Veteran Liberal MP Tom Wappel, who often infuriated his own party leaders with his outspoken positions against abortion and gay rights, announced Friday he won't run in the next federal election.

The 57-year-old Toronto-area lawyer, who has been an MP since 1988, was the only Liberal last month to defy Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's order to oppose the renewal of controversial anti-terrorism measures.

Tom Wappel says he won't run in the next federal election.
(CBC)

Supported by members of the anti-abortion group Campaign Life, Wappel won the Scarborough West Liberal nomination in 1988 in an upset over Patrick Johnston, a star candidate personally recruited by party leader John Turner.

Wappel was the first declared candidate in the Liberals' 1990 leadership convention, finishing a distant fourth to Jean Chrétien after voicing his opposition to federal day-care programs and arguing Ottawa should promote stay-at-home parenting instead.

He also said he did not consider single-parent households or homosexual couples to be families and once called for abortion to be made a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

He was eliminated on the first ballot in his 2001 bid to become Commons Speaker and in July 2002 he joined 15 other Liberal MPs in calling for Paul Martin to succeed Chrétien as Liberal leader.

In 2001, Wappel snubbed an 81-year-old blind and partially deaf constituent who had asked for support in his struggle to get unpaid benefits for wartime service, implying he knew that the veteran had voted for another candidate during the 2000 election.

Wappel initially defended his comments, then apologized after veterans groups and opposition MPs called for his resignation.

With files from the Canadian Press