McClelland ran for the Ontario legislature in the general election of 1977, losing to New Democrat (NDP) Ted Bounsall by over 3,500 votes in Windsor—Sandwich. The next year, McClelland narrowly lost the race for a seat on the Windsor Board of Education representing Ward 1. In 1980, he was appointed as a board member for Ward 1 after the death of trustee Donald Hill, but was again narrowly defeated in the general election that November. He did not seek office again until the 1987 provincial election, when he was easily elected in Brampton North as part of a Liberal landslide victory. McClelland served as a backbench supporter of David Peterson's government for the next three years.