Victoria MP and NDP deputy house Leader Murray Rankin has announced he will not seek re-election this fall.
The two-term MP and former law professor says he’ll leave his seat in Parliament come election day, Oct. 21.
Rankin was first elected MP for Victoria in 2012 and re-elected in 2015. In 2016, he was named justice and attorney general critic and in 2017 was appointed deputy house leader by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
In his statement Thursday afternoon, Rankin vowed to continue fighting against the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, and to use the remainder of his term to push the federal government to expunge criminal records for Canadians convicted of simple cannabis possession.
Rankin says he will help campaign for the next federal NDP candidate in Victoria, a seat that has gone to the New Democrats in the past four general elections.