Yvonne Jones, Gudie Hutchings join national exodus of Liberals who won't run in next federal election

A long-serving Newfoundland and Labrador member of parliament is poised to announce that her long political career is coming to a close and she will not be running in the next federal election.

CBC News has learned that Liberal Labrador MP Yvonne Jones is also stepping away from federal politics and won't be running in the next election.

Jones is holding a news conference on Friday in Happy Valley-Goose Bay where she is expected to officially make the announcement.

She's currently the parliamentary secretary to the minister of Northern Affairs and to the minister of National Defence.

Jones, 56, has been active in politics at all levels for years. She was mayor of Mary's Harbour from 1991 to 1996, before making the leap to provincial politics as the MHA for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair until 2013. That same year, Jones was first elected as an MP.

Jones has faced repeated health challenges in recent years. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. In 2022 she announced she would be taking a break from politics after receiving a second cancer diagnosis.

Jones wasn't alone in making political headlines on Thursday.

Gudie Hutchings, who represents Long Range Mountains and is minister of Rural Economic Development and responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, also announced she will not seek re-election, but would stay on board until an election is called.

Jones and Hutchings join a number of Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal MPs who have announced their intentions to step back from politics ahead of this year's election. Avalon MP Ken McDonald, St. John's South-Mount Pearl MP Seamus O'Regan and Bonavista-Burin-Trinity MP Churence Rogers made their decisions over the course of 2024.

N.L. has seven seats in the House of Commons. A spokesperson for St. John's East Liberal MP Joanne Thompson — who was recently folded into Justin Trudeau's cabinet as minister of seniors — confirmed to CBC News on Thursday that she will be running in the next election. 

Clifford Small, Conservative MP of Coast of Bays-Central-Notre Dame, appears to be forging ahead as the federal Tories continue to ride a wave of momentum.

A federal election needs to take place before October, but is believed it could happen sooner. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier this week he was stepping down as party leader and prime minister, and that the Parliament is prorogued until March 24.

Opposition parties have vowed to trigger an election at the earliest opportunity.

Hutchings was first elected in 2015.

"Being elected and entrusted to serve people I have called friends, neighbours and family in the place I have called home all my life, has been the honour of a lifetime," she wrote in a statement posted on social media.

"I believe in Canada, and I love Newfoundland and Labrador, I hope that during my time as your member of parliament I have been able to help shape our country and my province for the better, for my grandchildren and yours, too."

She cited family as the reason behind her decision to not run for a fourth term and that in her time as a politician she has become a grandmother and that her older sister and brother-in-law both died.

"Changes like this are a fact of life, and we have to enjoy the time we are here, but these changes force us to take stock. If time was no issue, I would serve another ten years," Hutchings wrote.

Hutchings was re-elected in 2019 and was then appointed as the parliamentary secretary to the minister for women and gender equality and rural economic development.

She once again returned to Ottawa in the 2021 federal election and was then appointed to the Rural Economic Development portfolio.

In the summer of 2023, Trudeau shuffled his cabinet where Hutchings landed as the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

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