Frank McKenna
Francis Joseph (Frank) McKenna (born January 19, 1948 in Apohaqui, New Brunswick, Canada) was a Premier of New Brunswick.
Frank McKenna obtained a law degree and as the defense attorney in the high-profile murder case of famous New Brunswick boxing champion, Yvon Durelle, he gained wide publicity. A few years later, he entered provincial politics in 1982 when he was elected to the New Brunswick legislative assembly. He became leader of the provincial Liberals in 1985, and won the largest electoral victory in Canadian history in 1987 when his party won every seat in the legislature.
McKenna's term in office was viewed mostly as a success. He encouraged small business growth and tried to entice large companies to invest in the province. He was a master of political image making and control, creating a government paid team of media personnel. They filmed and wrote about numerous government projects and the Premier in a favourable light that were distributed to the various media outlets. Often, the same ribbon-cutting ceremony and the like, would be seen several times in shots taken from different angles with a variety of subtext.
During his lengthy term in office he was criticised for having never dealt with the power of the Irving Family industrial interests that dominate the Province's economy and control three of the Province's four major newspapers.
Believing ten years was long enough for a premier to hold office, McKenna resigned in 1997. He now practices law in the Moncton and Toronto.
In addition to his law practice he served for a brief time on the Canadian Intelligence Review Committee and serves on a number of corporate boards. He was recently appointed as interim chairman of the board of CanWest Global Communications upon the death of its founder and chairman Israel Asper.
Since leaving politics in 1997, McKenna has been touted several times as a potential Atlantic Canadian minister in the cabinets of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. McKenna was interested in running in the upcoming federal election but announced he would not do so because of the lack of an available riding in the Moncton, New Brunswick area.
