52.360 have to woo to the independent side. Do you think this budget may have pushed some people over the edge

00:07:56.200 here? I don't know yet. Cause you know, budgets always take some time to, to have impact. It's

00:08:02.500 unless there's immediate tax increases or immediate, immediate things like cut rid of the luxury tax

00:08:12.640 on yachts and aircraft. And I know that that's, that's what all my neighbors are talking about.

00:08:19.760 Their biggest concern, like give me a break. Well, to the liberal, to the liberals, groceries are a

00:08:25.080 luxury and we have to pay a lot more for them, but it didn't. It's part of our sacrifice for the

00:08:30.580 privilege of having them governance. Yeah. And so it's critically important. I, you know, I've said

00:08:39.780 before a number of times that I honestly believe that whether or not Alberta separates will largely

00:08:48.000 be determined by what Mark Carney does and doesn't do. And I'm now convinced that he is still the Mark

00:08:55.760 Carney of the book of values and that he is going to have disastrous policies. Um, so, so I think where

00:09:06.220 the people in the middle that are going to decide whether Alberta becomes independent, those are the

00:09:11.760 ones that are going to push us over the number in the referendum. Um, the more bad, the more bad

00:09:20.940 things that Carney and his liberal government do that bring the harms closer to home and impact families,

00:09:29.480 the more people are going to say, what's really going on here? And is there an alternative,

00:09:36.620 an alternative path available? And that's where those of us in the independence movement have to

00:09:41.720 be there for them and not shout at them, not call them dummies, not say it's obvious, but rather help

00:09:49.840 them understand there is a process that this is a safe path. It's a viable path. And it's one that

00:09:58.080 by every measure will lead to them, their children and their grandchildren having a better life and a

00:10:04.020 better future. I I've said here in my channel many times before, and you know, I've got family that

00:10:09.080 live out in Ontario. Yeah. I, I don't want things to go South for them when it comes to being in

00:10:14.360 Canada, but I've said that Canada's demise will result in Alberta's rise. Do you think there just

00:10:19.980 has to be a little more pain in the rest of the country, which will result in more pain here in

00:10:24.520 Alberta before people finally catch on? Well, it depends if you're asking me, are you asking me if the

00:10:31.160 people in Ontario are going to catch on that they actually need Alberta? Well, I think I, you know

00:10:36.460 what? I don't know whether they do. I don't think people, I'm from, I'm from Ontario, Keith, and I

00:10:42.320 never understood Alberta until I moved here. And it became quite evident to me quite quickly. This was a

00:10:48.200 different place. This is a whole different mindset, the people who live here. And I don't think of the

00:10:53.060 people in Ontario do understand what we're about out here. I don't think they understand why we would

00:10:57.060 want to leave. I don't think they understand in Ontario, how important Alberta's money is to 0.85

00:11:02.140 their province into the country. I really don't. I believe that to be true. I believe all those

00:11:06.880 things to be true. Yeah. I've observed that myself. So, you know, I think, um, I think the reality is

00:11:14.720 it doesn't matter, you know, the people in the other parts of the country are just gonna

00:11:21.180 mosey along with their lives. Um, and it's really, the driver is going to be how Albertans feel

00:11:30.240 about the options that are before them.

00:11:32.880 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I'm wondering, I was thinking about this this morning. Um, I think you're very

00:11:40.100 proud of the fact that you represented people with the Freedom Convo. I think Tamara Leach was one of

00:11:44.560 those people. And I was wondering if you had a different insight on the independence movement out

00:11:50.540 here, because I see some similarities here. I was very much on the side of the convoy and, and, but

00:11:56.720 there was like a demarcation point between the people who believed in the Freedom Convoy and those

00:12:01.280 who didn't. I mean, they were vehemently opposed to the Freedom Convoy. Do you see a similar thing

00:12:06.280 like that when it comes to people who are against the independence movement here? Because the people I

00:12:10.580 saw at the Alberta legislature, they're in a hundred percent, but then there's the other side that are,

00:12:16.200 well, almost angry and insulting to the rest of us who think we want something differently. Do you,

00:12:21.260 do you, do you feel that way as well? Oh, for sure. I mean, we're polarized, right? I mean,

00:12:26.180 that's a phenomenon of the modern, modern era and around the world, uh, the tribalism that we see and,

00:12:33.480 uh, the, the, the lack of people in the middle and, and everybody kind of picking a Jersey and

00:12:41.080 eminently so, um, you know, one of the things that was unique about the Freedom Convoy protest in

00:12:48.960 Ottawa and all the people who supported it across the country, who came out and lined the highways

00:12:55.040 and the overpasses, that was not organized. Yeah. That was people, individuals spontaneously

00:12:59.880 making the decision that they wanted to go down and support the convoy and encourage them.

