The Independence Calendar (Episode #15) - March 15th, 2026
Episode Stats
Words per minute
171.24258
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Hate speech
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Summary
In this episode of the Independence Calendar, we talk about the most northern petition signing pop-up in the world, a letter from a Yuma, Alberta resident, and a part of an interview I did with Mitch Sylvester about this upcoming court case.
Transcript
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yeah we're in edmonton guys these guys are on gateway boulevard right now taking signatures
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hi it's john and welcome to the independence calendar for sunday
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March the 15th, episode number 15, and beware the Ides of March. I hope you're having a great day
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and I hope you've had a great week as well. Thank you so much for clicking on this video
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and thank you so much for participating. You inspire me. I tip the big blue mug of coffee
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to you today. We got a lot of great stuff this week. You've been awesome with your submissions.
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We'll certainly get to those. Got a different segment this week. We're going to focus in on
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the most northern most petition signing pop-up in the world.
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but this one is probably the farthest north in the world.
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Still a lot of people saying that to me when I get email.
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if you do send me an email at johnboltonab at gmail.com, I try to read all of your email. I
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cannot respond to all of them. And generally, if I do respond, it's pretty short because I get so
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much email here. I've got some new songs coming up, okay? Now, one of them is inspired by me and
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my friend Busker James from last week at the pop-up thing we did at the Auburn Bay Dog Walk
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Park where we had the Bouncy Castle. Also, we've got a song called Alberta Stands from Chantel,
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which I'll have at the end of this video, which is really good. Done with AI. Got a letter from
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an Independence Calendar viewer in Yuma who signed up some people. I want to read this letter to you
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because this is an issue that is becoming bigger and bigger by the week. In fact, we had some
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people from Alberta going to meet King Charles this week. So that gives you an idea what this
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letter is about. I'll have that for you. I think you're going to enjoy that. Also, we'll have a
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part of an interview I did with Mitch Sylvester earlier this week about this upcoming court case.
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I'll put a card at the end so you can watch the whole thing with Mitch, just a short segment of
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that coming up. Let's head over to the website right now, stayfreealberta.com. And this is the
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place you want to go for any questions or answers. You can go over there to request to sign the
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petition. They will come out and find you if you can't make it to a petition pop-up. If you can't
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it out. You're a shut-in. They will come to see you. So click on that button, request to sign
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petition. Of course, you can always donate. And as they say, they've got about 263 signing
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locations available right now. It's funny, I went down here earlier. I think there's more than that
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right now, but you can always just click on here. If you're looking for Medicine Hat, you can put
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in MED and Medicine Hat will pop up. Let's see if there's any highs in there. A couple of highs here
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in Alberta. Yeah, High Prairie and High River as well. So very easy to search the database.
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Now, I did get a letter and some information in here from somebody.
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Jeff, he said, I'm pleased to say we have an indoor signing location at Blairmore serving the Crow's Nest Pass community.
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One day they get 11, but they're out there doing their job.
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A man traveling through to Cranbrook, B.C. for work, but lives in Alberta, found us because of the Stay Free Alberta location finder.
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And he says, thanks for your significant part to keep us informed and motivated.
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And I said this last week at the dog walk park.
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I said, we all can do just a little small thing, which turns into something very big.
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Now, what I want to do here is move on to some unusual things, okay?
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I'm going to do this, I think, on a weekly basis, as long as these things keep coming through.
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And here's something I would consider a little bit unusual.
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Now, this is from the Stay Free Alberta website.
