OTTAWA–Actor-turned-politician Lenore Zann is finding a second act in politics just as one of her most well-known roles finds a second life on the streaming screen.Zann, a longtime New Democrat MLA from Nova Scotia, arrived in Ottawa this week as a newly elected Liberal MP.Rogue, the character Zann voiced in the iconic 90s X-Men: The Animated Series, will be on Disney’s new streaming service along with the rest of the superhero team when that service launches in Canada next week.“It seems as if all of the experience I have had in both of my careers are now coming together at the same time,” Zann said of the uncanny experience of two professional rebirths in one month.“The character I played who was — and is — the strongest woman in the universe is now coming together with the second woman in history to be sent to Ottawa to represent my riding,” she said. “I think it shows that a woman that’s coming into her own and embracing her own strengths and powers, but still going it alone.”There are a few minor differences between the politician and her former superhero role, however.Zann is not, for instance, a mutant. She can’t fly, nor can she absorb a person’s psyche and abilities through skin contact. She grew up in Truro, Nova Scotia, rather than on the run with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.(Both origin stories are long, filled with mystique and, at times, complicated.)But like her alter-ego, Zann can punch above her weight.Zann represented the neighbouring provincial riding of Truro-Bible Hill as an NDP MLA, joining Darrell Dexter’s short-lived government in 2009 and withstanding a Liberal onslaught four years later. After 10 years as an NDP MLA, Zann decided to jump to the federal Liberals in the 2019 election.Her gambit paid off.In last month’s federal election, she managed to hold on to Cumberland-Colchester for the Liberals, defying the expectations of many political wa ...
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