John Bolton - Referendum Campaign Day 1 & Putting Pressure On Premier Smith

00:00:00.000 It's Friday, May 29th. The game is afoot.

00:00:07.820 Hi, it's John, and welcome to the channel 410 AM, Friday, May 29th. I hope you're having a

00:00:13.360 great start to your Friday. I appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. I think today

00:00:17.840 this video might help a little bit. I'm concerned about unity in the movement. That is really my

00:00:24.320 main concern right now, because without unity, we can't win a referendum, and the game is afoot.

00:00:28.940 More on that in just a moment. I woke up this morning shortly after one o'clock wide awake. I

00:00:34.860 got out of bed around 1 30 so I'm going on three hours being awake and I was thinking about four

00:00:40.060 different dates and here are the dates on the screen right here. May 29th and October 19th

00:00:45.880 and November 20th and 27th. I'm sure you're aware of these first two dates. They're quite obvious to

00:00:51.500 people involved in the independence movement but what about the second or the last two here? I'll

00:00:55.880 explain those to you in just a moment because I think they're significant and I think they're

00:00:59.320 useful. Yesterday, Danielle Smith, she really got things started, folks. We're in the midst of a

00:01:05.900 referendum race right now, and this is the order in council from yesterday. You got two options

00:01:12.740 on the 19th of October. Option one, Alberta should remain a province of Canada. Option two,

00:01:18.640 the government of Alberta should commence the legal process required under the Canadian

00:01:23.360 Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should

00:01:28.420 separate from Canada. And as you can see, it's signed by Danielle Smith, the Premier of Alberta.

00:01:34.840 I think it's safe to say that Danielle Smith has pleased no one with this question. I wanted an

00:01:40.240 up or down question on independence on October 19th, and this is what we got. What concerned me

00:01:45.900 right off the top was this. I thought that this was a referendum on a referendum, but not only

00:01:52.020 that we are campaigning for another campaign and it's going to get exhausting folks you know four

00:01:57.480 months sitting in the snow is one thing and then having to campaign for five or six months to win

00:02:02.200 option b in danielle smith's question which was announced officially yesterday and then maybe

00:02:07.360 another campaign for another six months or so to actually get the up and down question and some

00:02:14.000 people are concerned that she won't even do that they think she's a backstabber they think there's

00:02:19.280 a deal with Carney on not having a question and that's why I think November 20th and 27th will

00:02:25.160 come in handy the third and fourth dates that I showed you earlier which I'll come back to in just

00:02:30.040 a moment. It's funny though I've been up since around 1 30 and I started watching video. I

00:02:37.620 watched my interview with Mitch Sylvester right after Danielle announced this question

00:02:43.100 and he was upset more on that in a moment and then I went back and I watched Keith Wilson

00:02:50.080 who talked about this and I asked him about turning lemons into lemonade and that's what

00:02:56.340 this video is about because I think I can even advance that to turn it into a very sweet lemonade

00:03:03.500 in just a moment this is what Keith said about the question that's coming up and how this might

00:03:08.480 be an advantage for us. Imagine two scenarios, John, where on October 19th, scenario A is that

00:03:15.760 reluctant separatist, the reluctant separatist is given a choice, stay or leave. They're going to

00:03:23.640 vote stay. Now another scenario, they're given a choice that they either vote to stay or they vote

00:03:30.700 to require the Alberta government to hold an independence referendum. That reluctant

00:03:36.580 federalist that are, you know, reluctant separatist, someone who's wants Canada to work,

00:03:44.220 but isn't happy at all, can vote for that second question. Keith is probably right. It does give

00:03:50.300 us some more time to get people to our side. A lot of people agree with what Keith is saying here.

00:03:57.040 But you know what, I've become more of an all of the above type person. And all options are on the

00:04:03.100 table over the last four or five days, particularly after watching Mitch on Jason Levine's show with

00:04:09.660 his wife, Paula, yesterday. Great interview. Link in the description. What does Mitch want? What

00:04:16.020 does Jeff Rath want? Jeff's on a rampage on X. I wish he'd stopped doing that, but he's on a rampage.

