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Peterson, along with fellow dark horses Rudy Husny and Marilyn Gladu, had earlier called on the party to extend the March 25th deadline for candidates to pony up $300,000 in order to join O’Toole and MacKay as “verified candidates.”

To do otherwise, Gladu suggested, would be “tone-deaf.”

“I don’t believe that soliciting our members at this time is the right thing to do,” Husny wrote on Twitter, “and will just make us look out of touch and frankly disconnected.”

Peterson, Gladu and Husny are correct. The party, which insists the campaign is full steam ahead with all hands on deck, is out to lunch. Delaying the process might be better than soldiering on. Better still, however, would be to abandon the campaign, refund everyone’s money and hold a vote for leader among the declared candidates as soon as possible.

There are eight nominal candidates in the race. In theory, six of them are still trying to raise the full $300,000. As Husny suggests, it is downright rude to be badgering people for money right now, or even hawking memberships. It’s also pretty much pointless. Not all the candidates were going to raise the full amount even before COVID-19 came along. The chances of anyone other than MacKay or O’Toole winning were, and are, vanishingly small.