Will $20,000 Fine Remove Volpe From Leadership Race?

Interesting news today, the Liberal Party has fined Joe Volpe $20,000 because his campaign paid for the membership of others. He has 30 days from September 29th 2006 to pay the fine or else he will be removed from the leadership race.

Is this going to be a big enough financial blow for Volpe? Well, let's look at the numbers (well, the best I can with the Elections Canada website down).

Cerberus has Joe Volpe at $210,170 with 91 donors as of August 4th 2006

Joe Volpe's Website claims these numbers:

August 3rd Report: $48,210.00
July 10th Report: $77,595.55
June 9th Report: $58,900.00
Contributions before then are supposed to be found here at the Elections Canada website. Of course, 5 donations of $5,400 are to be removed from that total.

Based on these numbers and the fact that Volpe in still in the race after a number of scandals, I predict that Volpe will grudgingly cough up the $20,000. Well, at least the leadership race won't become boring.

Update: Looks like Volpe is going to appeal the fine. That was predictable. If Volpe wins the appeal, it will be very funny. If he does not, he'll pay the fine at the last minute.