John Bolton - THIS IS HUGE! APP CEO - Mitch Sylvestre says we'll soon be getting signatures!

00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. Friday, December the 5th, 7.02am with the

00:00:09.260 Big Blue Mug of Coffee. Great to have you along today and great timing here. Just finished

00:00:15.040 putting a video up on this topic. I got a text message from Mitch Sylvester, as you

00:00:19.900 see him on the screen there, CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project. I think you put, away

00:00:25.460 we go, Mitch. Wow, this is quite the situation we've got here. Bill 14, did you know this

00:00:33.700 was coming down the line and how this could change everything when it comes to a referendum

00:00:38.920 for the Alberta Prosperity Project and the people of Alberta?

00:00:42.080 Well, as far as we're concerned, it's going to be a referendum. I got the news yesterday

00:00:47.180 afternoon at 4.45. A reporter phoned me and asked me if I knew anything about Bill 14.

00:00:53.640 I had no idea. And then all of a sudden, we're finding out that they're going to circumvent

00:01:00.120 the court process. They're going to give us the ability to run our question and actually

00:01:05.640 have a vote on it. Am I right? Jeff's in court today regarding this. Jeff's in court. Jeff

00:01:12.700 Rath is in court today. So let me just explain this to people who don't know. Bill 14, introduced

00:01:16.840 Thursday by Justice Minister Mickey Amory, transfers powers from the Chief Electoral Officer to the

00:01:22.800 Minister when deciding whether citizen petition initiatives should proceed. So what could happen

00:01:29.440 here from what I understand is that if this bill passes, then this court case would be completely

00:01:34.780 wiped out. Your initiative, I think the process would end for the Alberta Prosperity Project.

00:01:41.280 You'd have another 30 days to reapply for this. And it would be up to the Justice Minister to decide

00:01:45.980 whether this goes forward, just like that. Just like that. It says 30 days to do that. But since

00:01:52.020 we're already in the queue, we're working on the fact that we're already in the queue, so we should

00:01:55.580 have a chance to run our question without a new application. Yes. So Jeff said in the article from

00:02:01.760 the CBC, he said that he believes the province is interfering in the current court case. And quote,

00:02:08.220 I think they're afraid we're going to win and we're going to get a court saying that what we're doing

00:02:12.860 is perfectly fine and constitutional. Now you, the Alberta Prosperity Project had a statement saying,

00:02:19.580 Bill 14, an unintended gift to pro-independence Albertans that will remove red tape. Are those two

00:02:26.140 comments, the one from Jeff and the one from you, do they conflict at all? Because he seems to think that

00:02:30.940 maybe the province is scared that this is going to go forward. You seem to think that it's going to go

00:02:35.820 forward, the referendum. Well, I really believe it's going to go forward. I don't, I don't think

00:02:40.060 from, from the communication I've had with them, you know what, we're going forward. I just think

00:02:46.140 that this is really something that is going to actually happen at this point. And I think that the

00:02:51.180 AGM might have had a bit to do with that. And you know, the fact that we had such a strong showing at

00:02:56.860 the AGM and maybe government understands that, you know, it'd be better to deal with this than not to deal

00:03:01.820 with this. And you know what, from our perspective, I think, I think that we're very pleased because I

00:03:07.740 mean, the ultimate goal is to have the vote, to collect the signatures and have the vote. So,

00:03:12.220 you know, I mean, as far as we're concerned, we've achieved a major goal. And now away we go,

00:03:17.260 Albertans are going to have a chance to have their say about what's going on. And you know what,

00:03:21.740 we're really excited about it. And my question to government last night is, okay, where's the hook?

00:03:28.140 Yeah. Well, maybe that's what Jeff's thinking with his comment, perhaps.

00:03:32.700 Yeah. Like, like what, what's the problem? Where's the potholes? And apparently their reply

00:03:38.380 to me is quote, there's no potholes. Well, yeah, Mickey Amor yesterday didn't show his cards at

00:03:45.500 all on what side he's on. He's trying to play it neutral here. You said that the AGM last week may

00:03:50.700 have had a play in this. I mean, I watched it from here. I saw Jeff get up. He stole the show last week.

