Dan McLean, a politician?
 

Federal Liberals courting Dan McLean

June 05, 2009
Andrew Dreschel
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/Opinions/article/577863

Will former CHCH anchor Dan McLean run for the Liberals in the next federal election?

The word on the political street is yes.

But McLean himself is circumspect.

He's been approached by the Grits; he's mulling it over; but he's also looking at other options.

"Let's put it this way, since retirement there have been a number of different suggestions and offers made, several of which I am considering," McLean said yesterday. "But to say I'm going to do this might be a bit premature."

If he takes the plunge, he's widely expected to do so in the riding of Ancaster-Dundas- Flamborough-Westdale, held by Conservative David Sweet.

But McLean, who lives on the outskirts of Ancaster, says there are other scenarios in play as well.

The search for candidates is heating up now that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is rattling election sabres over the Harper government's handling of the economy.

Though it's doubtful a mid-summer election will happen, the fact the Liberals have crept ahead in opinion polls does suggest they might try to topple the minority Conservative government sooner rather than later.

By any definition, McLean would be a star candidate for them.

After a 28-year career as anchor of CHCH News, he enjoys a high profile, huge name recognition, and deep-seated popularity in the Hamilton area.

When McLean retired in December, he was widely seen to have been forced out by the same cost-cutting wave that saw the departure of on-air host Connie Smith and others.

McLean, who publicly handled his exit with diplomatic aplomb, has been courted to run for more than one political party over the years.

"It's something I've talked about doing for a long time but, again, a lot of things have to fall in line before I make a commitment like that. It's food for thought and that's basically where I am -- I'm thinking."

Meanwhile, a well-placed Liberal source says another former CHCH employee is also considering throwing his hat in.

According to the insider, former Liberal MP and cabinet minister Stan Keyes has expressed interest running in ADFW.

Keyes, who lives in Waterdown, lost his seat in 2004 after 16 years in Ottawa when he contested the redistributed riding of Hamilton Centre with New Democrat David Christopherson.

At the time, Keyes supporters felt the former TV reporter should have avoided Christopherson and tried to win the Liberal nomination in his own back yard.

Be that as it may, Keyes, now president of the Canadian Payday Loan Association, says he has no intention of mounting a comeback, though he has been approached.

"I think it's time younger, fresher faces come on the political scene," he said.

The Liberals, who have been shut out in all five Hamilton ridings in the last two elections, see ADFW as eminently winnable.

They're probably right.

Sweet captured it from Liberal incumbent and longtime municipal politician Russ Powers by a solid 2,874 votes in 2006.

And he easily held on in '08, defeating second-place Liberal candidate Arlene MacFarlane-VanderBeek by almost 11,000 votes. But the largely rural riding also has deep Liberal as well as Conservative roots.

Before Powers came on the scene, it had been held by Liberal John Bryden for more than a decade.

Bryden crossed the floor to the Conservatives in 2004 after falling out with the Paul Martin camp over, among other things, the Quebec sponsorship scandal.

If McLean saddles up, he may very well be the guiding star the party needs to lead the riding back into the fold.

I have nothing against Dan McLean personally, but I don't think Hamilton is well served by continuing electing media personalities.

In what way? Are you saying media personalities are ill suited for elected office. If so, why?

I think Dan as a politican would be a good thing. He's been Hamilton's main voice for daily news for over 30 years. So obviously he knows Hamilton inside and out and has been a great ambassador.

Plus I would love to see Dan beat David Sweet.

o for gawd sakes. what's with Hamilton? we only elect former media personalities? Because we know their name?

We have no idea what his position is, where his opinions lie wrt urban issues? Whether he likes Hamilton or Mississauga? He was just a news anchor that read a script. You think those words he spoke were his words? News Flash!

He would suck. Seriously I've met him and conversed about sh** with him and he's not impressive. He's always just posing.

Well I think that realcity gave an answer I wouldn't disagree with. I never said that a media personality wouldn't be suited for elected office, but rather that Hamilton has had too many media personalities as our representatives and has not been well served by it. I don't know what the word is for rulership by media personalities, but I'm not keen on it.

Plus with Dan McLean, it's like, hey poor Dan got canned at CH, lets make it up to him by electing him MP. That might be enough for a Liberal fanboy like Steeltown, but for me that seems to be a poor way to select our representatives. Although, I suppose I will likely vote for Bob Bratina again so I am a bit of a hypocrite.

Would someone please list off all these "former media personalities" that have allegedly underserved us in public office? I can only think of four elected officials, past and present, that could be considered media personalities: Stan Keyes as a former MP, Jennifer Mossop as MPP, Bill Kelly as a former city councillor, and Bob Bratina as a current councillor.

Mr. Keyes was MP for over a decade, and served as a cabinet minister for several years, giving Hamilton a seat in cabinet, something we have been lacking since 2006. Jennifer Mossop served only one term before deciding to leave politics, but was a capable parliamentary secretary for the provincial government during that time. Bill Kelly served his ward well during his three terms as councillor before his unsuccessful run at federal politics. Bob Bratina is serving his consituency well, a better performer than most in our current council.

I guess it bothers me when someone's candidacy is written off because of some pre-conceived notion of what kind of people would serve Hamilton well. It bothers me more when the facts surrounding the preconception is at best weak. Specifically, I don't know enough about Dan McLean's political opinions to pass judgement on his abilities to hold the job. But that is something fleshed out during the electoral process.

Perhaps I have the wrong end of the stick here. It is possible there are many more media personalities that have held public office here that I am not aware of, and they have been ineffective in their roles. If so, please enlighten me with examples.

Dan McLean over the years has helped raised millions for chairty especially United Way and McMaster Children's Hospital. He has also done countless events in Hamilton, re-opening the Art Gallery comes to mind.

