Billy Joe MacLean, one of Nova Scotia's most colourful political characters whose decades-long career included a memorable stint in the provincial cabinet in the early 1980s, has died. He was 88.

MacLean died in the early hours of Wednesday at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital from a group A streptococcus infection, said family members.

The longtime owner of the Port Hawkesbury bar The Carriage House — formerly Billy Joe's Place — first ran for municipal politics in 1970, securing a seat on Port …