HALIFAX—Three months after announcing she would try her hand at federal politics, Lenore Zann is stepping down from the Nova Scotia legislature.

The Truro-Bible Hill-Millbrook-Salmon River MLA said in a news release she would issue her resignation from the house of assembly on Thursday afternoon, one day after Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau called the start of the Oct. 21 federal election campaign.

Zann, a long-time New Democrat who once tried for the provincial party leadership, left the Nova Scotia NDP in June to compete for the federal Liberal nomination in Cumberland-Colchester. She won the Liberal nomination in July and continued acting as an independent MLA.

“I have held off resigning as MLA until now as I have always felt a deep sense of duty to represent my constituents to the very best of my ability — and have never been a quitter,” Zann said in the Thursday news release.

But with her first campaign event scheduled for Friday, Zann said it was time to step down from provincial politics.

Three other Nova Scotia MLAs — Eddie Orrell, Chris d’Entremont and Alfie MacLeod — are also running federally this year and kept their provincial seats after announcing their bids for a stretch of months. All three stepped down as Progressive Conservative MLAs in July and are now running for the federal Conservative party. Their former seats were filled in byelections at the start of September.

Premier Stephen McNeil has been critical of all four of the members for keeping their seats after announcing their federal campaigns.

After a Thursday morning cabinet meeting — before Zann had announced her resignation — McNeil reiterated his disapproval.

“As far as I’m concerned, (Zann) should have resigned the day she received the nomination for the federal Liberal party.”

McNeil said it’s possible he could change the provincial legislation to force MLAs to resign upon securing other nominations.

He wouldn’t say how soon he might call a byelection in Zann’s riding after her resignation, but according to provincial legislation, he will have to do so within six months.

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