So what do the preliminary referendum results tell us? @ABDanielleSmith may very well win most or all of her nine questions. For tonight, she looks to have strengthened her position considerably. But what she does with that strength could yet become her undoing. Pro-Independence MLA Jason Stephan announced today that he will not seek reelection. If Smith believes the next step is to turf sovereigntists to turn the page, she is making a spectacular mistake. Canada wins tonight. But it has not resolved the grievances that brought Alberta here. The #AlbertaIndependence movement is a real political force. It is going nowhere. The CPC worked hard for this result. Dane Lloyd was especially visible. But winning a referendum and retaining the loyalty of the people you campaigned against are two very different things. The Conservatives should be asking how much of their political capital in Alberta they spent tonight—and they likely are unable to earn it back. Nearly a quarter of participating voters supported moving toward an Independence referendum. Those people aren’t going to disappear when the counting ends. They also make up a massive amount of rural Alberta. Nor should the CPC assume they will quietly return to the fold because someone waves the threat of a Liberal government at them. Loyalty is not a lifetime subscription. The @albertanowparty has formed and intends to be an Albertan analogue to the Bloc Québécois. There is another danger for the Conservatives: a campaign built around Canadian unity gives the federal Liberals an opening in Edmonton and Calgary. The CPC is about to discover that it helped strengthen an identity its opponents are better positioned to claim. Meanwhile, Albertans who put Alberta first have been given no reason to abandon that conviction. Views have hardened. Nobody should mistake a referendum result for reconciliation. The grievances remain. The demand for self-government remains. The question at the heart of this movement remains: Should Alberta exist primarily to serve Albertans, or to serve Canada? Their answer hasn’t changed. It will never change. Smith can take tonight’s result as an opportunity to address those grievances—or as permission to dismiss the people raising them. It appears she has chosen the latter, she risks turning disappointment into a determined effort to replace her. For the Independence movement, the work ahead is political. Memberships. Constituency boards. Nominations. Leadership. We need to organize within the @Alberta_UCP, make the case beyond our existing supporters, and build a movement capable of earning a majority and governing. Federally, instead of boycotting the vote, support Alberta Now. A defeat becomes permanent only when you stop doing the work required to win. Tonight belongs to the count. Tomorrow belongs to those willing to organize. Alberta First. Still and Always.