Professional Affiliation

Senior Advisor, Bennet Jones, Former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and Canada's Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Expert Bio

The Honourable A. Anne McLellan, P.C., O.C., A.O.E. served four terms as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre from October 25, 1993 – January 23, 2006.  She served as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and as the first Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in the government of the Rt. Hon. Paul Martin (December 2003 - January 2006).  Ms. McLellan served as Minister of Health (January 2002 – December 2003), Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada (June 1997 – January 2002) and Minister of Natural (November 1993 – June 1997).

Ms. McLellan joined Bennett Jones in its Edmonton office July 4, 2006.  She provides strategic advice to the firm and its clients.

Ms. McLellan serves on the Board of Directors of Cameco, one of the world's largest uranium producers, where she chairs the Nominating, Corporate Governance and Risk Committee, Summit Industrial Income REIT, an open-ended mutual fund real estate investment trust focused on growing and managing a portfolio of light industrial properties across Canada, and Invest Alberta Corporation, a Crown Corporation that works with the Government of Alberta and its partners to help investors to capitalize on Alberta investment opportunities. Among her many community commitments she is Chair of the Boards of Pearson College UWC, TELUS Edmonton Community Board and the Institute for Research for Public Policy and serves on the Board of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

Ms. McLellan is a member of the TMX/ICD Committee on the Future of Canadian Corporate Governance, a committee formed to oversee the creation of updated guidance with respect to best practices in corporate governance in Canada and a member of the Wilson Center Task Force on Public Health and the US-Canadian Border, created to study the problem of how and when to lift the joint restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the COVID-19.  She served as a member of the Premier's Council for Economic Strategy where she provided "guidance on actions the Alberta government could take to best position the province for the future."  Ms. McLellan served on the Board of Nutrien, the world’s largest provider of crop inputs from 2006 to 2019, Nexen, a global energy company from 2006 until its takeover by CNOOC in 2013 and the Edmonton Regional Airport Authority from 2007 to 2015.  She recently served as Chair of the Task Force on the Legalization and Regulation of Cannabis for the Government of Canada.

In May 2015 Ms. McLellan became Dalhousie University’s seventh chancellor, a position she held until May 31, 2020.

On May 12, 2006 Ms. McLellan was appointed Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the University of Alberta in the Alberta Institute for American Studies, a position she held until her retirement from the University of Alberta in June 2013.  Ms. McLellan was awarded honorary doctorate of law degrees by both the University of Alberta (in 2007) and the University of Cape Breton (in 2009). 

In July 2009 Ms. McLellan was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and in October 2013 she received the Alberta Order of Excellence.

Prior to her political career, Ms McLellan was an assistant professor of law at the University of New Brunswick from 1976 to 1980. In 1980, she was appointed associate professor of law at the University of Alberta. She served as associate dean of the Faculty of Law between 1985 and 1987 and as acting dean from July 1991 to June 1992.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Law degree from Dalhousie University and a Master of Laws degree from King's College, University of London. Ms McLellan was admitted to the Bar of Nova Scotia in 1976 and is a non-practicing member of the Law Society of Nova Scotia.