00:13:05.180 And when I've spoken to many of the people that over the last number of years that were on those

00:13:10.320 overpasses and along the sides of the highways and incredibly treacherously cold, brutal conditions,

00:13:16.420 many of them, when they went down there expected to be the only one on the bridge and they got there

00:13:23.800 and there was thousands, right? Yeah. So, but where I see a parallel is one of the things that I

00:13:31.060 observed firsthand through my work assisting and representing the leaders of the Freedom Convoy on

00:13:37.920 the ground as I was, uh, during the three week, uh, protest in Ottawa was why, why did it function

00:13:46.180 so well internally and logistically? And the reason was everybody had the same, the same mission

00:13:54.520 statement. No one wrote the mission statement down. They had all got to the mission statement

00:14:00.160 through their own experiences. And so, uh, everybody was results focused, mission focused. It was

00:14:06.740 spectacular to watch and observe. Um, and I think we're seeing the same thing with the freedom

00:14:14.120 movement, the independence movement rather in Alberta is that people have come so many people

00:14:19.720 who are supporters, the people who turned up at the rally, the people who, who have signed up the

00:14:25.720 hundreds of thousands that have signed up and pledged to be part of the, um, the petition drive for the

00:14:33.320 referendum. Um, they too have come to a conclusion on their own and not an idea that was put to them

00:14:41.000 by others. And as Pascal once said, people are far more persuaded by ideas that they come to on their

00:14:47.240 own than ideas that are put to them by others. So I think as more and more Albertans realize the harmful

00:14:54.080 dark path that we're on under the Kearney liberals and that the only way out of it is for Alberta

00:15:01.820 independence and that it is viable, they will, they will acquire that same drive and mission focus

00:15:08.780 that we saw in Ottawa in 2022 during the Freedom Convoy protest. So only to follow up on that, you said

00:15:15.100 confident, confidently at the Alberta legislature that we will have a referendum in 2026. Um, and, and

00:15:22.840 basically to, to follow this up and maybe put two questions I was thinking about together,

00:15:27.140 the forever Canadian petition that's passed, will that be the thing that triggers our referendum or

00:15:34.320 will it be the question that is still, um, I guess, um, involved in the courts right now?

00:15:41.480 Let me try and break this down. Cause I can see the amount of confusion and also anxiety that there

00:15:45.940 is about what is the impact of, uh, Fabio Lukasic's, um, uh, petition calling for a referendum on a

00:15:57.500 question to, to stay in Canada. What is the, uh, implication of the current court case where the

00:16:06.680 chief electoral officer is asking the court to review the constitutionality of the referendum

00:16:13.460 petition question prepared by the Alberta prosperity project, the interplay between the citizens

00:16:21.360 initiative act, which both the Lukasic group and Alberta prosperity project are utilizing

00:16:28.400 the referendum act that the province and the premier would use to actually call a referendum

00:16:35.180 and the federal clarity act. So let me break this down. Sure.

00:16:39.460 And hopefully put some minds at ease. There will be a referendum next year. The only party that can

00:16:47.120 initiate a referendum, and it's always been the case is the premier through her cabinet,

00:16:54.320 the Alberta government, the, the, so at any time it's not in dispute that the, um, that the premier

00:17:03.400 and her cabinet at a cabinet meeting can pass an order in council calling for there to be a

00:17:07.740 province-wide referendum. They can set the nature of the question, uh, about whether it's about

00:17:13.380 independence, whether it's about a provincial police force, whether it's about immigration,

00:17:17.680 whether it's about, uh, provincial pension plan, any other things that they've been discussing at

00:17:22.680 her Alberta next panels. So, um, however, there's an additional triggering mechanism to cause her 0.97

00:17:33.600 government, premier Smith's government to potentially hold a referendum on independence, which is the

00:17:38.740 citizen initiative process. But whoever goes through that pathway, whether it's Lukasic and

00:17:47.520 the forever Canada crew or the independence group through Alberta prosperity project at the end of the

00:17:54.820 day, what both of them do is cause the premier and her cabinet to say, all right, are we holding a

00:18:03.580 referendum? When are we holding it? And what is the question going to be? So Lukasic has effectively,

