Political Career
Her first foray into politics was as the Liberal candidate for the riding of Edmonton Northwest in the 1993 general election, when she won her seat by 12 votes. She is nicknamed "Landslide Annie" for her string of narrow electoral victories. All four election victories from 1993 to 2004 were by narrow margins, as she was twice declared defeated by the national news though she emerged victorious the next day. She was defeated in the 2006 federal election.
She quickly became a rising star in the Liberal Party, being one of four Liberals elected in Alberta, and was named to cabinet as Minister of Natural Resources. McLellan has the prenomial "the Honourable" and the postnomial "PC" for life by virtue of being made a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on November 4, 1993.
She was re-elected in the new riding of Edmonton West in the 1997 and 2000 elections, despite the Liberals' general unpopularity in Alberta. She moved around the cabinet table, serving as Minister of Justice from 1997 to 2002 and Minister of Health from 2002 to 2003. As Justice Minister, she was responsible for implementing new anti-terror and security laws following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and administered the implementation of the Canadian gun registry, a Liberal program criticized for its expense and inefficiency.
Though she supported Paul Martin for the Liberal leadership, she was kept in Jean Chrétien's cabinet due to her ability and also because of regional representation. Some said that she had surpassed Sheila Copps as the most prominent woman in Chrétien's cabinet by his final years in office.
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