I think it's a mistake. They could have gone with the Greens, even led them. They could have doubled their seats and doubled it again, in a single day, and made that option a serious force to be reckoned with - the only party that actually stands for the things they say they want, instead of just paying lip service to it during campaigns. The greatest chance of achieving the kind of policies she wants lies in assembling a powerful group effort to get it done.
Alone, even if they can win their seats*, they'll have no power to do anything once elected. They will get no chance to speak during Question Period, which is a useless shit-show but still the only part of parliamentary proceedings the media covers anymore. They only cover the rest if they sense some inherent drama about to unfold. (Indeed, would they ever have covered those committee hearings if JWR was not there to deliver some bombshells?)
Think about it: if the problem was that even as governing-party MP's and cabinet ministers, they had no real power or autonomy to stray from the PMO / party leader's game plan, they'll have even less as members of no party representing nothing beyond the borders of their own riding. What MP from any other party but the Greens would stick their necks out to support any legislation coming from JWR or Philpott?
Their only hope to effect change would be in a hung parliament, where the margin between minority and majority is so thin that the parties would need their 1 or 2 seats to make or break a government.
If Scheer and the Conservatives won a minority and needed them numerically, they couldn't join that coalition because they stand on opposite ends of most issues (neither JWR or JP was considered a "blue Liberal"), so forgte about cooperation there. If the Liberals were in that position instead, believe me they are going to hold a grudge, unless Trudeau himself was out of the way so they could welcome them back in without losing face.
So we're back to them hoping that 2 seats out of 338 can generate some sort of leverage with parties that are more likely to shut them out.
People point out Chuck Cadman as having similar levels of personal support, but they also forget the ferocity with which his former Reform / Alliance / Conservative colleagues turned against him for daring to disagree and go his own way. He didn't live long enough to really test out what an indie could do. His widow certainly didn't think much of her chances of carrying the torch after him - she went back into the Con fold.
For JWR, she's got a fighting chance of winning Vancouver-Granville, but the Cons have a chance too. She better hope that enough of the anti-Trudeau vote (Cons mostly) will vow for her out of some kind of spite. Everyone who doesn't want the Cons will be split between Liberal, NDP, Green, and her. The Greens may like her and not want to undercut her, but consider that if the Greens don't run a candidate in every riding, they might be excluded from the leaders' election debates, so they would be forced to at least put a paper candidate up, and that would siphon votes away from JWR - to the advantage of the Cons.
As for Philpott, she's likely ended her career as an MP - her riding is solidly red-vs.-blue, and the "hero" badge was not hung upon her the same way it was for JWR. The Libs will want to compete just to be rid of her, and the Con voters in that riding can vote Con with a solid expectation of victory. (Trudeau half loses if Philpott wins, but fully if some Con wins.)
One other thing JWR maybe failed to consider:
She is the most powerful indigenous politician in Canada to date. She held one of the few major cabinet positions (major being powerful enough to affect all aspects of governance). So indigenous people were proud of her, and supported the party she was with because they supported her. When she and that party had a falling out, their support clearly went with her. But now, if she carries the indigenous vote at all, it will only be in her own riding. All the indigenous people outside her riding who want to continue supporting her will have no avenue to do so. At least if JWR had joined the Greens, even if they could not directly vote for her, the indigenous voters outside her riding could have supported the party she was with. So that's gone now too.
I know she wanted to change party politics to be more independent-oriented and non-partisan, but the fact that she was even offered to lead the Greens if she joins only show the degree to which their views and her are naturally aligned. She could lead them to that objective and they would have followed because who leads the party is not as important as their mission (which is basically the same).
Instead, I think we're just going to see another election which shows Canadians how much First-Past-The Post drives these cruel calculations, and fosters the very extreme partisanship which JWR wants to rebel against.
Idealism is nice, but when it's not paired with tactical & strategic cunning, it fails.