00:18:11.360 um, shortened the process and expedited the process for there to be a province-wide referendum

00:18:20.880 on independence. Thank you very much, Thomas Lukasic. He did not think this through. It's quite

00:18:25.860 remarkable. Uh, and, and that's why I was tweeting about it extensively and congratulating him and

00:18:32.000 thanking him for, you know, so, so partly it doesn't matter what the outcome of this court case is

00:18:39.860 regarding the constitutionality Alberta prosperity project, because we already have a trigger

00:18:44.720 to cause the premier to cause the premier to say, okay, what's the question going to be? Now, when

00:18:51.120 she goes to phrase the question in her cabinet and the league constitutional lawyers at Alberta

00:18:57.960 justice advise the cabinet, they're invariably going to say, well, it has to be a legally valid question

00:19:03.920 that you put to the referendum, which means it has to comply with the federal clarity act.

00:19:10.700 And the federal clarity act is a by-product of the 1998, a Supreme court of Canada decision on Quebec,

00:19:17.140 uh, succession. So, um, that act directs that it has to be a clear question about the intention of

00:19:25.260 the province to leave and the intention of the people of the province to form an independent country.

00:19:31.100 So she would be expected, the government would be expected to form a properly legally valid question.

00:19:39.700 The only difference would be if she drafts it in a way that's driven by Lukasik is those of us who

00:19:48.320 want independence will vote no. In other words, do you want to stay in Canada? It would be no,

00:19:53.840 but I don't think you can draft it that way to comply with the clarity act. So we're, we're going to have

00:19:58.340 a clear question. Now, another reason why the Alberta government and the premier need to hold a referendum

00:20:07.340 in 2026 is because she has said repeatedly that she will. The government has laid down clear expectations

00:20:18.980 of what the federal government needs to do in terms of this incredibly harmful laws, the ideologically

00:20:28.440 extremist laws that they've passed, the no more pipelines, the tanker ban, the, um, greenwashing

00:20:37.400 legislation, the production cap, the net zero, all of these different things. And because if, if the

00:20:45.760 government, the federal government doesn't repeal that they are going to harm the Alberta economy,

00:20:51.260 it's not only that we're not going to grow, we're going to shrink. Okay. So, um, she needs leverage

00:20:59.780 and the only leverage that exists that I can see is the risk that the federal government has of losing

00:21:09.920 sugar daddy and sugar daddy is Alberta. Alberta generates the, the most amount of wealth and taxable

00:21:20.840 income and tax revenue of any province in Canada. The auto industry is not significant compared to the

00:21:28.520 wealth. Everybody thinks, Oh, the auto industry, that's an Ontario centric view that doesn't hold

00:21:33.200 up to the facts. Right. Yeah. I have, I have about eight minutes left here. Um, I don't, I don't expect

00:21:40.780 you to get into Daniel Smith's head. I talked to Jeff Rath. I asked him the same question. Does the

00:21:46.660 forever Canadian thing trigger, um, a referendum? He said, basically said, yes, you said we are going

00:21:53.420 to have a referendum in 2026. Why doesn't Daniel Smith just do it? I just don't understand. And I,

00:22:00.960 and as I said to, uh, to Jeff, I'm getting a little impatient with the lady and I, and I like Daniel

00:22:05.340 Smith. Well, um, I'm going to guess. Okay. I think because she's, she's very intelligent

00:22:13.980 and she realizes, and she's situationally aware and she realizes right now, if we hold the vote,

00:22:21.340 it's not going to pass. And she realizes there's that middle third, right? We've got the third that

00:22:27.500 are going to vote for independence. Even if you kidnap their dog or their cat. Yeah. We've got

00:22:32.240 the third that are never going to vote for independence. Even if you gave them a brand new

00:22:37.080 electric vehicle and a million dollars. Yeah. And then you've got the third in the middle of

00:22:41.320 they're going to decide success. And those third in the middle are going to be cautious by nature.

00:22:46.100 They are, and they're going to have wanted before they're going to be prepared to vote yes,

00:22:53.620 or to vote to become independent. They're going to need to be satisfied, deeply satisfied that the

00:23:01.920 premier of the province exhausted every single viable avenue to, uh, cause the federal government

00:23:12.180 to take its knee off our neck and stop the federal government from robbing our children and

00:23:19.380 grandchildren of their future. They're going to need that. Um, of course, the third of us that

00:23:25.820 it's clear that that's where she could go. We're like frustrated go now. Well, why go now? You know,

00:23:32.800 it'd be like the kids anxious for, uh, us to, to get the vacation going and, you know, drive them to the

00:23:39.440 lake, to the beach. And we know we don't have enough gas in the car to make it to the beach.

