After being the subject of a 5,000-word investigative piece by The Coast‘s Tim Bousquet, Halifax mayor Peter Kelly announced yesterday that he won’t seek re-election:

Normally ubiquitous, the mayor had been invisible since The Coast, a free weekly newspaper, published a lengthy story last week about his role as the executor of a $500,000 estate belonging to a long-time friend, Mary Thibeault.

The story alleged that Mr. Kelly took more than $160,000 from the estate and questioned why, seven years after her death, the will has not been settled. There are heirs, some of whom engaged a lawyer to deal with the matter.

“It was definitely the biggest, most serious story we’ve published in our nearly 20 years,” said Coast editor Kyle Shaw in an email today. “We were expecting the mayor to come out fighting the allegations, but instead he is leaving politics.”