Western Standard - Mitch Sylvestre frustrated by Smith's independence referendum question

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, what's up? Will Vassar here with the Western Standard. Today we've got an amazing

00:00:05.140 opportunity. We're going to interview the CEO and proponent of the State for Alberta petition,

00:00:10.980 Mitch Sylvester. He's also, I believe he's the CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project,

00:00:15.900 who have taken the lead kind of on trying to educate individuals on Alberta independence

00:00:20.740 throughout this movement. Mitch has been kind enough to take his time to meet with us after

00:00:24.960 the premier announced the question for the referendum what it's going to be so well thanks

00:00:31.080 for taking the time to meet with me today mitch i really appreciate it well good no thanks for

00:00:37.080 having me perfect um i want to start with uh just gaining your overall reaction to the premier's

00:00:43.160 proposed question that she announced on thursday that we're going to be having a referendum

00:00:48.000 on whether or not to hold a referendum essentially yeah well i was surprised disappointed and

00:00:54.800 angry. You know what? I think it's just more kicking the can down the road. I'm sure that,

00:01:00.960 you know, the way we see this is that they're seeing a very real threat here, and I think they

00:01:05.220 should be, to the fact that, you know what, maybe we can win this vote. And I 100% believe we can.

00:01:12.380 So I think what they're trying to do is delay the process as much as they can.

00:01:17.480 Delay it to what? What would they be looking to delay it past?

00:01:21.480 Well, here's the thing.

00:01:23.120 They're going to election year next year.

00:01:25.940 So apparently you're not allowed to call a referendum during an election year.

00:01:30.020 So if they delay it past January 1, then they're going to go into the election cycle.

00:01:36.180 And then they're going to come back to us and say, you know what?

00:01:38.560 Yeah, we'll hold this if you vote for us.

00:01:41.100 And you know what?

00:01:42.180 We're going to be back to where we started before we went out and got 301,000 signatures to hold a referendum on independence.

00:01:49.140 and so i guess my question would be is the alternative would be i know you guys believe

00:01:57.420 that the premier could have just called the question herself um but there's individuals

00:02:03.720 on both sides of the movement there are individuals on the pro-independent side of the movement who

00:02:09.100 have said that if the premier had called for a referendum a yes or no question the courts would

00:02:16.300 have gotten involved and shut it down and shut it down or at least put the brakes on it to the

00:02:23.260 point of you wouldn't have gotten the vote in October. Why do you guys believe that wouldn't

00:02:28.860 have happened? Well, nobody's following the law the way it's working now. I mean, this is clearly

00:02:35.380 against the Canadian Constitution. It says very clearly in the Canadian Constitution that this

00:02:39.560 does not violate Aboriginal rights. So I don't understand why we're in court at all, to tell you

00:02:45.600 truth uh so you know this the aboriginals get a seat at the table after the yes vote has been 1.00

00:02:52.160 confirmed and people have voted to leave and then at that point they get to sit at the table with

00:02:56.720 the federal government the provincial government and aboriginal people it's very clear in the

00:03:01.280 clarity act it's there so they're two steps away from having to be consulted because none of this

00:03:09.760 may happen they may not need to be consulted on anything a no vote stops it all from happening so

00:03:15.600 And we're still allowed to ask questions.

00:03:18.640 We're still allowed to petition government on any question, in spite of the fact that Justice Feesby said there are certain questions that the people should not be allowed to ask.

00:03:28.120 I find that interesting.

00:03:30.000 But, however, that's exactly what we're dealing with.

00:03:33.260 We're dealing with a government that, you know, with a legal system that clearly is not following the rules that they laid out for themselves.

00:03:40.340 I don't even understand.

00:03:41.500 Like I said, I'll repeat that.

00:03:42.540 Why are we in court over this?

00:03:43.740 It says in the Canadian Constitution that this doesn't need to be triggered until two steps down the road, because it may not have to be.

00:03:51.960 So now what's happening, though, from my perspective, is this.

