Liberal cabinet minister John McCallum often found himself engulfed in controversy

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Open this photo in gallery: Economist and academic John McCallum died of lung cancer at the age of 75 on June 21.The Canadian Press As the 2000 federal election loomed, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien recruited a star candidate to bolster his effort to win a third Liberal majority, a McGill University economist-turned-banker named John McCallum. “In many ways, Mr. McCallum comes out of central casting, a rumpled … academic who is fluently bilingual but with an easy media presence in both official languages,” enthused Globe and Mail columnist Hugh Winsor. There was talk that Mr. McCallum, seen as an articulate,...