James Bauder 

A message from the Desk of James Bauder - Founder of the Freedom Convoy Apr 14th-2026

Let me start with an old saying. Freedom is Not Free. Yes, I am Living in exile and wishing more than you can ever imagine that I could be in Canada right now, because if I were, I would be Convoying for Freedom all over the map, honking my horn, and waving my Alberta Independence flag. I would not be sitting around acting defeated. I would be celebrating what so many cannot yet see clearly, because I see the finish line, and whether people realize it or not, they are much closer to winning their freedom today than they have ever been before.

What happened with the Liberals getting a majority gov "undemocratically speaking" had to happen. People needed to feel this. People needed to feel the weight of it in their gut. People needed to be shaken awake. Too many Canadians were still clinging to the illusion that this system could be reasoned with, voted back into honesty, or slowly nudged into respecting them again. That illusion is dying, and good riddance, because false hope has kept this country chained longer than open oppression ever could.

The British Monarch system of failed democracy is at the core root of the anger Canadians are feeling right now, so stop looking three and a half years down the road at another federal election as though that is where your salvation lives. It does not. Stop asking what ballot you can cast later and start asking what you can do today that sets you free tomorrow. That is the real question now.

I am going to say something most people are not ready to hear, especially while everything feels this heavy: we should be thanking the Liberals and the floor crossers for what just happened. Not because we support them, not because we agree with them, and not because we enjoy watching the country sink deeper into the mud, but because pressure like this does not only break people, but it also wakes them up. What we are watching is not the death of the independence movement. What we are watching is the acceleration of it.

I have been in this fight for freedom for a long time. I was there in the early days of the independence movement as a director, back when people laughed at it, mocked it, and dismissed it as some impossible dream that would never amount to anything. Ten years later, look around. More people are openly questioning the direction of this country than ever before. More people are openly disgusted with Ottawa than ever before. More people are beginning to understand that the future they want will never be handed to them by the same machine that keeps failing them, betraying them, taxing them, regulating them, and then demanding gratitude for the abuse. The truth is that people are closer to the goal line today than they have ever been before, even if right now they are too shell-shocked to see it with any confidence.

Yes, people feel defeated, angry, scared (a mix of emotions) and that is to be expected. The road out of this mess feels heavy, like walking through mud that clings to your boots and makes every step harder than it should be. But that is exactly where people need to understand the deeper truth of this moment. Every step forward sheds a little of that mud. Every step forward makes the next one lighter. And before long the same boots that felt stuck are made for walking again and then made for climbing. That is how freedom is won. Freedom is not won in one emotional outburst. Freedom is not won in one election. Freedom is not won by sitting in despair and waiting for some savior to appear. Freedom is won by continuing to move forward when everything in you feels tired, when the path feels ugly, and when the people trying to break your spirit are counting on you to quit.

The challenge now is to stay true to our morals, our values, and the kind of people we claim to be. The challenge is to stay positive without becoming blind, to face reality without surrendering to it, and to help the people around us who feel stuck in darkness right now. We do not leave them there. We reach back. We grab them. We help them find the fight that is still within them. We remind them what it feels like to stand again, what it feels like to walk again, and what it feels like to believe that the future is still ours to shape if we have the courage to stop bowing to the people trying to shape it for us.

That is what good men and good woman do when times get hard. Good men and good woman do not fold. Good men and good woman do not quit. Good men and good woman do not hand their future over to cowards and parasites in Ottawa. Good men and good woman keep moving, keep climbing, and bring others with them. That is how freedoms are won. That is how broken people become dangerous to the system again. That is how a movement becomes more than talk.

So no, this is not the end. This is the moment where people decide who they are. And I will tell you this right now: there are a lot more good men and woman out there with work boots on the ground than there are people in Ottawa with their elbows up thinking they are untouchable. Alberta independence is the path forward. To collapse the Monarch system is the crown jewel of freedom and independence that so many of you already feel in your bones, even if you have not yet found the courage to say it out loud. All it takes is one province like Alberta to lead the rest of the country out of darkness.

So be the change you say you want to see. Get serious. Get moving. And do not stop. And remember - you are closer to real freedom now more than you have ever been before - provided you get up and get out there and claim it.

I love you all more than words can ever say. You are in my heart, and you are in my prayers every single day. There is not a moment that goes by where I do not wish I could be back home standing shoulder to shoulder with you, rolling across this country and fighting for the future we all know is worth having. I look forward to the day I can come home — not to what Canada has become, but to a new country, built by people who refused to quit, refused to bow, and chose independence when it mattered most.

You have what it takes. I see it clearly, even if you are struggling to see it right now.

So, dig in, stand firm, and keep moving forward — because the finish line is closer than you think.

Get ’er done. Honk Honk