Angus MacLean

Who was Angus MacLean?

John Angus MacLean, PC, OC, DFC was a politician and farmer in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

He was an alumnus of both Mount Allison University and the University of British Columbia with degrees in science. MacLean left farming to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, serving from 1939–1947 and achieving the rank of Wing Commander.

MacLean's bomber was shot down, and he evaded capture in Nazi-occupied Europe with the help of the Belgian escape-line Comète with Andrée De Jongh.

MacLean returned to Prince Edward Island after the war, and ran for a seat in the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative Party of Canada candidate, but was defeated in the 1945 and 1949 federal elections.

He was first elected to Parliament in a 1951 by-election and held his seat continuously until he left federal politics in 1976. MacLean served in the cabinet of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker as Minister of Fisheries from 1957 until the government's defeat in the 1963 election.

In 1976, MacLean was persuaded to leave federal politics and take the leadership of the Prince Edward Island Progressive Conservative Party which had languished in opposition for a decade.