When Canadians next go the polls, Ed Broadbent's name won't be on the ballot. The former NDP leader is not seeking re-election.

Broadbent, 69, told a news conference Wednesday that his wife's declining health was the paramount reason for his decision.

"Some of you have been aware that my wife Lucille has had an intensified health problem since this past Christmas. She now spends much of each day in pain," a sombre Broadbent explained to reporters.

"I simply cannot continue in the future with all the work expected of an MP and meet my deeply felt obligations to the person who is the love of my life."

He said he made his decision about 10 days ago and "it was not a decision I mulled over a long time." He informed his party Wednesday morning at the NDP's weekly caucus meeting.

Broadbent returned to federal politics last year, compelled to end his 15-year retirement, he said, by the need to fight Canada's drift to the political right.

He told reporters Wednesday he feels he achieved a good deal for his riding during his one-year return to office. But he added that he is disappointed that his party has not been able to convince the Liberals to work on electoral reform.

He said for that reason, he has offered to act as an adviser to the party and to leader Jack Layton on the issue of electoral reform and ethics.

Broadbent praised Layton for reaching a forced budget deal with the Liberals and said that because of that agreement, he expects the NDP to gain more seats in the next election.

"We have never been in a better position, I think. Jack has negotiated a terrific deal for the people of Canada. All of these goodies plus a balanced budget -- what more could you want?

"We literally compelled, by the force of circumstances, the Liberals to do what they did. And so I don't think that we will have fewer seats -- we will have more seats."

Voters first sent Broadbent to Ottawa in 1968, as a young NDP MP from Oshawa, Ont. Seven years later, he took over as party leader. Broadbent remained NDP leader until he left politics in 1989.

Active in a wide range of non-governmental organizations in the following years, Broadbent reasserted his political voice when he declared his support for Jack Layton as NDP leader.

When he announced his intention to contest the federal election, Broadbent managed to draw national media attention to his party.

Besides recalling the party's recent electoral zenith -- when the Broadbent-led NDP claimed 43 seats in the 1988 election -- he captured headlines with his unlikely turn as a rapper.

In a music video spoof recorded for the TV comedy This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Broadbent rhymes: "I'll warm the ice like a warm chinook, with social justice and a mean left hook."

Broadbent went on to claim a strong victory over Liberal Richard Mahoney in the downtown Ottawa Centre riding.

Home to a diverse mix of university students, working-class families, new Canadians and well-off bureaucrats, the riding which stretches out from the front lawn of Parliament Hill had been a long-time Liberal stronghold.

In that light, CTV's Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife imagines at least one person will be cheering Broadbent's decision.

"This has got to be good news for Mr. Mahoney."