Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke Liberal MP Stephanie McLean was sworn in as secretary of state for seniors as Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled his new cabinet on Tuesday.
She learned about the appointment with just enough time to get on a plane with her mother, Maggie McGinn, and fly to Ottawa to take part in the ceremony at Rideau Hall.
“I am thrilled to be trusted with the very important portfolio of seniors,” McLean told the Times Colonist.
“I’m looking forward to hearing from seniors as to how we can to get together and ensure that Canada works for them.”
She is one of 10 secretaries of state who will work alongside . Secretaries of state are sworn into the Privy Council and, while not members of cabinet, they may participate in cabinet and committee meetings “at the prime minister’s discretion,” McLean said.
University of Victoria political scientist Michael Prince said McLean is “basically a junior minister,” which some regard as a minister in training.
“For someone who probably just a few months ago decided to throw her hat in the ring to represent the Liberals, this is pretty heady stuff,” said Prince, alluding to McLean stepping in as the candidate after the party scratched former View Royal mayor David Screech as the candidate.
Carney promised during his second of three campaign stops to the south Island to temporarily give seniors more flexibility to draw from their retirement savings and, for a period of one year, increase the guaranteed income supplement for low-income seniors.
“This isn’t just going to be a token or ceremonial appointment,” Prince said. “And given our demographic on the Island this is a meaningful portfolio. We know seniors vote in big numbers and they tend to support Liberals so if Mr. Carney wants to hold onto a seat or two here on the Island … this makes sense.”
The Island has two MPs in the ruling party — the other is Victoria MP Will Greaves.
The last MP in cabinet on Vancouver Island was Courtenay-Alberni (formerly Vancouver Island North) Conservative MP John Duncan, who was Indian Affairs minister from 2011 to 2013, then minister of state and chief government whip from 2013 to 2015 under then prime minister Stephen Harper, who was defeated by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2015.
Prince said there are already a lot of senior ministers with similar strengths as Greaves but suspects he might get a future post as a parliamentary secretary or a spot on a standing committee.
Former Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin, who served the Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke riding (under different boundaries) as a Liberal from 2004 to 2011, called McLean’s appointment “excellent news.” Martin said we not only have a secretary of state in the federal government but “one responsible for an area of immense importance for our Island and the country.”
Martin, who now lives in Washington, D.C., said having two MPs in government and one serving in cabinet “will enable our Island and 小蓝视频 to have strong input into the government’s goals.”
In an earlier interview, McLean said she credits her pursuit of higher education and law to her father, and her resilience and advocacy to her mother.
Her parents divorced when she was about two, and she and her sibling were raised by their mom.
McLean’s father, a junior high dropout who worked on Alberta oil rigs, lost his leg in a motorcycle crash at age 21. During surgery, he contracted hepatitis from an infected blood product. Unable to work as a labourer, he returned to trade school to become a mechanic and engineer technologist and then to university to earn an engineering degree — “the only one in his family to have a post-secondary education,” McLean said.
She said she first thought of being a politician when she was about 10 and MP Anne McLellan knocked on her family’s door in Edmonton while campaigning during a federal election campaign. “I was enamoured with her and glued to the TV watching the political results in that election and decided at that age that I wanted to be a politician one day,” McLean said.
Her father, who died of cancer in 2008, advised her if she really wanted to become a politician, she had to become a lawyer first — which she did.
McLean ran her own practice in family and criminal law, and now practises labour law at Surrey-based Forte Workplace Law, specializing in first responders and building trades and construction.
She was elected in 2015 as NDP MLA in Calgary-Varsity, serving one term as minister of Service Alberta with responsibility for the status of women until 2019.
McLean was pregnant when appointed to cabinet, which sparked questions and changed rules around pregnancy, maternity leave and support for new parents at the Alberta legislature.
She now lives in Colwood with her husband Shane Bostock, an engineer, and their nine-year-old son.