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So if you're a registered canvasser for Stay Free Alberta with a badge,
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and you're available to canvas in texas email events at stayfreealberta.com then we've got
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this event right here let me just find my information on this side so i can tell you
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about this yeah calgary beddington community canvassing group headed by ellen scott regional
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leader has this event coming up beddington's blue mile make it happen three signing tales
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tables rather east side of nose hill 14th street northwest north of the winter club and what's
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wonderful about this is, look, they've got like a Saturday social afterward. This is becoming
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a social activity at Madison's Pub, 8120 Beddington Boulevard in the Northwest. So well done to the
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folks for putting this together. Now we've got Bob. Now Bob has a signing location out on the
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Trans-Canada Highway. Check this out. Bob says a food truck has set up beside them. Now he got back
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to me. They're at the Renfrew Recycling Center on the Trans-Canada just east of Deerfoot, top of the
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Hill. He says, I'll see your bouncy castle and raise a food truck. So a number of pictures here,
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some really good looking food, Bob. He says, they just set up beside us and they're lucky to be
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able to have this fantastic food. Now, I want to talk to you about this one. This is Zama City,
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the bison cabin, signing up to this opportunity, March 13th, 3 to 7, Saturday, March 14th. So the
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days have gone by, but this has got to be the most northernmost place in all of the world for
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signing. Check out this cabin. They've got the Alberta sign out there for a signing location.
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And where exactly is Zama City? Well, let's start off in Calgary, where I am right here
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in the southern part of Alberta. There is Edmonton right there. And Zama City, let's go up,
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look up look way up here is Zama City way up here in northern Alberta so congratulations and well
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done to Kirk in Zama City you have to be the most northern most place in the world where you can sign
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the petition thanks so much for that now I want to bring this to your attention I will be part of
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this my good friend Albertan and Mrs. Albertan are putting this on on the 21st and that would
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be next Saturday. The Spring Road Rally, signature hunt to the whistle stop. Every signature counts.
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Who will get the most? We've got people from Calgary and Edmonton and Red Deer. And what we're
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going to do is we're going to go out and we're going to try to get as many people to sign the
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petition as possible to be the winner. Here are more details right here. If you want to be part
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of this, I'd love to meet you. If you'd like to come out with your vehicle and go on this event
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with us. Be at Calgary, in Calgary at Deerfoot City. Go north on Highway 21 at 10 o'clock on
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March 21st. Edmonton at the Bonny Doon Mall. Okay. And then Red Deer at Peter's Drive-In.
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But I'd love to see you there and you could be part of this competition. And we're going to end
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up and say hi to Chris at the Whistle Stop Cafe at 5.30 p.m. And that should be a lot of fun.
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I'd like to see you there. And thanks a lot to my friends Al and Mrs. Al for sending that
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information to me and inviting me to that event. Now, there are a lot of other things going on.
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Let's take a look at some of the other events and activities
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with the petition campaign continuing here in Alberta.
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Pop goes the province right out the back of your mind
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Pop up independence, sign while you were passing by
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Goes the province right out the back of your mind
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One day you look up, we're regarded for in line
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Pop-up independence, some of you are passing by
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So many great signing places and events happening around the province. Thanks to
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everybody for working so hard for the signatures. You are the heroes of the independence movement.
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A little bit of a common thread here, a theme in this next segment, and it's regarding something
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that's popped up specifically this week, more so this week, I guess I could say. And it's going to
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lead us into the interview I did with Mitch Sylvester. Of course, we've got this court case
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coming up on April the 7th, and this is because of Indigenous people challenging the petition
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campaign. So I'll have a segment of that interview I did with Mitch earlier this week. There's been
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stories like this popping up over the last week. Treaty 6 chiefs, Air Alberta separatism concerns
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with King Charles. And then there's this one as well that just popped up today, separation speed
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bump negotiating with First Nations. What happens here, folks, is separation, and then there is
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negotiation. That's how it works when you consider the Clarity Act, which we're following here.
