OTTAWA - NDP brass will meet in Ottawa Friday to lay the ground rules for the race to replace the late Jack Layton.
It falls to the NDP's federal council to pick a date and location for a leadership convention, set a spending limit and decide whether to set aside a certain portion of the vote for labour unions.
These issues will determine who runs for leader -- and who sits this one out.
Names being bandied about for leader include party president and Layton confidant Brian Topp, deputy leader and Quebec lieutenant Thomas Mulcair, British Columbia MP Peter Julian and Ontario MPs Paul Dewar and Charlie Angus.
The New Democrats are being urged by the group Democracy Watch to, among other things, waive the fee to run, disclose all leadership campaign donations and set a "reasonable" spending limit.
The prevailing sense is that it will be a seven-month contest to replace Layton, who died of cancer last month.
