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“I will be eternally grateful. Thank you to my election team and the voters of Ottawa-Vanier for the privilege of serving them.

“I look forward to seeing you all at the opening of Parliament.”

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is almost always fatal within three to five years. It progressively attacks the motor neurons that trigger muscle function, leaving victims paralyzed and ultimately unable to breathe or swallow. The cause is still unknown and there are no known treatments that stop or substantially slow its progress.

In the bulbar form of ALS, the muscles used to speak are among the first affected.

Patients with bulbar ALS may require assistance communicating, says Dr. Lorne Zinman, the director of the Toronto Sunnybrook Hospital’s ALS clinic and chair of the Canadian ALS Research Network.

“At some point, most patients lose the ability to speak,” said Zinman.

But an ALS clinic can equip patients with technology that will allow them to communicate through eye movements or other means, he said.

“We can make a major difference.”

As the disease progresses, patients require wheelchairs, then ventilators and feeding tubes.

Zinman says approximately one in 1,000 people is diagnosed with ALS in his or her lifetime, about the same rate as multiple sclerosis, though the prognosis with ALS is far more grave.

Bélanger, now serving his eighth term in Parliament, was considered a front-runner in the contest to replace Andrew Scheer as Speaker. His withdrawal leaves Liberal MPs Geoff Regan, Denis Paradis and Yasmin Ratansi as the declared contenders. MPs will elect a new Speaker Thursday.