00:23:46.400 It doesn't matter how enthusiastic those kids are. We're going to have to stop and get gas.

00:23:51.540 We got to get more people on board. So I think it's why I could be wrong about the premier's

00:23:56.440 motivation, but I, I believe that the course she's taking is the right one. I think if she moves too

00:24:02.680 quickly, um, that we won't achieve the goal of, of independence. And my hope is that in fact, that

00:24:09.900 the referendum isn't in the spring, my hope is that in the fall, because I think we've got a lot of

00:24:14.720 work to do. A lot of Albertans have important questions that still need to be answered.

00:24:18.280 Correct me if I'm wrong. Are you suggesting that maybe she's trying to make it easier for us to

00:24:22.120 get a win on this? I don't think it's that, uh, no, I wouldn't phrase it that way. Okay. Yeah. I

00:24:28.980 think, I think that, uh, no, but seriously, John, I think that she, um, she wants what's best for

00:24:38.920 Alberta and, uh, she's prepared. This is my assessment of things. Um, she's prepared to

00:24:47.000 have that be a reset in the relationship between Alberta and the rest of Canada. That's fair to

00:24:52.580 Alberta that allows us to be prosperous, that allows us to continue to contribute to the,

00:24:57.120 the, the four other provinces that we provide 20% of their provincial revenue to Manitoba,

00:25:03.040 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and, um, PEI. Uh, but I think she's also prepared not to sacrifice

00:25:12.900 Alberta's future and just let the Laurentian elite and the Ottawa ideologues harm us. Yeah. So she's

00:25:21.260 picking the most sensible path forward to maximize the chances with both options. That's, that's my

00:25:27.780 read of, read of what's happening. I think what, I think what I'm hearing you say is she's trying to

00:25:31.780 exhaust all the possibilities to remain within Canada before she thinks about being without 0.66

00:25:37.420 Canada. I think that's probably where you're going. So I appreciate that. So I just got to wrap things

00:25:42.440 up here, but is there anything you'd like to add? Is there anything that people are missing when it

00:25:46.100 comes to the independence movement out here that's not talked about very much? Can you think of anything

00:25:50.240 like that? Well, yeah, I think what, what all of us have to do who are supportive of independence

00:25:56.720 is help inform others. It's remarkable to me. Uh, maybe it's because I have an undergraduate degree

00:26:03.880 in political science. I worked in government for nine years and, you know, I've done all these other

00:26:07.040 things in my career, but people really don't understand the basics. You know, they think crown

00:26:12.280 land means federal land. They don't realize that Albert owns all the land and owns all the minerals.

00:26:16.420 Uh, they don't understand that the federal government actually doesn't do anything for

00:26:21.380 hospitals. There's not a single doctor, single hospital or single hospital bed of the federal

00:26:25.760 government. You know, most of what, um, happens around you in your daily life in Alberta is done

00:26:33.080 by the Alberta government or your municipal government and, and, and just help people understand

00:26:38.200 how this really isn't as scary as it might sound. It's going to be not that difficult for the Alberta

00:26:44.340 government to take over the few functions that the federal government admit currently administers in our

00:26:50.100 lives. And we're probably going to be able to do a better job. We're not going to be the disaster

00:26:53.660 like they've been with administering our Canadian armed forces and how they've got that. So, uh, just

00:26:59.380 at every turn, uh, try and help people around you who aren't yet decided and would not yet vote for

00:27:06.900 independence as to why they should. Okay. Yeah. Um, Keith, I didn't touch on everything I'd like to touch

00:27:12.800 on today. I hope I can have you back again real soon. I appreciate what you're doing. Um, I appreciate,

00:27:18.340 um, your clarity on this as well. It's so nice to be able to talk to all the people and some of the

00:27:23.300 big names when it comes to the independence movement here in Alberta. Um, all the best to

00:27:27.500 you. And again, let's get you on again, real soon to talk more because there's so many more things to

00:27:31.460 chat about when it comes to how we move forward towards independence here in Alberta. Thank you.

00:27:36.320 Thank you very much, John. I appreciate the opportunity.

00:27:38.560 If you liked the video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel,

00:27:42.060 ring the bell for notifications. I will see you in the next one.

John Bolton - November 11, 2025

Keith Wilson on INDEPENDENCE - Get ready to Vote Alberta

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