John Crosbie, a Newfoundland political legend, appears to be ready to run again for federal office after an 11-year absence.

CTV News has confirmed he'll seek the Conservative Party's nomination in the federal Newfoundland riding of Avalon and will make an announcement Wednesday.

This came as a bit of a surprise to the federal Conservative Party.

"He hasn't filed any paperwork as a candidate or anything like that, so as far as we know, he's not a candidate," Andrew Skaling, a Conservative Party spokesman in Ottawa, told CTV.ca earlier on Tuesday.

No one has filed nomination papers yet in Avalon. The party hopes to have a nomination meeting within the next week, he said.

The election was called Sunday. The vote is on June 28.

Loyola Hearn, a Newfoundland Conservative MP, told the Canadian Press that he'd talked to Crosbie and his old friend was interested. Conservative leader Stephen Harper also told CP he'd welcome Crosbie as a candidate.

Crosbie, 73, has been politically involved at the municipal, provincial and federal levels in Newfoundland. He started out as a Liberal but had a falling-out with Joey Smallwood, the premier of the day.

He was a cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney's government from 1984 to 1993. As fisheries minister, he gave the order to shut down the cod fishery. He represented the old St. John's West riding, which is adjacent to Avalon.

Since leaving politics in 1993, Crosbie has worked as a lawyer and consultant in St. John's and is a director of several corporations. He has also been in the media commenting on politics.

If he does choose to run, he'll face at least two opponents.

The incumbent is John Efford, minister of natural resources in the cabinet of Prime Minister Paul Martin. He was elected two years ago in a byelection for Bonavista-Trinity-Conception -- which disappeared through redistricting -- after spending 16 years in provincial politics.

Efford had unsuccessfully run for the leadership of the provincial Liberals after having held several cabinet posts.

Crosbie was known as a fiery politician, but Mike Duffy, host of Newsnet's Countdown with Mike Duffy, said Efford is no "piker when it comes to political stumping himself."

The other declared candidate is Don Ferguson of the Green Party.

In the 2002 byelection, Efford received 18,665 votes, winning by more than 13,000 over his Progressive Conservative rival. The Canadian Alliance candidate took 166 votes, the Green 139 and the NDP 599.

However, according to the Elections Canada website, if one took the results of the 2000 federal election and transposed them onto Avalon, the Liberal candidate would have won by about 3,200 votes.

The Liberals won five of seven seats in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2000, but at dissolution, the Tories had three, picking up a byelection win.