00:03:55.920 Every time we do everything, we have to consult Aboriginal people. 1.00

00:03:59.080 So that becomes dysfunctional. 1.00

00:04:01.700 I'm not saying we shouldn't have consultation with Aboriginal peoples on certain things.

00:04:05.340 we have to make sure that the people that we're consulting with

00:04:09.260 you know haven't been paid by people that are in opposition to the best interests of alberta either

00:04:15.060 and in this case there's clear evidence that this chief has taken money from the tides foundation

00:04:19.060 so there's many many many pieces to this puzzle and and so what sorry go ahead and this reservation

00:04:30.540 has 197 million dollars in the bank and there's 32 people in it and there's another 100 million

00:04:35.940 coming so i don't know connect the dots i don't know what that means but it means something

00:04:41.640 and understanding that frustration about um whether or not the question should even uh be

00:04:48.840 should be allowed to ask in october um i know you guys what your reactions to where it is now

00:04:55.400 has been a lot of frustration with the premier and directed at the premier for the question

00:05:02.640 that she has called. Is that correct? Well, yeah. No, and the UCP. I mean,

00:05:08.080 the premier is not there by herself. And so what is the, how do you move forward with that?

00:05:15.220 Are you, I believe what it looks like online is you guys are making plans to hold a SGM to

00:05:24.500 remove remove the premier from leadership of the uh well i'm not i'm not i'm not in the business

00:05:31.300 of threatening anybody uh that's that's not what uh that's not what i like to do i've always been

00:05:37.500 saying the same thing get involved with your politics get active get on ca boards um away we

00:05:44.320 go and so that's what we're going to do we're going to encourage people to get on ca boards

00:05:48.500 get active and get active with their politics and then we'll see how that goes and do you believe

00:05:54.460 that the best path forward and the most the most realistic way to achieve a alberta independence

00:06:00.700 or even get a vote on alberta independence is under premier smith or does someone else need

00:06:04.940 to be in charge for you to accomplish that up until last thursday i thought that the

00:06:12.540 best path forward would be under premier smith and she still has time to show us that that is

00:06:19.580 the case um but i've always i've asked at many many many town halls if it comes to a choice

00:06:26.860 between any leader in alberta independence how would you choose and it's unanimous alberta

00:06:32.540 independence is the answer so if the premier chooses to allow this to happen uh this vote

00:06:38.940 to happen like we've been told it would by them then i don't see any need to to do anything drastic

00:06:47.340 that's all we've ever asked we went down the awful process to to do what they said we could do so now

00:06:55.180 we've done that and we expect um you know what they promised based on the process that they created

00:07:02.780 does that make sense i'm just curious on um you say if the premier allows this to happen are you

00:07:09.500 saying it allows the yes or no vote in october or are you saying that hey if she gets the yes

00:07:17.100 mandate in october and then she holds the vote then you'll be satisfied or does it need to happen

00:07:22.700 in october well it's not my choice the choice has always been i do the work and then they dictate

00:07:31.660 the terms and the question um so i don't know if me not being happy with the fact that it's going

00:07:37.580 going to happen and October is going to have any bearing on it. But here's the thing.

00:07:43.440 Alberta Pension's a no-brainer. She knows that. Nothing's been done on that.

00:07:48.460 The Bill of Rights is also something that was a very major disappointment. We just continue to

00:07:53.800 have one disappointment after another disappointment. And you know what? For the

00:08:00.320 most part, I don't think any of them are called for. We expect to be given a path if we reach

00:08:07.040 the threshold and we do the work that we shouldn't have to play around playing silly games for you

00:08:13.580 know forever basically because what happens if we go there and we have a yes on an on an

00:08:20.140 insignificant vote that's not going to trigger anything if they don't want it to be triggered

00:08:25.040 it's like even worse than a policy vote so what we're proposing is a constitutional vote so they

00:08:31.220 say well yeah we're going to go there if you don't vote yes then we're not we're going to shut this

00:08:35.020 thing down. So if we don't vote yes on a policy question, we're going to shut this thing down.

