Liberal MP Nicola Di Iorio, shown in a handout photo. After showing up to the House of Commons very rarely since last spring, Montreal Liberal MP Nicola Di Iorio has resigned. Last spring, Di Iorio said he intended to resign by summer for personal reasons but stayed in office, working on what he said were special assignments for the prime minister. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO
January 29, 2019 - 12:06 PM
OTTAWA - House of Commons Speaker Geoff Regan says a Liberal MP from Montreal who has been promising to resign for months has now vacated his seat.
Nicola Di Iorio's resignation today comes after the new legal deadline that would require Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call a byelection and means the seat will sit empty until the general election this fall.
Di Iorio hasn't been in his seat much since April, when he said he was going to be resigning his seat by the summer for personal reasons.
Then in November the rookie MP said he would resign Jan. 22 but he didn't submit the resignation letter to Regan until today.
British Columbia NDP MP Nathan Cullen says Di Iorio is leaving his constituents unrepresented in Ottawa and last fall he asked the Speaker to investigate the matter.
Di Iorio says nobody has formally found him in breach of any rules and says he made a $100,000 donation to an impaired-driving charity to cover the salary he drew while he wasn't in Ottawa.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2019