Several of the candidates in this federal election aren’t new to politics; in fact, a few of them have been around the parliamentary centre block before.
Here’s a look at some of the candidates who have come out of political retirement and decided that this was the election to try to stage a comeback:
Olivia Chow
Then and Now: Olivia Chow celebrating her win of the Trinity-Spadina riding in Toronto in 2006 (left); and announcing she will be running for MP in the federal election in 2015 (right).
Former MP Olivia Chow is once again making a bid to return to Parliament, after resigning her seat in Ottawa last year to join the Toronto mayoral race.
The long-time Toronto city councillor became an MP in 2006. Before then, she had vied for a federal seat in 1997 and 2004 under the NDP banner, but was defeated both times.
In 2014, after eight years in Parliament, Chow decided to step down to run for Toronto mayor against then-mayor Rob Ford. Though she joined the race as the favourite, she quickly lost her momentum and eventually placed third in the election, behind John Tory and Ford’s brother, Doug Ford.
Chow worked as a visiting professor at Ryerson University before she announced in July that she was once again seeking a seat in Parliament, this time in the Toronto riding of Spadina-Fort York, which includes much of the former riding of Trinity-Spadina.
She says her priorities are creating a national daycare program as well as a national transit strategy.
Gilles Duceppe
Then and Now: Gilles Duceppe in Quebec City in 1991; and in Montreal in 2015 (right).
Well-known to most Quebecers and Canadians alike, Duceppe led the Bloc Quebecois for more than 15 years.
He became an MP in 1990 and leader of the Bloc in 1996 but lost his seat in the 2011 election, when the NDP made off with many formerly Bloc ridings.
Duceppe resigned as party leader after that election, handing over the reins to Mario Beaulieu. He moved on to work as a political analyst. But in June, 2015, the Bloc announced that a deal has been struck to reinstate Duceppe as party leader while Beaulieu would remain party president.
Duceppe is now running in his former riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie, hoping to regain enough seats to return the Bloc to full party status in Parliament.
Howard Hampton
Then and Now: Howard Hampton, then-Ontario NDP leader, in 1999 at a post-election rally in Fort Frances, Ont. (left); and in Ottawa in 2014, being announced as advisor to the party on the Ring of Fire project (right).
Hampton worked in Ontario politics for 24 years, serving as an NDP MPP for the Kenora - Rainy River riding. He became leader of the Ontario NDP in 1996, taking over from former Ontario Premier Bob Rae, and held the leadership for 13 years.
Shortly after the 2007 provincial election, when the party failed to gain more seats, Hampton announced he would step down as party leader and didn’t run in the 2011 election.
Hampton returned to law and was appointed by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair as a consultant on the Ring of Fire mining development project in Northern Ontario.
He announced in June he would run for Parliament in the riding of Kenora, saying he wants to reform the country’s health care system and restore jobs to the North.
Bob Nault
Then and Now: Bob Nault in Winnipeg in 2000, when he was Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (left); and in Kenora in 2015 as Liberal candidate for the area (right).
Nault was Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from 1999-2003 under Prime Minister Jean Chretien and spent 16 years as the member of Parliament for Kenora-Rainy River.
When he announced in 2004 that he was leaving federal politics, he became a consultant to local labour unions and First Nations groups, advising them on issues of energy and government relations.
Nault will be running as the Liberal candidate against the NDP’s Howard Hampton and Conservative incumbent Greg Rickford.
Nault has said he is returning to federal politics because he wants to address rising unemployment in the North, and improve the economic fortunes of aboriginal people in northern Ontario.
Andrew Thomson
Then and Now: Andrew Thomson as Saskatchewan NDP Minister of Finance in 2007 (left); and in Toronto in 2015 (right).
Thomson is a former Saskatchewan finance minister who is running as the NDP candidate in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, where he is facing off against current federal finance minister, Joe Oliver, and Liberal newcomer, Marco Mendicino.
Thomson was a member of Saskatchewan’s Legislative Assembly for 12 years, from 1995 to 2007. He earned a reputation as a tough finance minister by helping the province post a budget surplus even while cutting taxes.
He stepped down to become Cisco’s director of sales and strategy for international business development in Toronto.
