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Like most of us, Danielle Smith’s crew believed Premier Jim Prentice would hold the election in spring 2016, as he often said he would, and the law said he should.

Bikman figures that had the Wildrosers refused to cross, they might have struggled with caucus unity, “but we’d have gone down with the ship … we’d have gone down swinging.”

His pain and regret couldn’t be more obvious.

And then Bikman writes: “To you, our former supporters, we are cowards and traitors. Any attempts to explain what was happening inside the party or our fears our caucus would collapse are seen by you as excuses, not explanations.”

It remains astonishing that the nine Wildrose MLAs, including Smith, didn’t see all this last December. Plenty of colleagues tried to jolt them out of their strange delusional sleepwalk.

But the MLAs were new at the job. Most were from rural areas where a person’s word stands strong. And they were up against some of the wiliest, most experienced political operators in Canada.

Now it may all be going off the rails — for both sides.

We’re seeing not just failure and lost careers for the Wildrose defectors, but also disintegration of the PC attempt to both unite the right and kill the Wildrose movement.

PC voters are suddenly throwing crossers out to retirement. This prompted a hint of panic from the party.

After Smith, Bikman and Fox were defeated, ex-Wildroser Bruce McAllister was saved only because the PC party disqualified his opponent Jamie Lall, a loyal party activist for many years.