Canada: Ignatieff could be Liberal leader by Wednesday 
It's just about a done deal. Stephane Dion is expected to resign this week and Dominic LeBlanc has dropped out, backing Michael Ignatieff, Chief Parliamentary Correspondent Craig Oliver told CTV Newsnet tonight.
"Michael Ignatieff pretty much has this leadership race wrapped up," CTV's Chief Parliamentary Correspondent Craig Oliver told CTV Newsnet Sunday evening. "It will be over by Wednesday."
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.
"I think there is an emerging feeling in the caucus that given the importance of this vote in late January, it would be appropriate to have a leader in place, and I think it's fair to say that the caucus is considering various options about how to do that, to accelerate our leadership process," Ignatieff said today on CTVs Question Period. "But Mr. Harper has to understand here that if he fails to produce a budget in the national interest of Canada, he will go down."
In a separate interview later on Question Period, Rae repeated Ignatieff's call for a decision on the Liberal leadership before Parliament resumes on Jan. 26."We need to have the leadership race moved up and we need to make sure that we've got a broad consultation with the party before the end of January," Rae said.
Dion had planned to stay on until a leadership convention in May. However, as plans for the coalition have emerged, many have called for Dion to step aside before then.
See article from earlier this weekend Dion must go, former Liberal Deputy PM says
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at 21:44 on December 7th, 2008
Bob Rae became Premier of Ontario as a member of the NDP, before becoming a member of the Liberal Party. Choosing Ignatieff as their leader may be a chance for the Liberals to reduce the influence of the NDP in the coalition, if they still expect to topple the Conservative government in January. In addition, Ignatieff may be better suited to align Canada to the new Obama's administration.
at 03:01 on December 8th, 2008
He would be just as bad as Dion as a leader, he would be a great advisor as Dion would be, yet not a leader for the Liberals nor for Canada. He is an great intellectual as Dion is and fails to be able to move masses and talk to the people. Both live on a cloud not on earth.