(Bloomberg) -- British Columbia Premier John Horgan announced that he plans to step down in the fall after recently battling cancer for the second time.

The 62-year-old premier, who is one of Canada’s most popular politicians, said he will continue to lead the Pacific Coast province until the New Democratic Party holds a leadership convention later this year.

Horgan, a former pulp mill worker, took office in 2017 after his party ended the 16-year rule of the Liberals. While elected on a platform that prioritized issues such as climate change and child care, over time he won broad support for his government’s handling of historic challenges, including the province’s worst wildfires on record and the Covid-19 pandemic. 

He presided over one of Canada’s strongest provincial economies with British Columbia’s labor market among the quickest to bounce back from the pandemic. But he said on Tuesday that those responsibilities have taken a toll. 

“I am currently cancer free - my health is good, but my energy flags as the days go by,” Horgan told reporters in Victoria, the provincial capital. “I’m not able to make another six-year commitment to this job.”

Horgan, who survived bladder cancer in his 40s, announced last November that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent 35 radiation treatments. 

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