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I find it fascinating, though, that the people who say that they were colonized and how they speak
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so terribly against the monarchy because of colonization and stealing their land have run
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for safety to King Charles. Don't you find that rather unusual? I certainly do. Now, it leads me
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to a letter I got in this week. And I try to read what I can when it comes to email, but I get a lot
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of them. And I can't always respond. But I wanted to read part of this one because this continues
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along with the theme. And I actually asked Lori if I could read this to you, and she gave me
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permission. So let me read a little bit of this to you. Hi, John. I'm a canvasser for the Stay
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Free Alberta Independence Petition. Thank you, Lori. I listen to you every morning, but I wanted
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to tell you something that I found very uplifting. I came to Arizona and California for a vacation
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from February 15th until tomorrow, March 11th, when I returned home to Calgary. I've been
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collecting signatures down here just by reaching out to people on Facebook and a few friends. I
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don't have a ton, only 26 signatures, but what I wanted to tell you, and I think this is really
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great news, I had a couple meet me this morning at my hotel near Yuma, actually close to the border
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of Algodones, Mexico. They were going to wait to go back to Alberta to sign in April, but they heard
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the news about how the indigenous are trying to block the gathering of signatures. These people
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that came to see me drove two and a half hours just outside of Lake Havasu to sign the petition
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and, and, and they are indigenous. I had a great conversation with them and they are so angry at
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chiefs for doing what they're doing and said that the indigenous relatives that they have and others
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that they know are for alberta independence she told me the indigenous peoples know how
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corrupt their chiefs are she said so much corruption she had to come out and sign even
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if it was only two signatures i thanked her for traveling so far and she thanked me i'll keep
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their names anonymous well lori thank you so much for the letter i appreciate it you've got 26
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signatures in Yuma? I think most of us would think that's pretty incredible. And we've had so many
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places down south collecting signatures on the petitions. And one way up in the north as well,
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which we talk about on this independence calendar. Thank you so much, Lori. We appreciate it. And
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we're hearing a lot of that. And I said on a video last week that there are a lot of Indigenous
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people who feel the same way as these people who signed with Lori. And we need to hear their
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voices, but, and you get my drift here, we need to see their faces because we want to work with
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them. We want a better life for Indigenous people here. It's the first time in the history of
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Indigenous people in this country, they will have a chance to negotiate themselves a better deal.
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And that's what the independence movement wants. That's what Mitch Sylvester wants.
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That's what I want. That's what you want. So let's go on now. Let's hear from Mitch.
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we talked about this upcoming court case, just a short segment of a longer video. I'll put a card
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at the end so you can watch the whole thing. We've got this court case coming up. Now, first,
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can you just explain to me, is it Stay Free Alberta that's in court, or is this
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Indigenous group going after the Alberta government? Can you explain that to us?
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Well, it's definitely Stay Free Alberta, for sure. And the provincial government, I think,
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is uh going to weigh in on it okay um yeah i mean because it's their citizens initiative act
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so they're going to have to win and right now if this holds true the act is dysfunctional
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so so there's no way there's no way that even in the spirit of anything uh gathering a you know
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petition signatures for anything should be against any rules um and no matter how because i mean just
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by itself gathering the signatures doesn't affect anybody's rights first of all so our people are
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thinking we can win this court case however i'm not that confident uh based on the rulings that
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have been coming from the supreme court and from courts uh you know in canada lately based on
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anything that aboriginals seem to bring up they seem to be able to come out on top of that so
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we're we're going to not take a chance and the court case is between april 7th april 10th
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somewhere to that point and we're going to collect signatures right up until that very day if we can
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on okay because the thing the thing that that dawned on me when i saw this really well produced
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video you did the other day i met the guys who did it on the weekend it was just terrific
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look great sounded great very to the point was i knew that this was coming up but all of a sudden
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it seemed like there was some additional urgency because you put that video out and i was wondering
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have you heard from your lawyers that you've got a good chance of losing this thing and that's the
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thing that went across my mind well you know how this actually happened i was a way to value you
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i i had done the video before uh we were aware of it we we had done the video as a precautionary
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thing because we're we're able to access the studio at the time and the further down we got
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closer to the date the more i started to realize that if we don't act now we're in legitimate
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danger of not being able to actually have the signatures to trigger this referendum
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So we wanted to make sure that we're above and well above
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to the elections of Alberta or the provincial government,
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And I'm not even sure if there are more nations.
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So if they win this thing, does that mean the end to this process?
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Because they don't think the province should be allowed to do this at all, from what I understand.
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Well, yeah, the premier can call this any time she wants, with or without the referendum.