00:03:57.100 Well, yeah, no, and absolutely. And that was something that we had discussed before,

00:04:02.220 before the event, because what that, and that was a direct consequence of what they did to us when,

00:04:07.100 well, what they did to themselves by not wanting to have the discussion on the floor of the AGM. So

00:04:12.780 we thought that, you know, collectively and Jeff, Jeff started it, no question collectively that we

00:04:18.940 thought we would ask the people if, you know, if they supported Alberta independence

00:04:23.660 on the floor of the AGM when caucus was on the stage. And, you know, I think we sent a message

00:04:29.260 to everybody, including them that, you know, this is real. They, I really believe that they think this

00:04:34.780 is premature and that, you know, it may be to everybody's benefit to have this vote now. And

00:04:40.300 if we don't have the support, get it out of the road for five years. But however, you know, I believe

00:04:44.940 we, we do have the support and I really believe that we can win this.

00:04:48.300 Yeah. And so the other thing about that that came out of the AGM last week was the fact that

00:04:52.700 you got a majority of the people on the committee or in the, who are running the UCP right now,

00:04:59.340 I think five out of nine. And I think other people, the other four, there are a number of

00:05:03.020 them there who are pro-independence as well, correct?

00:05:05.580 Yeah. And you know what, the whole, the whole idea with the AGM is to get our people used to

00:05:10.940 participating in a democracy. And I mean, the fact that we ended up here, you know, three or four

00:05:17.900 days after the actual AGM and after, you know, people standing up for themselves and saying, well,

00:05:22.460 you know what, maybe we want to have a look at this. Maybe, you know what, maybe we're going to

00:05:26.780 change paths. And you know what, I think that dealing with Ottawa seems to be impossible.

00:05:32.860 Well, it doesn't seem to be impossible. It is impossible. I mean, look at what's come down.

00:05:36.780 This memorandum is an absolute disaster. It's an absolute disaster. So there's, you know,

00:05:41.980 there's no way that we can accept that as Albertans. It's going to stick a fork in the heart of Alberta,

00:05:47.020 period.

00:05:48.220 Do you think Premier Smith thought that this memorandum of understanding would sort of soften

00:05:52.940 the independence movement a little bit? And, or, and, and let me ask you this,

00:05:56.700 do you think it's actually hardened the independent movement for the lack of a better term?

00:06:01.900 I think, I honestly think they thought that was going to work.

00:06:06.860 And I honestly think having conversation with, with people there, um, you know, after, after the

00:06:13.500 event and after the reception, they got on Friday night, it was actually at our reception.

00:06:17.660 Uh, they, uh, you know, the comment from them was, I guess a pipeline is not going to do it.

00:06:23.260 And my reply was, I've been telling you that for a year.

00:06:27.100 There's way more at stake here. The social issues, everything that's being involved with the

00:06:32.220 censorship, with all the freedoms being taken away. Um, the fact that, you know, Alberta's 0.99

00:06:36.860 running deficits every year when we should be running surpluses and, and, and with the memorandum,

00:06:42.620 they've come out with a six fold increase in carbon tax.

00:06:45.340 Yeah.

00:06:45.900 I was explained the other day how that works. Do you have any idea how that works?

00:06:49.820 Well, I know they were getting rid of the emissions cap, but they're going to add an

00:06:54.060 additional carbon tax, which again, you said is six times what it is before. I don't know. I mean,

00:06:58.860 I think they're just taking one and replacing it with another. So we're no better off ahead here

00:07:03.020 in Alberta for it because other countries don't have this. So explain it.

00:07:05.740 But so what, what I'm understanding from this is that right now we pay $95 a ton, but by the time

00:07:13.980 you shake it down to you take the credits out of it, we're paying about 32 or $34 a ton from,

00:07:21.020 this is what I understand. So if we're paying 32 or $34 a ton, all that money goes to the provincial

00:07:25.740 government, all of it. So all of it.

00:07:28.380 Yes. So $3.1 billion or so goes to our government and the government uses it in their budget.

