Keith Wilson’s post-referendum reflections are quite something. After spending years arguing that independence was Alberta’s only viable future, he pivoted to encouraging people who actually wanted to remain in Canada to vote Option 2 for supposed negotiating leverage. Now, having lost by roughly three to one, he’s celebrating those same votes as the foundation of a growing independence movement while announcing that he intends to keep supporting the UCP, whose premier explicitly campaigned for remaining in Canada. So independence was essential, then it was negotiating leverage, and now the path to independence apparently runs through a federalist premier and a party committed to keeping Alberta in Canada. That’s an impressive amount of political manoeuvring without actually getting anywhere. I particularly wonder what the federalists who voted Option 2 for “leverage” think about being retroactively recruited into his independence movement. Presumably, their membership cards are in the mail.