Justice Minister Arif Virani will not be running in the next federal election, he announced Monday.
The Toronto MP is the fifth federal minister in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet to announce they’re not running for re-election since the prime minister shuffled his cabinet in December — the sixth if you include Trudeau himself.
“It has been the honour of a lifetime to have served as the Member of Parliament for Parkdale-High Park for three straight elections,” Virani said in a statement. He said he made the decision “with a heavy heart, and after considerable soul searching for the past several weeks.”
Virani said he will stay on as minister as long as he has the privilege to serve, and as MP until the next election.
Virani was first elected in 2015. Before he was appointed justice minister in 2023, he served as a parliamentary secretary for a number of portfolios including immigration, heritage, justice and international trade.
In his statement, he also discussed the impact of his political career on his wife and two sons, who have only known a family life with their husband and father in politics and frequently out of town.
“People say that is the price of public service,” he said. “But it is hard to appreciate the toll that price takes unless you live it, personally in my case, for over a decade.”
Virani joins Transport and Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand, Rural Development Minister Gudie Hutchings, Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan and former tourism minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada as federal cabinet members who aren’t seeking re-election.
Ferrada resigned from cabinet last week to run for mayor of Montreal. The others remain in their posts.
