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 <tab>Back in GC, he settled, in the mid-1880s, at Alexandria, where he established a business as a moneylender, and where, also, as a separate venture, for a short time he operated a private bank called McLennan and Brown which was sold to the Union Bank of Canada in Nov. 1886. Many prominent men in the GC of his time were moneylenders, making loans of a kind that in later generations would be made by banks. The business was not disreputable, and a skilful lender usually knew how to keep himself from being an object of public resentment, and it had important connections with politics, since the loans gave a politically-minded lender an influence on the vote of the borrower–an influence which the lender might use for himself, or for his political friends. (See the entries for [[purcell_patrick|Patrick Purcell]] and the [[macdonald_donald_alexander|Hon. D. A. Macdonald]] for other moneylenders in GC politics)
-<tab>Big Rory ran unsuccessfully as a Conservative against James Rayside in the provincial general elections of 1883 and 1886 for the GC constituency. He was closely associated at this time with a fellow Conservative, Donald (later Sir Donald) MacMaster. For Bishop Cleary’s involvement in the 1886 election, see James Rayside. At the federal general election of 1891, Big Rory was elected MP for GC, defeating J. T. Schell. The election was voided in the courts for election irregularities, but in the consequent by-election, on 14 Jan. 1892, McLennan was again victorious, this time over Archibald McArthur the lumberman. When the 1896 federal election arrived, McLennan had a wonderfully strong point in his favour, and that was that he and others (see the entry for [[macdonell_john_alexander|J. A. Macdonell]] of Greenfield) had convinced the Conservative government to build an immense reformatory in Alexandria to house boys from all over Canada. Fighting against a strong opponent, the clever, articulate, ambitious J. Lockie Wilson, who stood as the candidate of the farmers’ movement called the Patrons of Industry (there was no Liberal candidate), McLennan was again victorious. But with the 1896 national victory of Laurier and the Liberals, the reformatory, as a Conservative project, was quietly allowed to die. A limited amount of work was actually done for the reformatory, mostly in the nature of locating a site and gathering materials. The lament over the loss of the vast reformatory was to echo through GC history for the next half century. With Laurier in office as prime minister, and not just as the aspiring leader of the Opposition, McLennan was faced even more than before with Laurier’s appeal for the French Canadian voters. In the federal election of 1900, McLennan was defeated by his old opponent, the Liberal J. T. Schell. McLennan, by now in ill health, did not stand again for public office.
+<tab>Big Rory ran unsuccessfully as a Conservative against James Rayside in the provincial general elections of 1883 and 1886 for the GC constituency. He was closely associated at this time with a fellow Conservative, Donald (later Sir Donald) MacMaster. For Bishop Cleary’s involvement in the 1886 election, see James Rayside. At the federal general election of 1891, Big Rory was elected MP for GC, defeating J. T. Schell. The election was voided in the courts for election irregularities, but in the consequent by-election, on 14 Jan. 1892, McLennan was again victorious, this time over Archibald McArthur the lumberman. When the 1896 federal election arrived, McLennan had a wonderfully strong point in his favour, and that was that he and others (see the entry for [[macdonell_john4|J. A. Macdonell]] of Greenfield) had convinced the Conservative government to build an immense reformatory in Alexandria to house boys from all over Canada. Fighting against a strong opponent, the clever, articulate, ambitious J. Lockie Wilson, who stood as the candidate of the farmers’ movement called the Patrons of Industry (there was no Liberal candidate), McLennan was again victorious. But with the 1896 national victory of Laurier and the Liberals, the reformatory, as a Conservative project, was quietly allowed to die. A limited amount of work was actually done for the reformatory, mostly in the nature of locating a site and gathering materials. The lament over the loss of the vast reformatory was to echo through GC history for the next half century. With Laurier in office as prime minister, and not just as the aspiring leader of the Opposition, McLennan was faced even more than before with Laurier’s appeal for the French Canadian voters. In the federal election of 1900, McLennan was defeated by his old opponent, the Liberal J. T. Schell. McLennan, by now in ill health, did not stand again for public office.
 <tab>In 1899, McLennan moved from Alexandria to Cornwall. In Cornwall, in the house on the corner of Second and Sydney Streets Street once owned by George Macdonell of Athol , and later, through the benefaction of Mrs McMartin, to be the Nazarene Orphanage, he lived in the comfortable style of a rich man. He died at his home in Cornwall. He was buried in St. Andrew’s cemetery, Williamstown. He was a Presbyterian and a Mason. The funeral services included “one of the greatest masonic ceremonies ever seen in the county.” He was not married. Two of his brothers, [[mclennan_alexander_r|Alexander R.]] and [[mclennan_angus_r|Angus R. McLennan]] are separately noticed in this dictionary, as are two of his right-hand men, [[fraser_david|David Fraser]] and [[mclennan_farquhar_duncan|Farquhar D. McLennan]].