I'll see your Executive director for Canada at the World Bank and Raise you...

I was delighted to see earlier this week two intellectual heavyweights joining the fray of the Liberal Leadership race.

Donald Johnston, who was in charge of the OECD for the last decade, and is a former president of the Liberal Party of Canada and 1980's Cabinet Minister has endorsed Bob Rae.

Not to be outdone, Stephane Dion published on his website his endorsement by former Rhodes scholar, Clerk of the Privy Council, and Chretien era Minister and architect of the plan to balance Canada's books Marcel Masse straight back from his gig at the World Bank in Washington.

These two guys are smart, problem-solvers whose intellectual capacity would cause some rookie candidates to soil their pants.

All that to say that Dion and Rae have done very well this week, with the exception of the Dion campaign's exhuming of Pearson-era policy wonk Tom Kent...talk about someone whose ideas haven't changed since the war era. Well, at least Masse will lend Dion some credibility on economic issues.