First, care of Rick Mercer, care of Calgary Grit.Second, care of Alberta: Get Rich or Die Trying.

I read an interesting comment on the front-page of some newspaper or another today, that a senior Conservative official said that this budget is being "handled by grown-ups".  So no political games this time.  Well that's good news, I guess.The bad news is that it took almost losing power before the Conservatives thought about maybe not having infants in control of the nation's finances.

I seriously considered commenting on the possibility of this last week, and thought "better" of it.  Harper would both appear to have given up his authority, and would add another reason to take it from him if he were to attempt to stack the senate with Conservatives before a confidence vote, I thought.Silly me.  Silly, silly me.

It's official.As the National Executive notes, the convention will go on as planned.  We are just in the weird situation where due to forces outside of our control, the Liberal Party was called upon to unite around a leader faster than our leadership selection process would have allowed.  But because of Bob Rae and Dominic LeBlanc's selfless actions, the Liberal Party has been able to do that and respect the rules of its constitution at the same time.

At least one group seems to be talking about this whole mess in terms that are consistent with the constitution of the party.  The National Executive.  As required, they are going to consult with caucus (and as not required but a nice touch, virtually everyone else), and appoint an "interim" leader.  The existing leadership process will continue as per normal.

From Stephane Dion's statement today:After the election on October 14 I announced I would stay on as Leader of the Liberal Party until my party could select my successor.[But, things have changed ...]So I have decided to step aside as Leader of the Liberal Party effective as soon as my successor is duly chosen. Well.  Thank goodness we got that sorted out.

Michael Ignatieff has sent a letter out to supporters with the title "Winning Leadership the Right Way" saying, in part:

Issue: There is a proposal to elect an interim liberal leader at a caucus meeting on Wednesady, and ratify that decision at the May vote in Vancouver.  Can this be done?Pertinent Constitution of the Liberal Party of Canada provisions:

Honestly, don't these people know I have an exam tomorrow morning?OK, so the deal now (updated here)is that Rae and Iggy are both on board with a fast leadership process, and LeBlanc is going to drop out, and Dion is going to resign on Wednesday (again).