It's official: Svend Robinson is attempting another political comeback

Thirteen years after his last attempt, NDP stalwart Svend Robinson is mounting another bid for a political comeback.

The former MP announced Tuesday morning that he will run as a New Democrat in Burnaby North-Seymour in this year's federal election.

He told reporters the news outside his childhood home at 301 N. Grosvenor Ave., which is in the riding.

Beginning in 1979, Robinson spent 25 years in Parliament representing Burnaby constituents. That all ended in 2004, after he admitted to stealing a valuable ring at an auction.

In the years since, he has spent time in Switzerland working with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. After retiring in 2017, Robinson and his partner moved to Cyprus.

Robinson was the first openly gay MP in Canada, and was a major figure in the unsuccessful fight to legalize physician-assisted death in the 1990s.

He last tried to return to politics in the 2006 election, when he challenged Liberal Hedy Fry in Vancouver Centre. Fry easily defeated him by a margin of more than 8,000 votes.