00:07:34.620 The new deal, and this is hinges and everything says the actual carbon tax is going to go to

00:07:42.140 minimum $125 a ton. So with the, and including the credits. So it's going to be like a six fold

00:07:51.100 increase. However, if the province refuses to do it, then they lose the revenue from the new part

00:07:58.380 and the old part. So they actually get no revenue. So the government is actually blackmailing us.

00:08:02.380 The federal government is actually blackmailing us, but what's going to happen with a six fold

00:08:06.140 increase in carbon tax is the price of everything is going to go sky high.

00:08:09.740 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. As Stephen Harper said years ago, carbon tax isn't about doing

00:08:15.420 something for the environment. It's about raising funds for the government.

00:08:18.860 Yeah. And the other thing on top of this, Mitch, is we've got this carbon sequestration thing,

00:08:24.060 which will be the biggest carbon sucking thing in the world. It's going to cost between 10 and

00:08:27.340 $20 billion, which seems insane. So that's the other thing on top of that. Now, when you heard

00:08:33.660 about this yesterday, the story that I was, I'm reading here on the screen from the CBC and the story

00:08:40.300 I ran in my video earlier this morning, I didn't say when there'd be a vote on this because certainly

00:08:46.140 bill 14 has to pass. Um, I would assume that it will with a majority being United

00:08:52.380 Conservative Party and the legislature, any idea when this might move forward? Uh, well,

00:08:58.300 they put the bill of rights through in two weeks. So, you know, I mean, I, I would suggest that

00:09:04.060 they're going to pass this before Christmas. Really? Yeah. So if they pass this before Christmas,

00:09:09.260 then we're, we're going to be, uh, flat out running, uh, collecting signatures here in January.

00:09:14.380 So you're that, you're that sure of this, that this, that Mickey Amory will say, go ahead and start

00:09:20.540 your petition signing process right after. Well, I have, I have information that leads me to believe

00:09:26.940 that that's the case. Wow. And this just came out of the blue for you as well. Cause I didn't,

00:09:33.500 I woke up this morning at two o'clock this morning and started reading the article on it.

00:09:38.300 Wow. This is incredible. You know, but I did see some people posting online already. They're, um,

00:09:43.100 they're labeling Danielle Smith and the UCP, definitely the party of independence right now.

00:09:49.100 And do you, do you think, do you, do you think that they are as well? There's a large percentage who

00:09:53.020 are. Well, I think so. I mean, um, you know, all the people, a lot of people I talked to are all

00:09:57.820 conservatives. Everybody in Alberta prosperity projects are conservative. And there's a lot of us that are

00:10:02.940 members of the UCP and, you know, I mean, we've got a, we've got a base of a quarter of a million

00:10:06.860 people. So we're a large part of, you know, the conservative movement in Alberta, no matter how

00:10:11.740 you slice it, whether they belong to the independence parties or the UCP. And I think on something like

00:10:17.500 this, I think the conservatives can, you know, can go together and vote together and get things done.

00:10:22.620 And the thing about this, and I said a few times over the last couple of weeks,

00:10:25.740 Danielle Smith has got to get this behind her. She has to, she's got to get behind her sooner before

00:10:30.860 later, right? There's no question. And I think that's the goal here. I think that's the goal

00:10:35.980 here. I think they're going to say, okay, well, you know what, you guys are making a lot of noise.

00:10:40.140 You think you've got the support. Well, let's see if you've got the support. And if you have the

00:10:44.380 support, then, um, you know what, then we're going to deal with that. Uh, you know, when that happens.

00:10:48.460 I I've heard some people saying they'd like to see a vote on this spring, some saying summer,

00:10:54.140 I think a little bit more time to organize would be better. Um, you're the CEO of the APP. When

00:11:00.380 would you, when would you like to see it happen? If I, if I had to choose, you could choose a date.

00:11:05.660 When would you like to see it happen? Fall of next year. Okay. Yeah. So, you know,

00:11:11.740 probably 10 months away from right now, maybe September, October. Is that what you're thinking?