Sometimes he would replace Bill Kelly at CH Talk Live. From that you got to see Dan's personal opinions. I remember one espiode Dan defended Hamilton's image.

PR Stunts

He needed to defend Hamilton. How bad for his career if he didn't?

Bill Kelly was and still is a wreck... he just liked and likes hearing himself talk.

Seem to recall the knock on Mossop being that she was a parachute candidate. She replaced a weak, tainted Liberal candidate and took the riding in part because of her name/face recognition (20 years on local TV) and partly because the Harris/Eves Tories had rather worn out their welcome with voters. So Brad Clark (Harris’ Minister of Transport and Eves’ Minister of Labour during his four years as MPP) got bounced into the nonprofit sector (and, according to Wikipedia, a weekly show on CHML) before emerging in municipal politics. Mossop was a PA to two Ministers of Culture during her four years as MPP. Nerene Virgin, Mossop's intended replacement and another Liberal parachute candidate, is an Ancaster-based journalist (with CBC experience, like Mossop), though she was bested by the NDP's Paul Miller. Those examples don't necessarily speak to ineffectiveness in themselves, but I can see how they might strike someone as a comparative downgrade.

Stan Keyes was 35 when he first made MP. Can you imagine someone of that age representing the city today?

Or 29 -- Sheila Copps worked at the Spec before entering politics (MPP Hamilton Centre 1981-1984, MP Hamilton East 1984-2004).

Longevity makes all the difference in serving your constituents. It's not a guarantee of clout, but it definitely doesn't hurt. Someone who has 16 to 20 vital years to wholeheartedly devote to the game will benefit Hamilton more than someone who spends four chasing votes and taking notes. "Celebrity" candidates, whatever their field of origin, can wrest seats from other parties but they won't necessarily hold them. And single-term candidates don't tend to serve much except the appetite for political change.

Wow, Stan Keyes. Head of the Canadian Payday Loan Association. Awesome. I think part of this just boils down to if you are a Liberal fanboy like yourself and Steeltown. You'd have to be to defend Mossop's political career.

My favourite thing - or should I write "Ryan's favourite thing"? - about Stan Keyes is that he likes to talk about himself in the third person.

I think you are betraying your own personal political bias. Tell me, does your opinion about the effectiveness of media personalities extend to the likes of Peter Kent or Andre Arthur, or do you apply this logic to only one particular political flavour?

McLean files papers to contest Sweet's seat

Andrew Dreschel
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jun 10, 2009)

Former CHCH anchor Dan McLean is throwing his star power behind the federal Liberals.

Yesterday McLean, 61, filed his papers seeking the nomination in the riding of Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, held by Conservative David Sweet.

McLean, the face of CHCH's nightly newscast for 28 years, left the station in December.

He says he's entering politics because he feels his days of community involvement are far from over.

"If I can't do it on the broadcast side, maybe I can be helpful from the parliamentary side."

McLean, a longtime small c-conservative, says he wants to run Liberal because he doesn't like the direction of the Conservatives.

"I've got a close handle on a lot of things that are going on in our city and we need some representation in government with a voice."

Sweet says he works hard for Hamilton and he looks forward to debating McLean if he wins the Liberal nomination, which is still open to other contenders.

Life skills and experience
 

I don't care where they come from. Just as long as it's not another lawyer.
For too long you had to be a lawyer from Quebec to run this country and what did that do. Not to argue about today as the whole world is in trouble no matter what you have in place.
Oddly enough it was a media type that helped Alberta along (Ralph Klein).:cheers:

Kent ran the first time and lost. If McLean runs and loses and runs again at that point I would withdraw any objections. On Arthur, I don't know enough to comment.

It's not necessarily a bad thing to have training in law when your job is to help draft laws. :)

If not for its abundant oil reserves, Alberta would be a much different place. Thanks to its oil revenue, the provincial government can spend like a drunk sailor, maintain really low tax rates and still play at being economically conservative.

The downside, of course, is that Alberta is utterly dependent on its oil industry, no matter the environmental cost (and if you want an idea of what the apocalypse looks like, you need look no further than the Oilsands).

To the extent that the devastation being visited upon Northern Alberta (and the world through the Oilsands' extremely high CO2 production per barrel of oil extracted) is externalized, the bargain of Alberta oil is one big false economy. If they actually had to pay the real cost of extraction instead of dumping it on others and on the future, Oilsands production would be far less lucrative.

Watch for the fireworks once the US government finalizes its CO2 cap-and-trade system and Canada, as America's biggest foreign source of imported oil, is forced to participate.

Basic Life skills
 

I guess maybe some legal experience COULD be an asset. But just think for a minute how convoluted and dysfunctional our legal system is becoming. So many lawyers looking for so many loopholes to advance the gains of their client. Justice is not in the equation anymore. It not about justice for the people it's about gettting my client off, no matter what. Truth is not a factor anymore. So you can see that, maybe, at least my faith in the system is not so strong.
We need local leaders we can trust with basic leadership attributes and INTEGRITY. We over I. A whole lot of common sense would be nice. This I rate higher than any legal training.
A return to customer service over party loyalties could redeem any faith we have in our representatives.
Just for a minute put some thought into all the jokes about lawyers and politicians.
I thinks farmers and successful business owners have transferable skills, if you can run a farm year-round and manage all the planning, you can run any thing. If you can have a business and be responsible to generate a profit and look after your employees, you can run a department.
Just consider again the mismanagment of the ehealth issue. An outside consultant hired and awarded bonuses did not meet the obligations and was paid handsomely. So where was the common sense or proper supervision.
So to return; Dan McLean, may be a fine choice with all his community commitment/involvement. Not because he was a talking head. :tup:
So no matter what the background, may the best man(person) win.

LOL.... really

just like Chris Ecklund