Anne McLellan

:"This article is about the Canadian academic and former cabinet minister. Not to be confused with "Anne McLellan" from Minnesota, who denounced Newfoundland's seal hunt in a letter to the Canadian Senate in 2006. [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060317/seal_hunt_060317/20060317?hub=Canada] [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/03/17/senator-seal060317.html] "

A. Anne McLellan, P.C. (born August 31, 1950, in Hants County, Nova Scotia) is an academic and politician. She was a cabinet minister in the Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, serving most recently as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada.

Early life

McLellan earned bachelor degrees in Arts and Law from Halifax's Dalhousie University. She then earned a Master of Laws from King's College London in the United Kingdom.

She became a professor of law, first at the University of New Brunswick and then, beginning in 1980, at the University of Alberta where she served at various times as associate dean and dean. She has also served on the board of directors of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Political career

Her first foray into politics was as the Liberal candidate for the riding of Edmonton Northwest in the 1993 general election, when she won her seat by 12 votes. She is nicknamed "Landslide Annie" for her string of narrow electoral victories. All four election victories from 1993 to 2004 were by narrow margins, as she was twice declared defeated by the national news though she emerged victorious the next day. She was defeated in the 2006 federal election.

She quickly became a rising star in the Liberal Party, being one of four Liberals elected in Alberta, and was named to cabinet as Minister of Natural Resources. McLellan has the prenomial "the Honourable" and the postnomial "PC" for life by virture of being made a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on November 4, 1993. [http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/default.asp?Language=E&Page=InformationResources&Sub=PrivyCouncilMembers]

She managed to get re-elected in the new riding of Edmonton West in the 1997 and 2000 elections despite the Liberals' general unpopularity in Alberta. She moved around the cabinet table, serving as Minister of Justice from 1997 to 2002 and Minister of Health from 2002 to 2003. As Justice Minister, she was responsible for implementing new anti-terror and security laws following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and administered the implementation of the Canadian gun registry, a Liberal program criticized for its expense and inefficiency.

Though she supported Paul Martin for the Liberal leadership, she was kept in Jean Chrétien's cabinet due to her ability and also because of regional representation. Some said that she had surpassed Sheila Copps as the most prominent woman in Chrétien's cabinet by his final years in office.

Deputy Prime Minister

On being sworn-in as Prime Minister on December 12, 2003, Paul Martin showed renewed confidence in McLellan and sent a message to the west about his plans to reduce western alienation by naming her his Deputy Prime Minister. McLellan was also named minister for the newly created Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

During the 2004 federal election, she was re-elected by 721 votes, or just over 1% of the vote, defeating Laurie Hawn of the Conservative Party of Canada in the riding of Edmonton Centre.

In the 2006 federal election on 23 January 2006, McLellan was defeated by Hawn in a rematch, taking 38.36% to Hawn's 45.01% of the popular vote in Edmonton Centre.

McLellan has so far been the last Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, as the succeeding Harper government has opted not to use this title. Interestingly, she is one of the few parliamentarians to have never served as a government backbencher or in opposition.

After politics

Following her loss in the re-election bid to a fifth consecutive term in the Canadian House of Commons on 23 January 2006, McLellan took some time off for rest. On May 12, 2006, she was appointed Distinguished Scholar in Residence to the University of Alberta at the Canadian university's Institute for United States Policy Studies. On June 27, 2006, she also became a counsel to the Edmonton-based law firm [http://www.bennettjones.ca/Profiles/150799.htm Bennett Jones LLP] . She also became a director on the boards of [http://www.nexeninc.com/ Nexen Inc.] and [http://www.agrium.com/ Agrium Inc.] .

External links

* [http://www.annemclellan.com/bio Official Site]