- Office
- MLA for Langley, 1972 to 1986
- Party
- Social Credit
- Cabinet
- Health; Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources; Labour; Industry and Small Business Development (1975 to 1986)
- Langley connection
- Worked at CJJC radio in Langley; Langley alderman, 1969 to 1972
- Born / died
- November 2, 1933, Calgary to September 29, 2015, Nanaimo (Wikipedia)
- How it ended
- Left cabinet in August 1986 and did not run that October
- Last checked
- October 23, 2026
Before he was a minister, Bob McClelland was a voice on Langley radio. Wikipedia says the Calgary-raised broadcaster worked at stations in Chilliwack, Edmonton and Vancouver in the 1960s, and at CJJC in Langley, where he came back as operations manager. He also published the Fraser Valley News Herald for a time and sat as a Langley alderman from 1969 to 1972. There’s no openly licensed portrait of him, so our picture is of the building he worked in for fourteen years.
Into the Legislature
McClelland won Langley for Social Credit in the 1972 election, the one that put the party out of power. He spent that term as opposition health critic. When W.A.C. Bennett stepped down as leader in 1973, McClelland ran to succeed him and finished second on the first ballot to Bennett’s son, Bill, according to Wikipedia.
Four portfolios
When Social Credit returned to government after the 1975 election, Bill Bennett put him in cabinet. The Legislative Library’s record of the Executive Council gives the dates:
| From | To | Portfolio |
|---|---|---|
| December 22, 1975 | November 24, 1979 | Health |
| November 24, 1979 | August 10, 1982 | Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources |
| August 10, 1982 | February 27, 1985 | Labour |
| February 27, 1985 | August 1986 | Industry and Small Business Development |
He was re-elected for Langley in 1975, 1979 and 1983, and the Legislative Library’s list of members shows him among those who did not run in 1986.
How it ended
Bill Vander Zalm became premier on August 6, 1986. The Legislative Library’s Vander Zalm cabinet list shows McClelland carried on in Industry and Small Business Development for one week, to August 13. He did not run in the October 1986 election, and the Langley riding, newly a two-member seat, went to Social Credit’s Carol Gran and Dan Peterson.
Wikipedia says he retired to Gabriola Island and died in Nanaimo in 2015, aged 81.
Related pages
- Langley in public life
- Hunter Vogel, Langley’s MLA before him
- A short history of Langley
Something out of date? Tell us.
Last checked October 22, 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