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So what I'm saying to you is we want to make sure that we're well over the 177,000 threshold
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at that point. And then if we win the injunction, then we'll, you know, if we win our court case,
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then we'll continue to collect signatures right to the very end, which will be made safe. So right
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now we're doing this and we're going to use our signatures, you know, based on the results that
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we have in the situation that's in front of us. But I don't want to be caught in a situation where
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we can no longer collect signatures and we don't have enough. So if we don't win and have enough
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signatures, this process does not end. We will still have a referendum if the premier calls for
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it, just to be clear. I would absolutely expect it to go forward. Okay. So what's the drop dead
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date? I've heard anywhere from March 26. You said right up until the 7th of April. Don't you need a
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period where you need to count these things, put them in order, put them in boxes to have them
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ready to go. What is the drop dead date here for getting signatures as far as you're concerned?
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Well, as far as I'm personally concerned, I would, you know, I mean, the injunction is to stop you
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from collecting signatures. Right, right. We've got, we've got, we've got so many seconds to turn
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that stuff in. So I would suggest that, you know, part date would be the day that we, that we can
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start counting these signatures, but we want to make sure we have them and understand this. I
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It's just like when, you know, when we take a chance and when I organize that rally on the steps of the legislature,
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If a thousand people show up, you send a message.
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If 17,000 people show up, you send another message.
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If we get 179,000 signatures, we send a message.
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If we get 360,000 signatures, we send another message.
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So I just want to understand, it's up to us what message we want to send.
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and we're working very hard and our people are you know working going door to door doing whatever's
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required now to get these signatures we we've lit a fire under the group I'm really happy to see
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the kind of reaction we're getting and you know what I think everybody's excited about it the fact
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that we're being challenged in court on something that should be a lawful process has upset a lot
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of our people and justifiably so it's upset me you know that's why we're that's why we're moving
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forward on it and thinking, no, we're not going to allow this.
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First off, I want to say thank you. You really came through this week. Last week,
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we didn't have as many submissions and I got lots of them this week. And what's really
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interesting, the further we get on in this process, every calendar, we see pictures from
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even more far and wide, and you're going to definitely see some of them here. If you'd
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like to send me anything independence-related, johnboltonab at gmail.com. Let's get into your
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submissions. Elaine with this incredible truck. I love the little sign there, handwritten on the
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side. Cut all ties with Ottawa. And we see this quite often. Faith, freedom, and family. Thank
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you, Elaine, for that. Laura sent this picture of this old school Republic of Western Canada hat
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from the 1980s. Thanks so much. Kind of memories of the National Energy Program, as Laura said in
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her email. Her message to me said back then that Petro-Canada meant, now think about this,
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Pierre Elliott Trudeau rips off Canada. That's great. I like it. Thanks, Laura. Terrence and
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his truck signing up people in Hutterite territory. I appreciate that very much and for going into
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that area. Kent in foremost with a couple of pictures with some fantastic signage here. I love
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seeing this. Rene signing up people seven days a week, 9 to 6 p.m. at Costco. This is at 25th
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Avenue and 91st Street in the Northwest. I love the color of this truck. Perfect for Alberta.
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Thanks so much for that. Joseph at the Red Mountain Park in Mesa, Arizona. It doesn't take
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a big setup, folks. This is all it takes. Thanks, Joseph, for that. Like I told you, far and wide,
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folks. Far and wide. Don sent these two AI-generated independence buses. Isn't it amazing
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what we can do today, Don? Insane concept here. I really like the mountains on the side of these
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buses. I'd actually like to see these buses created. Look really good. Rob with a couple
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of flag pictures. Keep the faith, Rob. Keep the faith. Tomas at Bouncy Castle Day. Tomas,
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thanks for coming out. I appreciate you sending me the picture. Dave standing strong outside the
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Airdrie Library on Monday, March the 9th. We love it, Dave. Thanks for standing strong.
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Bob and this amazing poster. Full-time signing 10 to 6 daily at the Renfrew Athletic Park.
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Tom has sent this Facebook post about a petition signing in Mazatlan, Mexico.
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You know, I want to find out if there's anybody over in Europe.
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If you're having a sign-up in Europe, let me know about it.
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Some canvassers in a cold wind and so many brave people going out in all weather
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Jeff signed in Mexico. I don't even want to try to pronounce the place, but he was at the Amigos
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Sports Bar. He said it's a great turnout. Thanks, Jeff. I appreciate it. Awesome stuff. Gary with
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a small flag for his grandchildren. Gary, it might be small, but it is mighty. Thanks for the picture.
