Paul Martin

Politician

• Born: August 28, 1938
• Place of Birth: Windsor, Ontario

Contribution: Paul Martin Jr. was Canada’s twenty-first prime minister, serving from 2003 to 2006, as a member of the Liberal Party. He is perhaps best remembered, however, as the minister of finance who presided over a period of continued economic growth, erasing Canada’s budget deficit and recording five consecutive years of budget surpluses.

Early Life

Paul Edgar Philippe Martin Jr. was born on August 28, 1938, in Windsor, Ontario, to Paul Joseph James Martin Sr. and Eleanor “Nell” Adams. A distinguished member of the House of Commons for more than thirty-three years, his father served as the Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP) from Essex East and as cabinet minister under four prime ministers.

The Martin family moved to Ottawa in 1945, after Martin Sr.’s appointment to the cabinet, and Martin often spent weekends traveling with his father around their electoral district of Essex East. He later attended the University of Toronto, where he obtained his bachelor of arts and his bachelor of laws degrees. Martin was admitted to the Ontario bar in 1966.

Business Career

Although a licensed attorney, Martin never practiced law. Before his career in politics, he worked as an executive assistant at the Power Corporation of Canada in Montreal and later became chairman and CEO of its subsidiary company Canada Steamship Lines (CSL). In 1981, when Power Corporation decided to sell CSL, Martin and a friend, Lawrence Pathy, formed a partnership and bought the company.

Political Career

Martin’s first foray into politics was in the 1988 federal election. Like his father, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal MP, where he served until 2008. Martin stood for leadership of the Liberal Party in 1990 but lost to Jean Chrétien. When the Liberals won the 1993 election, Chrétien appointed Martin minister of finance.

During his tenure as finance minister, Martin, a fiscal conservative, worked to eliminate the Canadian government’s debt; by the fourth year of his tenure, Canada’s annual $42 billion deficit was completely erased. For the next five years, primarily through reductions in social programs and a transfer of payments to the provinces, Canada recorded budget surpluses while diminishing its debt. Martin also introduced historic tax cuts, overhauled the Canada Pension Plan in conjunction with the provinces, and improved regulations governing Canada’s financial institutions. In 1999, he established and chaired the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (G20), an international organization representing the G7 and developing nations.

Prime Minister

Martin left his position as minister of finance in 2002. Upon Chrétien’s departure from office in spring 2003, Martin became Canada’s twenty-first prime minister, earning more than 93 percent of his party’s vote. He remained prime minister after the June 28, 2004, general election, even though the Liberal Party had lost a number of seats in Parliament and had become a minority.

As prime minister, Martin established a program to improve health care, instituted a national child-care program, and introduced the Civil Marriage Act, which legalized same-sex marriage. In November 2005, under Martin’s leadership, the government of Canada entered into the Kelowna Accord, an agreement that attempted to bridge the gaps between aboriginal and nonaboriginal Canadians in domestic policy.

On January 23, 2006, the Conservative Party won the general election under the leadership of Stephen Harper. Martin was unseated, and a twelveyear period of Liberal Party rule in Canada came to an end.

After Politics

Since leaving office, Martin has been involved in development in Africa, serving as a member of the advisory council for the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa. In addition, he has led various initiatives in support of Canada’s aboriginal population, including the Capital for Aboriginal Prosperity and Entrepreneurship program (or CAPE Fund), a $50 million fund launched in 2009 to help build aboriginal businesses, and the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative, focused on providing literacy and business-based programs for aboriginal students. In 2022, Martin attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II alongside several other former prime ministers.

Personal Life

Martin married Sheila Ann Cowan in 1965. They have three sons. He has written a memoir, Hell or High Water: My Life in and out of Politics, published in 2008.

Bibliography

Gagnon, Alain, and Brian Tanguay. Canadian Parties in Transition. 3rd ed. Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press. Print.

Hetherington, Peter. “Does Canada’s Former Prime Minister Hold the Key to Reducing Britain’s Budget Deficit?” Guardian [England]. Guardian News and Media Limited, 12 Jan. 2010. Web. 13 Aug. 2013.

Major, Darren. "Prime Minister, Governor General to be Joined by Indigenous Leaders at Queen's Funeral." CBC, 15 Sept. 2022, www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-delegation-to-queen-elizabeth-funeral-1.6584284. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.

Martin, Paul. Interview by Joe Chidley. “Q&A: Former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.” Canadian Business. Canadian Business 13 Apr. 2009. Web. 13 Aug. 2013.

“Paul Martin.” CBC News Online. CBC, 17 Mar. 2006. Web. 13 Aug. 2013.

“Paul Martin Launches $50M Aboriginal Business Fund.” Toronto Star. Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd., 11 Mar. 2009. Web. 3 Aug. 2013.

Schroeder, Lara. “Former Prime Minister Pushes Aboriginal Education.” Global News. Shaw Media, 10 May 2013. Web. 13 Aug. 2013.

Simpson, Jeffrey. “Aboriginal Education Vexes Canada (and Paul Martin).” Globe and Mail. Globe and Mail, 15 May 2013. Web. 13 Aug. 2013.