The Critical Compass Podcast - May 05, 2026


Mitch Sylvestre Delivers Over 300K Independence Signatures to Elections Alberta

Mentioned
Smith Elections Alberta Mitch Sylvester
Alberta Independence NEEDS Level Heads to Win Alberta is Unique & It's Worth PROTECTING ｜ Fergus Hodgson

Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

123.75

Word count

781

Sentence count

41


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Join us as we celebrate the historic victory of the Stay Free Alberta campaign. In this episode, we talk about the efforts of over 7,000 canvassers across the province to collect over 300,000 signatures in support of the campaign to have a referendum on the issue of on October 19, 2020.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Knock on the door. They're going to open the door and we're going to bring their signatures in.
00:00:04.020 They're going to weigh them. Then they're going to seal them and I'm going to initial the seal
00:00:09.360 and away we're going to go. Thank you very much everybody. Away we go.
00:00:16.640 You guys, none of this happens. So just understand how important you are and how important you're
00:00:24.740 going to be moving forward. You stood in the cold, you got abused, people yelled at you,
00:00:34.300 people yelled at us on the way here. So what we did with all of our boxes is we took a
00:00:41.660 picture of canvassers and we put a different picture in front of every one of our boxes
00:00:47.580 because this represents all of you.
00:00:52.420 So what we've done
00:00:54.420 is we're going to swear an affidavit of how many signatures we have here
00:01:00.020 and I'm going to give it to the Premier and I'm going to read a letter to the
00:01:03.680 Premier
00:01:04.400 right now that I'm going to send to her on your behalf
00:01:07.580 which as far as we're concerned is going to be the official number
00:01:12.500 and notice that these are all collected, they're all here, they're all behind us
00:01:16.540 they're all going to be in the building and they're all official because we had to do a lot
00:01:24.100 more than anybody else. We had to get physical addresses which were a really big deal as it
00:01:31.940 turns out and as a consequence to that I don't believe that there's going to be any attrition
00:01:37.060 in those boxes back there because our people paid so much attention to what was going on.
00:01:41.880 Thank you.
00:01:42.880 Alright, so let me read you the letter that I have for Premier Smith.
00:01:49.320 Dear Premier Smith, on behalf of the Stay Free Alberta campaign, I am pleased to advise
00:01:54.100 you today that we deliver to Elections Alberta 301,450 signatures for the Alberta Independence
00:02:04.800 Petition initiated under the Citizens Initiative Act, well surpassing the required threshold
00:02:11.180 set by Elections Alberta. This process shows that Albertans are engaged and this is an
00:02:17.860 issue people want to have a say on. From all perspectives, there has been significant interest
00:02:22.860 to the discussion and participation demonstrating that this is a matter of province-wide importance.
00:02:30.040 It also reflects the role of direct democracy with citizens engaging the legislative process
00:02:35.960 in a lawful and meaningful way.
00:02:38.820 This effort was about participation in democracy, plain and simple.
00:02:43.240 It was not easy.
00:02:46.040 As you are aware, there were significant administrative
00:02:49.300 and legal hurdles that delayed the process and increased the cost.
00:02:54.080 Despite these obstacles, we remained focused on the goal
00:02:57.080 and continued to push ahead in good faith.
00:03:00.160 This effort would not have been possible without the dedication
00:03:04.280 of thousands of volunteers, including over 7,000 canvassers.
00:03:14.780 Many stood for hours in harsh Alberta weather, in freezing temperatures, rain, snow and blizzard
00:03:20.540 conditions to give their fellow citizens the opportunity to sign.
00:03:25.800 At the same time, we must bring to your attention one of the most common concerns we heard.
00:03:32.460 Across the province, many Albertans expressed support for the petition and in many cases
00:03:36.620 wanted to sign.
00:03:39.620 But they said they could not, out of fear of repercussions.
00:03:45.400 Some were concerned that having their names recorded could expose them to government penalties
00:03:49.140 or financial consequences such as frozen bank accounts.
00:03:53.720 In addition, canvassers frequently faced harassment while carrying out this lawful activity, often
00:03:59.900 without any meaningful consequence.
00:04:03.340 Regardless of one's position, hesitation to participate in lawful democratic process
00:04:08.140 raises serious concerns about confidence in civic freedoms.
00:04:13.340 No Albertan should feel intimidated or at risk for engaging in a lawful process.
00:04:24.580 While the Court has, for now, directed that the formal signature count be delayed, we
00:04:28.580 We trust the government understands the significant effort, time and cost incurred by everyday
00:04:32.320 Albertans simply to have their voices heard.
00:04:36.740 That is the purpose of this process, why we participated and why we have prepared this
00:04:40.180 statutory declaration confirming the final signature count.
00:04:45.300 We understand approximately 1,500 extra signatures remain in transit due to delays with Canada
00:04:50.000 Post.
00:04:52.260 We look forward to your government receiving this clear expression of the democratic will
00:04:56.200 of Albertans and advancing the next steps to include this important question on the
00:05:00.960 referendum ballot on October 19th 2026 respectfully Mitch Sylvester so the
00:05:14.640 updated number now is three hundred and one thousand six hundred and twenty not
00:05:18.700 counting our 1,500 more. So again, thank you very, very much everybody. This day is historic
00:05:28.440 in Alberta history. This is the first step to the next step, and away we go. Thank you
00:05:34.500 very much. God bless all of you.
00:05:48.700 Thank you.