Bob Rae seeks Liberal nomination in Toronto-Centre

March 7, 2007

Liberal party member Bob Rae has announced his bid to run for Parliament in the riding of Toronto-Centre. This comes a month after Bill Graham said he will not run again in the next election.

In order to run for office in Canada, the candidate must fill papers for their nomination to run for whichever party they chose. Rae signed his nomination papers today.

Even before Rae officially said he would run for office there was speculation that he would run again.

"It's 12 years since I stood for elected office...and it's quite a while since I ran for federal Parliament so (today) is a fun moment for me," Rae said. "The last year's been terrific, getting back into the swing of debates and scrums and speeches and meeting people, and doing it all is fun."

Toronto lawyer Meredith Cartwright is also expected to contest the nomination which will likely be decided in April.

Rae was leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party and was premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995. Rae was a Liberal leadership candidate and lost to Stéphane Dion in December 2006.

Martha Hall Findlay and Gerard Kennedy, who were also Liberal leadership candidates, will run again for the Liberals in the next election. Like Rae, they ran for the leadership with no seat in the House of Commons.