Francis Joseph (Frank) McKenna (born January 19, 1948) was a Premier of New Brunswick. Born in Apohaqui, McKenna entered provincial politics in 1982 when he was elected to the New Brunswick legislative assembly. He became leader of the provincial Liberal party 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 star Atlantic Canadian minister in the cabinets of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin. He has recently announced that he is seriously considering running the the upcoming election.
