John Bolton - This Saturday... Let's Roll for INDEPENDENCE- With Mr & Mrs Al Bertan

00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. Great to have you along today. Recording this on

00:00:07.360 Wednesday. We're going to put this up on Thursday. We've got an event coming up on the weekend we

00:00:12.240 want to tell you about in just a moment here with the big blue mug of coffee. Of course,

00:00:16.540 let me get it over here so you can see it. And we got my guests have their mugs as well. Thanks a

00:00:21.500 lot for that. And we do have an event coming up on Saturday, but I want to talk a little bit about

00:00:26.720 the independence movement and how things are going with the petition campaign. These are

00:00:31.460 people I bump into all the time when I'm out at events. I was out at the big four and bump into

00:00:37.620 these people. They're always out doing things with Alberta independence. I want to say hi to Al

00:00:42.540 Burton and his wife, Vicki, Mr. and Mrs. Al. Good to have you here. Thanks for being on the channel.

00:00:47.460 So good to talk to you. Thanks for having us, John. You know, I thought I might want to pull

00:00:52.540 out my hat today. How does this look, by the way? I always think I look terrible. It's not the

00:00:59.660 greatest hat, but how do I look in a cowboy hat? What do you think? It's awesome. You think that's

00:01:04.360 pretty good? Yeah. Okay. I'll go with it. I'll go with it. I'll take your word for it. Okay. So I

00:01:11.160 got the hat on today and it's good to talk to you, both of you. Thanks so much. It is really good to

00:01:16.520 see you. Do you live in the Calgary area? We do live in the area. Yep. Grew up in Central Alberta.

00:01:22.000 Okay. And you're in your lifetime Albertans, are you? Oh, yes. You are. Okay. Good stuff. So

00:01:29.120 let me ask. It imploded on itself. Oh, is that right? Okay. So let me ask you this. Before we

00:01:36.080 get to the event that's coming up on Saturday, you'd like people to take part in and it's going

00:01:40.000 to be a fun thing for sure. Tell me, how do you think things are going so far when it comes to the

00:01:44.920 petition signing and the independence movement right now, since we heard about the petition back

00:01:50.500 on January the 2nd? It's been absolutely amazing. Yesterday, they broke the news that we've had

00:01:57.060 7,500 canvassers sign up, which is a new record. The previous record was supposed to be around 5,000,

00:02:02.980 somewhere in there. The signatures that we're still getting, we had a couple of guys that we've been

00:02:09.280 working with that have come from out of country. And even yet, even on that day when it was blistery

00:02:16.240 day and cold and everything, we worked up for two hours, we got 32 signatures in those two hours. It

00:02:21.440 was amazing. Good stuff. Yeah. You know, and, and what people need to understand is this, and you're

00:02:26.360 starting to see people try to belittle the petition signing campaign. When we first started doing this in

00:02:32.500 January, you got all the motivated people to come out. Now we've got to get those people who are

00:02:37.140 shut-ins, can't get out to sign the petition. And when you have these 7,500 people across the

00:02:43.020 province, you're going to have two or three, 10, 20 people at a time signing the petitions, as opposed

00:02:47.880 to the hundreds and thousands that we saw in early January and through most of January. That's what we

00:02:53.040 have to understand, I think, right? Exactly. Yes. We're not going to see those big lineups anymore

00:02:56.920 because we have enough people to take care of it quickly. And just like when we were at the big four,

00:03:01.500 there was enough canvassers there that we could take them as they came in. So now that we're

00:03:07.660 getting the record numbers of canvassers out there, we will have no problem getting to the people that

00:03:12.520 need to have us come to them for the people, like you say, that are shut in or they, they are immobile.

00:03:18.020 We can always, they just got to go to statefree.com and put in there that I would like to sign and

00:03:22.720 it'll, we'll get to them. Yeah. Stayfreealberto.com. There's actually a button there you can click on.

00:03:27.560 They will come to you so you can sign the petition. Vicki, I'm wondering how are you feeling

00:03:31.420 about this? And let me ask you, why, why are you so involved in this? Why am I so involved?

00:03:36.860 Yeah. Well, what brought me out of the woods was the ostriches. That's what brought me out of the 0.99

00:03:44.140 wood. Really? Yeah. I lost a lot of faith in humanity that was those truth through that whole

00:03:52.260 massacre. I'm going to, I'm going to lose my hat. Cause I keep losing my hat. If you notice,

00:03:57.920 I keep kind of, kind of disappear. So I'll move over here. I kind of like you better without the

00:04:02.780 happy sound. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. You were just being nice earlier when I asked about the hat

00:04:07.440 and how it looked. I know, I know. So it was the ostriches that did that. You know, it's funny.