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Heather sent this signing location, La Quinta, California, March 28th, 9 to 1 at the Civic Center
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campus park. From Jess, Grand Prairie permanent signing location at Bullets and Broadheads sent
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this picture. I got a question for you, Jess. Is this Moose Mountain down on Highway 66? Sure does
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look like the road I ride my bike up all the time. Let me know. Send me an email, johnboltonab
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at gmail.com. I'm interested. Nadine sent this picture in. Thumbs up to both of you as well. She
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says she met this man, and he said this, quote, I'm not signing this for myself. I don't have any
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children of my own, but I'm signing it for your children and for their children after them,
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unquote. And apparently this really touched Nadine. Thank you very much for sharing that.
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Joan and Wayne in Orlando. Great to see that flag in the sunny south. Looks like the same
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location. John and Rain. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly in Orlando as well. Thanks for
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the picture. Pam, appreciate that very much. Gordon in Three Hills with a well-decked out
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tractor. Very Alberta here. Three different pictures. Thanks, Gordon, for sending them
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from Three Hills. Neil says it was a blustery day in Lethbridge. It looks like their table got
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blown over. This is what the canvassers are dealing with across Alberta during this petition signing
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campaign. They are the heroes of independence. And Chris and Celia in Fort McLeod just got their
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flag. They moved to Alberta from British Columbia to join the independence movement. Thank you so
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much for the picture. And thanks. Welcome back to Alberta. Thank you so much for all the
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submissions. They are fantastic. Keep them coming. JohnBoltonAB at gmail.com.
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And thanks a lot to Mitch Sylvester for being available to talk to me. I do appreciate it.
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Mitch is a great guy. And if you haven't met him, be sure to head out to one of the speaking events
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he's at. Go up and shake his hand. He'd be happy to meet you as well. Now, I do want to talk about
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something that's kind of concerning me, concerning other people involved with the independence
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movement, in particular to the people out every day sitting at roadsides trying to collect
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signatures. There have been some instances of some violence, some assault. We hope those people will
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be caught by the police and pay a price for doing that. That's unacceptable. I think that these are
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few and far between, but they are becoming more prevalent. And that scares me. I almost wish
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this petition campaign was over and we can move on to the next thing where we don't have to put
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people out there in what seems like harm's way. But if you're out there, please be careful. Get
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pictures. Don't engage these people. Don't fight back against these people. Just tell them to leave
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and call the police. Please be safe out there. Now I want to end on a positive note. You know,
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I was out last, like two Saturdays ago, I guess now, at the Auburn Bay Dog Walk Park, and my
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friend Buster James came out to play his accordion. He was great. People loved him just playing in the
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background. It added a great, I guess, atmosphere to the event we were having, which was just so
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much fun. I took along my harmonica, and you may have seen this, maybe not, I'll play a short bit
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of it, but we inspired Stay Free Alberta with this rendition of You Are My Sunshine. Hit it!
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it was so much fun and thanks to busker james for being there and you know i i watched that again
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and i think about my dad who passed away a couple of years ago he left me all his harmonicas they're
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sitting right back there taught me how to play harmonica i was thinking about him when i watched
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that video back and it was really fun and I was so glad I could do that. But I was on the
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Stay Free Alberta Facebook page and they did this. Check this out.
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Thanks again to Stay Free Alberta for doing that,
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changing You Are My Sunshine to You Are My Freedom.
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I guess we inspired Stay Free Alberta with our rendition last week.
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This is coming up on Saturday, 21st on 21 Spring Road Rally
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So if you'd like to join us, it's going to be a lot of fun.
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I'll get to meet you, and you'll get to meet a lot of real nice people.
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Keep sending them to me, johnboltonab at gmail.com.
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And I want to end with this this week, and I hope Chantel doesn't mind.
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I'm going to put a little bit of video that I shot when I was riding my bicycle down from Lake Louise down to the very bottom of the mountain.
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but this is a song that Chantel created and sent to me called Alberta Stands. Thanks very
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much for watching the Independence Calendar. I will see you on the next one.
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above it all all beneath our boots runs deep forest and our land to keep
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the people here have wheels of steel and every dream we forge is