00:08:41.060 So we're going to go there. We're going to vote yes on a policy question

00:08:43.640 that's got absolutely no teeth at all to make them do anything. What we signed a petition for

00:08:54.940 was for a constitutional question that would open the Constitution of Canada and make changes.

00:09:00.880 However, we find that Aboriginal people don't have to open the Constitution to make changes. 0.96

00:09:06.180 They just take it to a low court judge, and it seizes the whole process up.

00:09:13.500 And I'm just, I'm curious on it from a standpoint of, you guys wanted the vote in October.

00:09:22.280 and uh it it feels like right now where where the independence movement is at is there is

00:09:31.640 there's a rupture point right now of there it's at a real uh point where there could be that's

00:09:37.180 not true at all that's not true at all none of that's true no none of that's true that's that's

00:09:42.760 just none of that's true the the freedom movement is fine we have the ability to disagree with each

00:09:48.980 other and continue to go forward. We're not going to form another party. We're not going to do it.

00:09:53.100 We're going to work within the system we have. We're fine. And I promise you, in two weeks,

00:09:59.520 we're going to come back stronger than we ever have. So, yeah, no, none of that's true. There's

00:10:04.600 no even point discussing it. We have people that want to be more in the news than other people,

00:10:09.780 but that's the extent of it. And in actual fact, a great big majority of that group of people

00:10:17.300 don't do any of the real work so uh you know what we're we're fine we're going to be fine

00:10:23.980 our people are fine we're going to work hard we understand that we have to win this question no

00:10:28.920 matter what it is we're going to work on that um you know what and you know if the boys want to

00:10:33.980 fight in the sandbox we'll let them fight in the sandbox but we're focused on getting the job done

00:10:38.180 just like we always are does this um you say it'll be okay in the independence movement will

00:10:44.720 you're going to come back two weeks from now and stronger than ever.

00:10:47.720 But does this seem like a moment where there could be arguments in favor of

00:10:54.840 we need a central kind of leader, we need a focal point right now

00:10:59.240 that can really speak for the moment?

00:11:01.420 Well, who's that going to be?

00:11:05.540 Like, who's that going to be?

00:11:06.900 It's not going to be a politician.

00:11:09.080 It's certainly not going to be any of the podcasters that are out there

00:11:12.120 the guys that are thrusting themselves forward that are basically um you know that don't have

00:11:19.400 don't have the backing to do it so who's going to choose that person so but here's the thing

00:11:23.560 kathy flatt has a really good analogy when we do when we do uh town halls she says this and

00:11:30.280 i kind of agree with it and i'm okay with this by the way because i've never ever said okay well you

00:11:34.600 know what i'm leading this whole thing now and in fact i have been and i should be the central

00:11:41.320 person to to do the talking and to you know be the face of it in spite of the fact that most of

00:11:46.680 the work that got done was done through app when i was there leading well here's the thing we need

00:11:53.400 everybody pulling in the same direction we need everybody we we cannot have as far as i'm concerned

00:12:00.200 and i've said this before somebody that they can take out when they take out a leader we have to

00:12:08.120 to have 10 or 12 leaders out there ready to go and that's what we've got going on

00:12:12.760 we've got people over here and people over here and people over there and as and we have a lot

00:12:19.000 of people that are speaking in favor of this movement and that's a good thing so do we need

00:12:23.960 a politician to take lead on this never happened um we already all the people that are in here

00:12:29.640 already leading and talking to various media people and doing what they're doing that's fine

00:12:35.080 they're all supporting the movement i think that's a good thing uh so do we think we need

00:12:40.840 a central leader it would make for a much easier target than what we have now i think would make

00:12:45.880 us less functional and as a consequence to that i think it's a no so so what does campaigning

00:12:52.440 leading up to october look like now for you guys um you have a question you know what it'll be yeah

00:12:58.440 well it looks like a lot of things i mean uh we're going to put tremendous amount of pressure

00:13:02.520 and UCP as much as we can. They're running into an AGM right after the vote. It's going to be a

00:13:09.880 very uncomfortable AGM. If the AGM was next week, I would be surprised if everybody would want to

00:13:15.660 have it because there's a lot of people angry with the government that we have. And here's

00:13:21.280 the big problem, right? The big problem is the government's not representing the people that

00:13:25.960 put them there. The government's not representing 301,000 conservatives and actually 400,000 others

00:13:34.880 that say they want to vote on independence. So the government is asking for its own trouble.

