182
Another Tory politician has announced he will not run in the next election.
North Ontario politician Joe Comuzzi is retiring after 20 years in federal politics.
The Thunder Bay-Superior North MP says he met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week and informed him he won't run in the next election.
He joins veteran MP Monte Solberg, Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson and Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn in not seeking a seat in the election expected to be called after Mr. Harper meets Governor General Michaëlle Jean at 9 a.m. ET Sunday.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper looks on after Joe Comuzzi announced he would join the Conservatives in Thunder Bay, Ont. on June 26, 2007. (Adrian Wyld/CP Photo)
Related Articles
Mr. Comuzzi was at one time the Liberal minister responsible for FedNor. He sat as a Liberal until 2006, but switched to the Conservatives in June 2007.
Mr. Comuzzi says his health is good and he simply wants a career change. (CKPR)
Meanwhile Mr. Emerson may be leaving parliament, but he will remain a key backroom figure in the Conservatives' re-election campaign.
The former business executive and top B.C. bureaucrat says he has agreed to be one of the national co-chairs of the Tories' election campaign.
Mr. Emerson said today he had no regrets jumping to the Conservatives from the Liberals two years ago.
Mr. Emerson says he informed Mr. Harper a year ago that he likely would not run for re-election in his Vancouver-Kingsway riding, but didn't make the decision until last weekend after consulting his family.
Mr. Emerson says despite being recruited by then-Liberal prime minister Paul Martin in 2004, he now believes Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives are best equipped to lead Canada.
If he had decided to run for re-election, Mr. Emerson said it would have been in his local riding, despite the anger raised by his decision to jump to the Tories just days after being elected as a Liberal in 2006.