00:04:11.820 I talked to Mitch Sylvester on the channel a couple of times and you know, he, he really got turned,

00:04:16.800 turned over to the independence movement after the election back in late April last year. It's hard to

00:04:22.980 believe it was just that late, but then the ostriches were even after that. So it's amazing how people

00:04:28.020 can come over to independence and are you, are you gaining in your support for independence? The more

00:04:32.720 you hear about it, you know, you hear about the money that's involved in natural resources and all

00:04:37.660 the reasons why people want independence in Alberta, Viggy. Um, I, I, I honestly think it's just speaking

00:04:44.920 their language to them because so many people are coming out of the woodwork. Um,

00:04:51.140 um, uh, being out on the street and seeing, we're getting a lot more, the more people that are

00:05:00.720 joining, the more are happy and on board and more thumbs up we're getting. Um, it's, it's definitely

00:05:11.460 been, and like Dale says, these little pop-ups that we're driving by, they're absolutely incredible.

00:05:20.140 They're everywhere. Yeah, they are. Yeah. Yeah. Seems to be very steady. If they have lots of flag 0.72

00:05:26.140 coverage, they're being inundated. It's, it's, it's definitely a steady going. So it is, no,

00:05:34.780 it's exciting to see them. And I was out, um, out and out in Okotoks the other night and if we were

00:05:39.560 driving to Okotoks to go to some friends for dinner and there was one right on the side of the road,

00:05:43.900 they had all the flags out there. It's really exciting to see. Are you feeling that we can win this

00:05:48.160 thing? If we get to the referendum question in the fall. The longer this drags on, the more we're

00:05:55.040 only what a month to a month and a little bit into this right now. And already the turnaround that

00:06:00.660 we're seeing in the support is absolutely amazing. When we first started, there was a lot of apathy.

00:06:07.380 Right. A lot of people didn't pay attention. They didn't care to know what was happening. Now that

00:06:12.660 we are seeing, as, as you pointed out in one of your videos recently, the, the people that are

00:06:20.340 very much against us, then we're getting twice as many that are very much for us. It's, it's one of

00:06:27.860 those things where once you've seen it, you can't unsee it. Right. Like the, the, the, the vision that

00:06:33.540 we have for what Alberta can be is so much brighter than the vision of what Alberta would be as a part of

00:06:41.060 Canada. So. Right.

00:06:43.220 No, I, I feel that I feel the same way. I think, you know, we're, we're getting more pushback and I

00:06:48.340 did a video the other day that you were starting to see, I'm kind of concerned about it. I think

00:06:52.420 Jeff Rath is, um, um, has talked a little bit about this. I'm going to get somebody on the channel

00:06:57.180 to discuss it, but we're starting to see people almost getting violent with us. And, you know,

00:07:01.540 that's, that's never a good thing. This is democratic process and our side would never do anything

00:07:06.380 like that. Keep cool. If you're out there and you're at a petition, um, you know, at a, at a desk and

00:07:10.920 you're signing people up and somebody is causing problems, call the police. And there are laws

00:07:14.680 against doing this kind of thing, of course, but the more we get pushed back from the rest of the

00:07:18.760 country, I think, um, the more we're over the target, I guess is the best way to see it myself.

00:07:24.840 At first they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. And then we win.

00:07:28.920 Yes. Yes. I love it. Yes, exactly.

00:07:31.800 We're at the fighting part right now. Yeah. And throughout the summer, as we're going

00:07:35.720 through the education phase, we're going to see a lot more pushback and a lot more anger.

00:07:40.920 But eventually they're going to have to turn around and say, you know what, this is all just

00:07:45.480 about a vote. That's all it is. If they, if they're against it so much, then they have the opportunity

00:07:49.560 to vote. No, just like we have the opportunity to vote. Yes. That's right. And you're starting to see,

00:07:53.400 you're starting to see the national media ask about it as well. Pierre Polyev was asked about this

00:07:57.160 yesterday and it was the final question he got when he was doing a news conference. And he said that,

00:08:02.520 you know, his party there, they're about Canada. That's what they're all about. They've got 34 seats,

00:08:06.840 I think out here in Alberta that they want to desperately hold onto. If we leave, they're done.

00:08:11.880 They'll never be back in, but you're hearing more people talking about it from a national basis.

