Angus MacLean

John Angus MacLean PC OC DFC CD (born May 15, 1914 in Lewis , Prince Edward Island , † February 15, 2000 in Charlottetown , Prince Edward Island) was a Canadian politician of the Progressive Conservative Party (PC) who was a member for 25 years of the House of Commons and between 1957 and 1963 Minister of Fisheries and at the same time briefly acting Minister of Post in 1962 in the 18th Canadian Cabinet of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker . He was also Prime Minister of Prince Edward Island from 1979 to 1981 .

Life

World War II and Member of the House of Commons

After attending school, MacLean first completed an undergraduate degree , which he completed with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.). A postgraduate course of the law , he finished with a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.). During the Second World War , he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1941 and was initially a bomber pilot , where he was promoted to lieutenant . In 1943 he switched to a test and development facility of the RCAF as a test pilot and was then from 1945 to 1947 as a lieutenant colonel in command of a missing persons and investigation unit in Europe . For his military services he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD).

After the end of the war, MacLean, who also worked as a farmer, ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the lower house in the elections of June 11, 1945 and June 27, 1949 for the progressive-conservative party in Queen’s constituency . In a by-election in the constituency of Queen’s , he was elected for the first time as a member of the lower house on June 25, 1951 and initially represented this constituency and, since the general election on June 25, 1968, until he resigned on October 20, 1976, the Malpeque constituency . He was a member of the House of Commons for more than 25 years.

Federal minister and opposition years

On June 21, 1957, MacLean was appointed to Canada's 18th Cabinet by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and served as Minister of Fisheries until the end of Diefenbaker's tenure on April 21, 1963. In addition, between July 18 and August 8, 1962, he also acted as acting minister of post.

After his party's defeat in the general election of April 8, 1963 , he acted as spokesman for the opposition PC faction for fisheries policy between 1963 and September 1968 and then as spokesman for national defense between September 1968 and December 1969, before joining from December 1969 to December 1972 was the spokesman for science policy for the PC group.

On December 5, 1972, MacLean became deputy chairman of the PC parliamentary group in the House of Commons and held this position until December 19, 1974. At the same time he was again spokesman for the opposition for fisheries policy and during this period from December 5, 1972 to October 23, 1973 thereafter between October 24, 1973 and September 9, 1974, he was again spokesman for science policy for the PC group.

He was then from September 30, 1974 to October 12, 1976 Chairman of the Standing Committee on Management and Member Services and at the same time between 1975 and 1976 Deputy Vice-Chairman of the PC Group in the House of Commons.

Prime Minister of Prince Edward Island

At the end of October 1976, MacLean withdrew from federal politics and switched to politics in his home province of Prince Edward Island, after he became chairman of the Prince Edward Island Progressive Conservative Party on September 25, 1976 and held this position until November 17, 1981 .

In a by-election in the 4th Queens constituency , MacLean was also elected to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island on November 8, 1976, to which he was a member until August 31, 1982. There he acted initially between 1977 and 1979 as chairman of the PC parliamentary group and was thus leader of the opposition .

The Prince Edward Island Progressive Conservative Party succeeded for the first time in thirteen years in the 1979 election, a victory over the Prince Edward Island Liberal Party, which had ruled until then . While the progressive-conservative party got six more seats and now had 21 seats in the 32-member legislative assembly, the Liberal Party only got eleven seats and thus lost six of its previous seats.

MacLean then succeeded Bennett Campbell of the Liberal Party as the new Prime Minister of Prince Edward Island on May 3, 1979 and held this office until November 17, 1981. At the same time he served between May 3, 1979 and May 17, 1981. November 1981 as President of the Executive Council and from May 3, 1979 to 1980 also as Minister responsible for Culture. Other important ministers of his provincial government were the later lieutenant governor of Prince Edward Island Lloyd MacPhail as finance minister and the minister for industry, communities, fisheries, environment and labor Pat Binns , who later became prime minister of Prince Edward Island himself.

On November 17, 1981, he resigned from his post as Prime Minister and was replaced by the previous Minister of Health and Social Services James Lee , who also took over the role of chairman of the Prince Edward Island Progressive Conservative Party. After his resignation from the Legislative Assembly on August 31, 1982, MacLean retired from political life.

For his longstanding political service, MacLean was named Officer of the Order of Canada in 1991.

Web links and sources

• CV on the home page of the Canadian Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ^ Canadian Ministries at rulers.org
2. ↑ Canadian Provinces (rulers.org)
3. ^ Entry on the homepage of the Order of Canada