00:13:42.860 How do they expect people to be happy about what they're doing when they get clear direction

00:13:48.960 from their base and then they find reason not to do it i mean i don't expect uh you know i mean i

00:13:56.640 wouldn't expect anything but a hostile reaction from the people especially based on what's been

00:14:02.000 going on for the last three or four or five years in this country and the fact that we're the

00:14:06.320 globalist agenda is advancing at warp speed our prime minister's saying right out in public that

00:14:12.880 here we are. We're introducing the New World Order. And his wife jumps on that bandwagon

00:14:20.480 at the Liberal Convention. So what is it? What is that? What is the New World Order?

00:14:26.160 Ask Premier Smith to define that. Ask her to define it for us so we understand what it is.

00:14:30.400 Mr. Carney certainly hasn't identified it. So we're kind of in a situation right now where we

00:14:35.200 feel there's a lot of balls in the air. And because there's so many balls in the air, I think people

00:14:40.320 want answers and you know what people want politicians to do as they say they're going to do

00:14:45.200 and if they don't then they have to be held accountable to it and i think that's the process

00:14:49.280 that we're going to go after we're going to hold them accountable like we should have been doing

00:14:52.880 forever and we probably wouldn't be in this situation that we're in is this so you do you

00:14:59.760 want to give it through october get to the agm before you start making any moves against um

00:15:06.400 would hypothetically start making any moves against or in favor of Premier Smith leading the UCP?

00:15:14.640 Or do you believe there should be something ahead of them?

00:15:17.200 I've been calling for people to join the UCP for a month.

00:15:21.560 And in actual fact, I've been calling people to join the UCP for four years.

00:15:27.160 This position has never changed as far as I'm concerned.

00:15:30.940 You can talk to each other all day.

00:15:33.560 You can sit in a coffee shop and talk and you can have rallies and you can talk and you can have town halls and you can talk to each other.

00:15:41.880 But unless you're speaking to power, nothing's going to change.

00:15:45.740 So we're going to speak to the UCP government.

00:15:48.360 We're going to start on that path now.

00:15:50.280 We have started on that path already.

00:15:52.600 And we're preparing to, you know, for an election next spring.

00:15:56.160 so we're preparing to put the best candidates that represent our our views and wishes in power

00:16:03.440 so away we go i don't think uh i don't think that's unreasonable that's our process that's

00:16:08.080 democracy i am curious the premier on friday uh more or less said focus on october focus on the

00:16:17.060 referendum don't focus on me don't focus on who's the leader of the ucp focus on winning

00:16:22.720 October. What's your reaction to that?

00:16:26.540 Actually, we can focus on both.

00:16:31.380 And win both. However that works out.

00:16:36.360 Yeah, that's fair.

00:16:38.440 I was just curious on that. Because it really, it does

00:16:42.240 seem like there is a push right now to

00:16:45.940 for this instability. And I'm curious, do you believe that

00:16:50.160 a new leader in the ucp would change october at all or do you think it's kind of set

00:16:57.440 well you're talking you you're you're you're talking like we can just walk in there and say

00:17:05.760 excuse me ma'am step aside uh we're going to uh we're going to take over the party that's not how

00:17:11.440 that works um you know that has to be the ucp has 87 cas and 87 presidents are 40 i don't know how

00:17:18.960 how many seats we have say 50 just for a round number um those people have to be on board with

00:17:25.140 this that's that's how this is done so if that group of people is not on board with us and

00:17:31.560 doesn't get done then you know i mean we're in a day-to-day battle we just we just just like the

00:17:36.680 signature collection we go out there every day and people sit out there in the cold for six or

00:17:43.860 eight hours and get six or eight signatures. Our strength is that we have 4,000 people doing it.

