Billy Joe MacLean will be remembered for his storytelling and steadfast leadership style, according to Port Hawkesbury’s mayor, Brenda Chisholm-Beaton, who says his passing is a huge loss to the community.
MacLean, who was a longtime mayor of Port Hawkesbury and former cabinet minister, died Wednesday after a battle with Strep A and pneumonia, at the age of 88.
Chisholm-Beaton, who is on her third term as mayor, tells our newsroom MacLean was not only a huge political figure in her life, but she grew up just down the road from him.
“Port Hawkesbury is my hometown and our families just grew up like literally three or four houses away. We’re just on the same kind of block and just right around the corner,” says Chisholm-Beaton.
She says, she was great friends with his daughters, but it was in 2012 when she decided to run for town council that she got to serve under his leadership.
Half a century of service
MacLean not only owned a local bar in town, The Carriage House- formerly Billy Joe’s Place and The Buccanner Lounge -he worked in the public service for 54 years.
His roles include mayor, provincial MLA and cabinet minister.
He started in municipal politics in 1970 when he secured a seat on Port Hawkesbury’s town council, then landed a role as mayor, only three years later.
MacLean served as mayor two different times, for a total of eight terms, and was instrumental in establishing the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre in 2004 and has said how proud he was of the facility.
A plaque dedicated to him hangs in the Sports Wall of Fame.
Chisholm-Beaton says, he also stood up in times of crises, like when the Point Tupper Mill closed and he fought to find a new owner to avoid layoffs.
“His leadership wasn’t confined within the municipal boundary,” says Chisholm-Beaton.
Inspiring
MacLean, retired from local politics in 2016, when Chisholm-Beaton assumed the role.
She says having had the chance to serve side-by-side with him on council, she was inspired.
“The one thing that I learned certainly from his leadership is that sense of passion and that sense of dedication for Port Hawkesbury and for the region,” says Chisholm-Beaton.
The kind of dedication he had to public service, she adds, is “no small thing” and a lot to ask of a person, so she “tips her hat” to him.
“I think sometimes people forget the family. The amount of support that it requires. You’re really essentially sharing your person with so many people,” notes Chisholm-Beaton.
“I want to commend his family for sharing him and his leadership with everyone.”
Funeral
If you want to pay your respects to MacLean, he will be laid to rest 2-4 and 6-8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday in the Bearhead Room at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre.
A funeral mass will follow, Tuesday at 10 a.m., at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, with a reception after, in the Bearhead Room at the Civic Centre.
Memorial donations can be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Kidney Foundation of Canada.
