from overshadowing the Ontario government's agenda. Kennedy formally declared his candidacy in front of the House of Commons in Ottawa, on April 27, 2006. On May 18, Kennedy formally resigned from the provincial legislature. This was after several weeks of criticism over drawing an MPP's salary, despite his absence from the legislature and his stated intention to live for part of the summer in Quebec. Kennedy responded saying that he intended to resign his seat "sooner rather than later," but first wanted to finish some local projects he'd been working on. On August 16, Premier McGuinty called a by-election to replace Kennedy in Parkdale–High Park for September 14. The centre-left leaning riding was arguably held in part thanks to Kennedy's personal popularity (due to his work as food bank director and education minister) versus that of his party; Sylvia Watson could not retain the seat for the Liberals in the subsequent by-election, apparently being unable to "ride the coattails of Kennedy's popularity". The Toronto Star reported that Gerard Kennedy appeared to have signed up more new members than any other candidate during the member recruitment period. The article stated that it had been "conventional wisdom" that Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae were the leaders in the race but Kennedy's numbers indicated that it was a wide-open race. On September 8, Joe Fontana, MP for London North Centre and Gerard Kennedy's Ontario Co-Chair, announced that he would be resigning his seat in the House of Commons to run for mayor in London; and, it was speculated Kennedy would run in the by-election, which he did not. On "Super Weekend", from September 29 to October 1, the Liberal Party elected approximately 85% of delegates. Kennedy finished in third place with 17.3% of delegates being pledged to his campaign, a similar number to Stéphane Dion, who received 16.0% and to Bob Rae who received 20.3%.At the December Liberal leadership convention, the "Super Weekend" elected delegates were bound (or committed) to vote on the first ballot for the leadership candidate they had pledged to support. On the second and subsequent ballots, however, the delegates were – if they wished – able to switch their votes to another candidate. Besides sizable delegate support he was supported also by 20 MPs and former MPs, with about a dozen Ontario MPPs. On November 27, Kennedy attracted media attention when he became the first leadership candidate to oppose