Angry in the Great White North

Dominic LeBlanc has dropped out of the Liberal Party leadership race:

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is expected to resign this week and Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc has dropped out of the leadership race and will support rival Michael Ignatieff, CTV News has learned.

"Michael Ignatieff pretty much has this leadership race wrapped up," CTV's Chief Political Correspondent Craig Oliver told CTV Newsnet Sunday evening.

Oliver said LeBlanc will make the announcement Monday, according to senior officials. He said LeBlanc will bring four MPs and five senators with him to back Ignatieff.

But really, it's the race that has been cancelled:

The Liberal caucus is to meet on Wednesday, which will include 57 MPs who support Ignatieff, Oliver said. They would "almost certainly" vote to make Ignatieff their parliamentary leader, putting immense pressure on Liberal MP Bob Rae to drop out of the leadership race.

But the Rae camp says that choosing a leader behind closed doors is not the right move for the Liberal party.

Earlier on Sunday, Ignatieff said the Liberal caucus may "accelerate" the process to replace Dion, and warned that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government will fall if it does not produce a strong budget next month.

So all this talk about acceleration is really just a code for no leadership convention in May.  The Liberal Party constitution is clear in that the caucus and the party executive is empowered only to select the interim leader.  The permanent leader can only be selected at a convention via the Liberal Party membership at large (through a delegate system).

The only exception is when there is only one candidate, which would be true if Bob Rae dropped out as well.

In other words, the pro-Ignatieff faction of the Liberal Party is trying to have Michael Ignatieff win the leadership by acclamation.  That's fine, but what about all the money dropped by Dominic LeBlanc in order to get into the race that is likely never to happen?

The national executive also set an entry fee for leadership candidates of $90,000, providing a rebate that depends on how much money a candidate raises for the Victory Fund, a Liberal fundraising initiative. The fee is higher than the $50,000 refundable deposit paid by candidates in the 2006 race.

If I was Dominic LeBlanc, or a backer of Dominic LeBlanc, I'd be seriously considering asking for my money back.