Reports say former Liberal MP Joe Comuzzi will soon join the Conservatives, months after he left his party over a budget vote.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will announce the move on Tuesday, according to the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal newspaper.

The jump would make him the first Conservative MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North in more than 70 years.

Tory member Donald James Cowan won the seat in 1930, when the riding was called Port Arthur.

Comuzzi told Liberal Leader Stephane Dion he would support the Conservative budget on March 21, because it was important for his riding.

The budget promised millions of dollars for Thunder Bay's Molecular Medicine Research Centre -- although, as of yet, no money has been announced.

The last MP to leave his caucus over a federal budget was then-Conservative member Bill Casey, who represents Nova Scotia's riding of Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley.

He said the budget disregarded the Atlantic Accord on offshore resources for his province.