00:08:16.040 Vicki, did you want to add something there? Well, I would, one event we were out at, I had

00:08:22.520 a couple of ladies sitting at a table and she saw my scarf and she was like, what's that about? And so I

00:08:30.440 told her that, you know, we were there taking signatures for the independence movement and,

00:08:35.160 and the gal on, and she was quite curious. The other gal was like, oh, I am not signing that.

00:08:41.160 Yeah. And right away she wanted to go at me. And as soon as I got back home and I just kind of turned

00:08:48.040 and addressed another gal beside me and I left her alone and I watched her and she was listening.

00:08:55.160 And as the night went on, I actually got a hug at the end of the night. It was beautiful. So

00:09:01.800 we just have to have patience with them. I think a lot of it is fear. They, they're not getting out

00:09:07.560 to hear. And, and me too, in the beginning, I was quite scared, but once you get out to these meetings

00:09:14.600 and you hear the speakers, it, it takes away that fear. It gives you that sense of hope. So I highly

00:09:22.600 encourage if anybody has not gotten out to hear our speakers, they need to get to a session.

00:09:28.200 I think we get kind of frustrated because we've heard, we've heard the arguments all the time.

00:09:32.040 Well, you're landlocked. We've heard the arguments all the time. Well, we're going to lose our Canada

00:09:35.960 pension plan and our OAS. And we've heard, we've heard this so many times and we know what the

00:09:40.440 answers to those things are. Well, you know, regarding landlocked and CPP, which you can keep,

00:09:44.920 by the way, it follows you wherever you are. A lot of people haven't heard this. They're just starting to

00:09:49.160 catch on. So we need to educate those people. You want to educate people. Al coming up on Saturday,

00:09:54.360 you've got an event coming up, Calgary and Edmonton unite in red deer, slow roll Saturday,

00:10:00.200 February the 21st. What is that? What are you, what are you doing here? What's going on?

00:10:04.760 Well, it's kind of great that the weather is cooperating with us. So we won't have a lot of

00:10:09.320 people outside taking signatures this weekend. So it's going to be a great weekend for the entire

00:10:14.680 province to come together in our central city and show our support for what is actually going on.

00:10:20.680 We want to show the massive numbers that we have for the support for our independence and,

00:10:26.840 and just for re recalibrating what Canada is about one way or the other, Alberta is going to change the

00:10:33.160 future of Canada. However, that turns out in the end, we'll find out, but this slow roll that we're

00:10:39.880 doing right now is going to collect all of the people that are interested in going for a nice

00:10:44.520 drive on a Saturday morning. We're going to go up to red deer. We're going to probably stop over on a

00:10:50.680 crosswalk that's over top of the QE2 and we'll do a flag wave and possibly get some drone footage of

00:10:57.000 that. So we're working with a gone up in Edmonton and Garth and red deer, the guys that organize all of

00:11:03.160 the cruises in those towns. We do quite often the ones here in, in this city with, we work with

00:11:10.440 Vivian. She's another, another supporter and we're just going to get everybody together and have a good

00:11:17.000 time after afterwards. We're going to roll around for a little bit up there and then there is an

00:11:22.200 event, the rebel event going on up in Edmonton afterwards. So some of us will be going up to that

00:11:26.440 after the slow roll is done and red deer. Okay. Good. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead, Vicki.

00:11:30.840 I think the biggest thing is to show Alberta our, our small fringe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See how,

00:11:40.280 how much we've grown. Yeah. Yeah. I think that, that again, people see these people seem to follow

00:11:48.120 the mass, right? So if they see how massive we're growing, they're just gonna, you can't,

00:11:56.200 you can't avoid our excitement. Yeah. So what do you, what do you have to do here? When,

00:11:59.800 when is it leaving? Where do you meet up? What do people have to bring along? I guess I,

00:12:03.560 you know, I've great. Now I've got this, this picture behind me. Generally I have an Alberta

00:12:07.880 flag in there. I've got my hats back there and behind me, it's just hidden behind this graphic

00:12:11.720 here, but what do you want people to do on Saturday and, and what time and, and how do they get involved?

00:12:17.800 Well, 1130, we're going to be leaving the iFly at Deerfoot city here in Calgary. Right. Right. And I

00:12:23.640 believe I don't have the times, but you have it on your graphic there. I do. The people in Edmonton

00:12:28.920 will be gathering and leaving the mall that they've got up there. I believe at around 10,

00:12:33.960 because they're going to slow roll a little slower than we are because while we're from Edmonton, of

00:12:38.280 course, and we're all going to meet up at the Peter's drive in at one o'clock and the people in

00:12:46.360 Red Deer will also join with us in Red Deer at around one o'clock at Peter's driving. And from

00:12:51.320 there we're going to do a, we're going to inundate Red Deer with a bunch of blue and wonderful flags.