00:17:50.220 That's where our strength comes from. And it's all of them that give us the power to do what

00:17:54.760 we need to do. So what we're doing and what I'm doing is I'm taking care of them. That's who I'm

00:18:00.860 taking care of. I'm taking care of them. And they're the most important people in my world

00:18:06.960 right now politically by far. I want to take care of them. So whatever is in their best interest is

00:18:12.320 what we're going to do i want to ask you uh quickly about there was a there was a live

00:18:20.600 video the other day um it was done by uh chris scott um and i think he was without uh bird of

00:18:28.660 proud dad is who he was with they were talking about it and chris shared um uh something where

00:18:35.100 talked about how it was back in the end of last year um where he as one of the uh board directors

00:18:44.300 on the app um with the alberta prosperity society um had raised some concerns just a minute just a

00:18:51.660 minute chris has never been on the alberta prosperity society board never been on that board

00:18:59.900 so if you want to move ahead from that then continue so just let's be clear

00:19:04.380 chris has never been on the alberta prosperity society work so so what he what he had um

00:19:13.340 he said he raised some concerns um in a board meeting about um moving forward uh with everything

00:19:21.180 and how you were going to be focused on state free alberta um and moving forward the petition

00:19:26.220 And there was concerns about whether or not maybe they needed to get someone new in there to try and help like lead the educational portion of the Alberta Prosperity Project while you were working with the State Free Alberta.

00:19:41.400 Because he he was there was individuals that believed that the education side of Alberta Prosperity Project had to roll on while State Free Alberta was also rolling on.

00:19:51.960 And I know you guys, Alberta Prosperity Project kind of went quiet a little bit during the

00:19:56.520 State for Alberta process to avoid any conflicts with Elections Alberta.

00:20:01.980 And so those were one of the things that he had brought up.

00:20:04.360 And I don't want to over-summarize it, but what he had said is there was those concerns

00:20:11.620 that were brought up and then effectively those concerns were raised to you by some

00:20:20.900 the board members and then uh the board members were removed after that point um the board members

00:20:27.700 were never so okay uh you know what let's let's just leave it at this those board members were

00:20:38.980 never removed those board members were never on the alberta prosperity society board

00:20:44.740 and those board members had no ability and they're still on the same board that they were on

00:20:52.100 they still function as a board they're just not on the alberta prosperity society board

00:20:57.520 and that's the truth of it so understand that they had no power to do any of that

00:21:04.040 they were never on that board they're still not on that board and so as a consequence to that

00:21:11.140 they're still on the board they're on nobody fired them um so you know they can continue to

00:21:16.420 hold meetings under that board and i'm not standing in anybody's way of educating the

00:21:21.580 people of alberta chris is on the road doing his doing his stuff nobody fired him he was never in

00:21:27.800 a position to be fired so that pretty much sums it up okay i we'll close with this um why don't

00:21:37.480 you share a little bit about where the alberta prosperity project's at and what you guys have

00:21:40.700 be doing heading up into october well where we're at is we're organizing people we're organizing our

00:21:46.460 volunteers uh to get to work we're going to do door knocking we're going to do pop-ups we're

00:21:50.960 going to do fairs uh we're going to we're going to have a rally we're going to do all manner of

00:21:55.200 things uh to do what we do and uh we're going to continue to do that and away we go all right

00:22:02.340 well mitch thank you very much i appreciate you taking your time to to meet with me today

00:22:06.940 on everything i i really do i know you you're busy trying to get everything going uh campaigning

00:22:12.520 ahead of october so we do appreciate it and hopefully we can chat again as we start moving

00:22:16.660 towards the campaign here and everything gets going okay cool absolutely take care perfect

00:22:22.080 thanks mitch bye-bye and that's gonna

Western Standard - May 26, 2026

Mitch Sylvestre frustrated by Smith's independence referendum question

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