OTTAWA - Michael Ignatieff has secured the federal Liberal leadership without a fight after his last remaining rival, longtime friend Bob Rae, bowed out.
Rae informed his supporters of his decision during a conference call this morning and is to make it official at a news conference later today. His decision came just hours after the Liberal national executive rejected his plea to find an expedited way of giving all party members a vote for Stephane Dion's replacement.
Rae gave his supporters an advance peek at his statement, in which he said he still believes an open process would have been "a vital and healthy process for the party."
But he vows to accept the party's choice "without rancour or undue disappointment."
"I offer my full and unqualified support to Michael, a friend and colleague of 40 years standing. I call on all my friends and supporters to do the same," Rae will say in the statement.
"There are many who will be deeply disappointed with this decision and indeed troubled with what has happened. But I ask them to recognize that we cannot always control the flow of events and that our own interests and ambitions are much less important than the public interest of the Liberal party and the country."
Rae will appeal to Liberals to pull together to fight Stephen Harper's Conservatives.
"The Liberal party has known too much division in the past and I have no intention of pursuing a course that would hurt the party."
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