00:12:57.320 Yeah. Great stuff. So 1130 AM leaving Deerfoot city. I'll put the graphic up in post-production

00:13:02.280 here. Arriving at one o'clock in Red Deer at St. at Peter's drive in slow roll and red flag and flag

00:13:09.080 wave to follow. So anybody can just show up. Are you looking for anybody that's got a vehicle to show up

00:13:14.680 at Deerfoot city at 1130? Do they have to, do they have to register or just show up and be part

00:13:20.840 of the event? Just be part of the event. We're just looking for a bunch of like-minded people to

00:13:25.240 get in their car and go for a drive with a flag on the car or banner or whatever it is that they

00:13:29.160 decide that they want to put on their car or just something. They don't even have to put anything on.

00:13:35.880 Yeah. You're right. You know, the weather has changed a lot. I mean, it's right now in Calgary,

00:13:40.200 I've got minus 23 right now in Calgary. We got snow yesterday. Temperature is going to be

00:13:44.440 pretty cold for the next four or five days. I'll tell you, I was talking with Jeff Rath on

00:13:49.000 the phone last week. And in one of my videos, just before he called me, I said that God was

00:13:52.920 on the independent side because the weather had been so nice. It's been unbelievable,

00:13:57.320 but we knew whether we knew the winter was going to come back, right? We knew it was coming back

00:14:01.560 and it has with a vengeance. So hopefully we'll get some more warmer weather as we get into March.

00:14:05.880 But yeah, it might be a good weekend to do this event. So if you can get out there and get

00:14:09.960 signatures by all means do that, but it's going to be pretty darn cold if it's minus 10,

00:14:13.640 minus 11 outside and a lot of, not a lot of people want to get out of a car to sign anything

00:14:17.720 when it is so cold like that. So this might be the perfect thing for people.

00:14:20.600 I am currently trying to set up a venue right now where we may have a short signing session.

00:14:25.800 We'll see how that goes. I'm still in discussions with the people and

00:14:29.080 I'll let people know as we get closer.

00:14:31.080 Well, there will definitely be canvassers there anyway. So if anybody wants to sign 100%. And if

00:14:39.320 anybody wants to carpool, they don't want to miss the role, reach out. I'm sure there's, you know,

00:14:45.400 vehicles that we can fit people. The more the merrier.

00:14:48.040 You betcha. Yeah. It'll be, it'll be great. I think I'm going to go. I've been up to Red Deer

00:14:52.360 in a little bit and go up there. I've never been to Peter's drive-in. So head up to see what that's all

00:14:57.400 about as well. Um, and, and the thing is I'm trying to get an event going as well. I'm looking

00:15:01.560 for a kind of a window that's a little bit warmer. I've been talking about it here on the channel as

00:15:05.400 well. Uh, but best of best of luck to you with this sounds, it sounds like a great thing to do

00:15:10.600 as the temperatures have dropped pretty, pretty drastically here in, in Calgary and here in, in

00:15:15.160 Alberta over the last week or so with this cold weather throwing, uh, rolling through, always good

00:15:19.800 to talk to you. Good to see you guys as well. Thanks so much for being on the channel.

00:15:23.080 No worries. Thank you for having us. Like you said, God works with us. And right now,

00:15:27.080 if it wasn't for the cold weather they were getting, we probably wouldn't have as great

00:15:30.840 a turnout next weekend. Cause everybody be out taking signatures instead of driving the cars.

00:15:34.760 We hope people will see it, uh, or come out to it again, leaving Deerfoot city, 1130 AM arriving

00:15:40.920 at one o'clock in Red Deer and, uh, just head out there with your car. If you've got a hat, you've got

00:15:46.600 a flag, put it up on your vehicle and it should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks so

00:15:51.320 much for being on the channel. Thanks for having us. Mr. and Mrs. Al, we appreciate you being here.

00:15:56.840 If you liked the video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, ring the bell for

00:16:00.520 notifications. I will see you in the next one. Raise your mugs guys. Raise your mugs. Thank you.

00:16:05.320 Thank you.

John Bolton - February 19, 2026

This Saturday... Let's Roll for INDEPENDENCE- With Mr & Mrs Al Bertan

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