Paul Lefebvre, the former Liberal MP in Sudbury, is running to be mayor of Greater Sudbury in the October municipal election, CTV News has learned.
Lefebvre will discuss his decision to enter municipal politics Thursday night during a live interview on CTV News at 6 with Brendan Connor.
It was just more than a year ago that Lefebvre, who was born in 1974, announced he wasn't running for re-election to the House of Commons. He was elected twice – first in 2015 and again in 2019 – by comfortable margins before announcing he wasn't running again.
At the time, he said the strain of being away from his family took too much of a toll. He and his wife, Sudbury dermatologist Lyne Giroux, have three children.
"I have valued every moment I have spent in Ottawa, working for Sudburians," Lefebvre in a statement at the time.
"But the time away from my family these past six years has been difficult, and it’s time someone else earned the chance to serve this great riding ... For this reason, I have decided I will not seek re-election when this term of Parliament is dissolved."
He said he was looking forward to returning to life as a private citizen. But a year later, he is returning to politics to challenge Brian Bigger, the only person to be re-elected mayor in Greater Sudbury's short history.
Bigger took 28.32 per cent of the vote in 2018 in a crowded field of mayor candidates, after first winning in 2014 with 46.32 per cent of the vote.
The municipal election is Oct. 24.
