Robert Howard "Bob" McClelland (born November 2, 1933) is a former broadcaster, journalist and political figure in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. He represented

Langley Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perfor ...

in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1972 to 1986 as a

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

member.

Early life and career

He was born and educated in Calgary,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. McClelland moved to British Columbia as a driver for a furniture moving company. He served as alderman for

from 1969 to 1972. McClelland also worked as a broadcaster for radio station CHQM, as publisher of the ''Fraser Valley News Herald'' and as publisher of a monthly country and western music newspaper.

Provincial politics

In 1973, McClelland ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Social Credit party. He later served in the provincial cabinet for Premier

Bill Bennett William Richards Bennett, (April 14, 1932 – December 3, 2015) was the 27th premier of British Columbia from 1975 to 1986. He was a son of Annie Elizabeth May (Richards) and former Premier, W. A. C. Bennett. He was a 3rd cousin, twice removed ...

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

, as Minister of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources, as Minister of Labour and as Minister of Industry and Small Business Development. McClelland earned the nickname "Broadway Bob" from his opponents after a controversy arose in 1982 about a taxpayer-paid visit in 1980 to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

that included tickets to a burlesque Broadway musical and costs for keeping a limousine chauffeur on standby for 10 hours at Plaza Hotel.

The Top Hat Affair

On the night of Feb. 26, 1985, the day before he was transferred from Labour ministry to Industry and Small Business, McClelland phoned and paid $130 as a customer to Top Hat Productions, a Victoria-based escort service that was under surveillance by police. On Nov. 27, 1987, McClelland was called by the defence to testify in the criminal trial of Top Hat's operator, Arlie Blakely, who faced 19 counts of prostitution-related offences. McClelland testified that he had drunk too much alcohol that night to retain memory of everything that happened. The issue became known as ''The Top Hat Affair''. McClelland retained his cabinet position until July 1986 after Bill Vander Zalm became the new leader of his political party. He did not seek re-election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McClelland, Robert H. 1933 births British Columbia Social Credit Party MLAs Canadian radio personalities Health ministers of British Columbia British Columbia municipal councillors People from Langley, British Columbia (city) Living people Members of the Executive Council of British Columbia Politicians from Calgary 20th-century Canadian newspaper publishers (people)