He served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Dufferin Roblin and Walter Weir,[1] and unsuccessfully ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba in 1967.
McLean came down with tuberculosis before he entered service in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.
He retained this position after Roblin's Tories won a majority government in 1959,[1] and was responsible for overseeing the consolidation of several school boards.
[1] Ideologically, McLean was a representative of the Progressive Conservative Party's right wing, and had difficulty accepting some of Dufferin Roblin's more innovative policies (for instance, "shared services" for separate schools).
Weir initially kept McLean as Provincial Secretary and Public Works Minister, but shifted him to the Ministry of Transportation on 24 September 1968.