00:11:15.100 Yeah. Yeah. I would think now let's, here we are, Mitch. Yeah. You're not telling me, I know,

00:11:22.380 but no, but here we are. I'm, I'm, I've been talking to you and I've spoken to you three or

00:11:26.460 four times. I've spoken to Jeff. I've spoken to Dennis. I've spoken to other people about this,

00:11:30.540 about finally getting to a vote. I'm going to ask you right now, how do we get involved to start

00:11:35.820 getting signatures? How can people sign up? How can people go out there and start getting people to

00:11:40.940 sign on the dotted line? Here's where we are now, Mitch. This is pretty exciting.

00:11:44.060 Yeah. That is exactly where we are. Go to albertaprosperity.com, go to our website,

00:11:48.220 sign our pledge, our commitment pledge, so we can find you. And you know what? It's a,

00:11:53.260 it's a commitment to vote. So when, when they tell us that we have 120 days to collect the signatures,

00:11:59.660 then your commitment to vote will be there. We'll be able to find you and we'll get in touch with you

00:12:04.700 and we'll actually basically bring it to your area. Let me ask you this. There's the forever Canadian

00:12:10.060 thing is out there right now. This bill 14 also discusses whether you can have a similar question

00:12:16.380 within five years. It will be up to the justice minister to make that determination. And I think

00:12:20.540 determine whether the questions are the same. And right now you can't have a question that's the

00:12:26.140 same or similar within five years. Of course, the forever Canadian question is, do you want to remain

00:12:31.100 in Alberta where we're asking people, do you want to leave Canada? How does this, where do you think

00:12:36.620 this stands right now? So in the clarity act, you can ask some questions if they're in different

00:12:41.660 categories, right? Yeah. So our category is a constitutional question. There's is a policy

00:12:46.700 question. Those questions are not at all related. As far as we're personally concerned, those are two

00:12:52.060 different animals. Their question is completely different than us. Now it can be changed to comply with

00:12:57.660 the clarity act. And that's the premier's prerogative. Like she could take that petition

00:13:02.460 and change. She's got 400,000 signatures on a petition. Should she choose to, she could have the 0.98

00:13:08.540 vote on that, on that, on the basis that there's 400,000 signatures there and change it to a constitutional

00:13:14.540 question. And then it would be equivalent to ours. That's, that's her problem. I think there's, um,

00:13:20.300 you know, they got over 400,000 signatures on their petition. You've got a quarter of a million people

00:13:25.740 who have signed up to say they're going to sign the petition. Uh, is it 177,000 that we need in

00:13:31.740 order to move forward? Is that correct? Is that the right number? We need 177,000 and about 1.8 million

00:13:36.460 to win. What would, what would you like to see on the petition? I mean, obviously there would be,

00:13:43.500 it would be encouraging to know that you've got a lot more than 177,000. Oh, absolutely. We're going

00:13:49.740 to aim, we're going to aim to beat the classics. Okay. Okay. That's great to know. Well, thank you

00:13:55.100 for getting in touch with me this morning. Um, I was, I was, I've, you know, I said on my video

00:13:59.660 this morning, I sent it, I'm not very early as you know, uh, I sent a text message out to Jeff.

00:14:04.300 I hope he didn't have his phone with notifications on at four o'clock this morning. Cause I'd like to

00:14:09.260 talk to him after the court case. Then I thought I'm going to get in touch with Mitch a little later

00:14:13.260 on this morning after seven, but you got in touch with me just after six. I appreciate it. And it's so exciting.

00:14:18.460 So go to the Alberta prosperity project, albertaprosperityproject.com and you can get

00:14:23.420 information on you can, how you can help out with the petition signing. We're moving closer to that

00:14:28.940 one step closer day by day. It's so exciting, Mitch. Thanks so much for being with me today.

00:14:33.020 I appreciate it. Thanks John. Take care. Mitch Sylvester, CEO of the Alberta prosperity project.

00:14:38.940 Thanks for watching. If you liked the video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel,

00:14:42.380 ring the bell for notifications. I'll see you in the next one.

00:14:45.020 Just hit stop here.

00:14:49.580 So

John Bolton - December 05, 2025

THIS IS HUGE! APP CEO - Mitch Sylvestre says we'll soon be getting signatures!

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