Harper-era cabinet minister Ed Fast will not seek re-election

Ed Fast, the long-serving Conservative MP for the Lower Mainland riding of Abbotsford, B.C., will not seek re-election, he says, setting up what is expected to be a vigorous nomination fight that could include former B.C. finance minister Mike de Jong.

Fast, first elected to the House of Commons in 2006, served as Stephen Harper’s international trade minister. In the most recent Conservative leadership campaign, Fast co-chaired Jean Charest’s campaign and criticized eventual winner Pierre Poilievre for threatening to fire Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem. Poilievre left Fast out of his so-called “shadow cabinet” — the group of official Opposition critics — and Poilievre’s office has not assigned Fast to any House of Commons committee.

Fast, who will turn 70 next year, said in a statement it’s time to turn the leadership of the party over to a new generation.

“It’s now time for the next generation of leader to step forward and represent the residents of our community,” Fast said.

Fast, a lawyer by training, was first elected to public office in 1985 as a school board trustee. He went on to become a city councillor before succeeding Randy White as Abbotsford’s MP in the 2006 election. He went into Harper’s cabinet after the Conservative majority win in 2011 and served four years as international trade minister, a period when he led negotiations that would lead to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal with the EU and other trade arrangements with the likes of South Korea,  Colombia and Peru.

Fast will continue to serve as MP until the next election but his decision Thursday is likely to set in motion some furious internal Conservative politics in the ridings south of the lower Fraser River.

Fast’s riding of Abbotsford,