00:04:21.520 Jeff and Mitch feel like they've been betrayed here, and I understand that. This goes back a

00:04:26.100 lot further than the independence movement. But what do they want? They want an SGM. Do you know

00:04:32.220 what that is. Don't feel bad if you don't know what it is. I knew what it was. It's called a

00:04:37.900 special general meeting as opposed to an annual general meeting. More on the annual general

00:04:44.220 meeting in just a moment. A special general meeting. So what they're trying to do is rally

00:04:50.540 the troops in order to have a special meeting to get rid of Danielle Smith. And this is all

00:04:55.660 happening in the background. Now, my initial thoughts were, why are we wasting our energy

00:05:00.180 going after Danielle Smith when we could be focusing on the question. Are you worried about

00:05:05.560 an SGM? Are you worried about this actually happening? You know what? It might make the

00:05:09.980 summer a little more exciting if this happens in August, because let me put it to you this way,

00:05:16.200 folks. Nobody's thinking about politics as the weather gets warmer. I'm not thinking about it.

00:05:21.120 What am I thinking about doing on Friday, May 29th, the first day of the independence referendum?

00:05:25.620 I'm thinking about getting out on my bike.

00:05:28.720 And if I'm thinking that way,

00:05:30.100 most people aren't going to be concerned

00:05:31.820 about this referendum probably till September

00:05:34.620 when the kids go back to school.

00:05:37.620 Are you putting any energy into worrying

00:05:40.340 about a special general meeting on Danielle Smith?

00:05:44.500 No, other people are.

00:05:46.320 That's happening behind the scenes.

00:05:48.240 I'm not going to show you how the sausage is made here.

00:05:52.040 And are you taking your eyes off the prize,

00:05:54.760 winning the question on October 19th that was announced officially by Daniel Smith yesterday.

00:06:00.820 No. So if they SGM Daniel Smith, I don't give a damn. Go for it. Because I still focus on what's

00:06:11.100 going on in October. Now, there is something that's kind of dangerous here that I want Mitch

00:06:16.980 and Jeff to think about. A lot of people like Daniel Smith. They're the people who don't

00:06:24.740 pay much attention to what's going on right now they don't know about the betrayals that jeff

00:06:32.100 and mitch talk about they just like danielle smith and you may piss a lot of people off

00:06:38.020 if you vote to get rid of her right now that's my concern about this now let's go back to my dates

00:06:45.780 May 29th, obviously that is today, the first day of the Alberta independence movement's

00:06:55.920 referendum. Okay. October 19th, you know, that date, that is the date of the actual

00:07:03.080 referendum question. Now, what is November the 20th? Well, that's one month after October 19th.

00:07:10.740 And I think what we need to do here, and this could have been handled this way from the very

00:07:14.140 beginning, but this is my thought process. I think we need to walk out right now because people are

00:07:21.680 concerned that if we win this thing on the 19th, Daniel Smith is going to stab us in the back and

00:07:27.080 not schedule an actual referendum question up or down on independence in an election year. That's

00:07:33.960 what they're worried about. We need to go out right now and say, listen, we've got this question

00:07:40.680 on October 19th. And when we win this question, we expect Danielle Smith within one month to give

00:07:49.360 us a solid date and question on an up or down on independence in Alberta. One month. And that would

00:07:57.980 be November 20th. She has until that date. What happens on November the 27th? This happens.

00:08:06.300 This would be the UCP annual general meeting. You've been asked to sign up as a member of the

00:08:13.420 United Conservative Party. I would suggest you still do that. I've done it. My wife has done it.

00:08:19.280 $10 less than 10 minutes of your time. If we don't get the question that we want and a date

00:08:25.600 within a month of us winning in October, then you can use your UCP membership at the BMO Center in

00:08:32.520 Calgary between November 27th and 29th. Daniel Smith knows what that means. I do have that

00:08:39.280 concern of a special general meeting because you might piss off people who like Daniel Smith and

00:08:45.280 they might not vote in our favor on the 19th because of it. As long as that's happening in

00:08:52.000 the background and isn't a distraction to me and you when it comes to winning the question in the

00:08:57.300 fall. As far as I'm concerned, let it happen. They still have to rally the people in order for an SGM

00:09:04.240 to happen. Could Mitch and Jeff maybe change to my strategy as opposed to the one they want?

00:09:11.040 They want the question changed, I believe. I don't know whether that's even possible,

00:09:16.240 and I don't think it is. But as far as I'm concerned, let them do their thing, but back off

00:09:22.100 on all the negativity here. Let's keep this positive. It's day one of the referendum campaign

00:09:28.100 and I'm focusing on winning it. But I am going for a bike ride today. Thank you very much for

00:09:34.540 watching. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel,

00:09:38.300 ring the bell for notifications. I'll see you in the next one.

John Bolton - May 29, 2026

Referendum Campaign Day 1 & Putting Pressure On Premier Smith

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