Wade MacLauchlan

H. Wade MacLauchlan CM OPEI, is a Canadian academic and politician.

MacLauchlan was president of the University of Prince Edward Island from 1999 to 2011. He was previously dean of the law school of the University of New Brunswick and a law professor at Dalhousie University.

MacLauchlan has been criticized for a 2006 action when as president of the University of PEI he banned from campus an edition of the student newspaper, The Cadre, which reprintedcontroversial Danish cartoons of Muhammad. In a statement, MacLauchlan said that the newspaper's edition, which had re-published political cartoons depicting a prophet of Islam, was "a reckless invitation to disorder." The Canadian Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship issued a statement describing MacLauchlan's actions as "contrary to the duty of all university presidents to maintain their campuses as places where debate of controversial issues may take place."

Since retiring from the university, MacLauchlan has chaired the Palmer Conference on Public Sector Leadership in 2012: Canada as a Leader in Immigration Policy and Practice, and co-chaired the 2013 Georgetown Conference: Redefining Rural. He also wrote Alex B. Campbell: The Prince Edward Island Premier Who Rocked the Cradle, a biography of Alex Campbell.

On November 28, 2014, MacLauchlan announced his candidacy for the leadership of the ruling Prince Edward Island Liberal Party.

MacLauchlan's partner is Duncan McIntosh, founding artistic director of the Watermark Theatre.\

MacLauchlan was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2008, of the Order of Prince Edward Island in 2014, and in 2010 receiving the IPAC Award for Excellence in Public Service.