Don't you just love it when even the poli-junkies are dead wrong?

I'm all of a sudden much more excited about this leadership race now. With McKenna gone, the race is literally wide open - there is no longer a clear front-runner. I don't think this was predicted by anybody. But I say, what is it with popular premiers from New Brunswick turning down a near-sure-to-win bid to lead a federal party, eh Bernie?

So how does this look for the other players?

Well, it creates space on the "right" of the playing field (though I think it's generally unhelpful to use terms like that). Also, it means that there's more room for another Atlantic candidate to run, so it definitely works in Brison's favour in that regard.

It also means that both the Martin and Chretien people have lost their main contenders - perhaps Manley and McKenna did this deliberately in order to help the party unify instead of continuing the old leadership wars? Who knows.

Either way, it means that any serious candidate who declares that they are running from this point on will have pretty much an equal chance of winning, and that makes for a much more interesting race.