Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (French: [pɔl maʁtɛ̃]; born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and retired politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006.
The son of former senator and secretary of state for external affairs Paul Martin Sr., Martin was born in Windsor, Ontario and was a lawyer from Ontario before he became president and the chief executive officer of Canada Steamship Lines in 1973. He held that position until his election as a member of Parliament for the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard in 1988. Martin ran for leader of the Liberal Party in 1990, losing to Jean Chrétien. Martin became Chrétien's longtime rival for the leadership of the party, though he was appointed as minister of finance after the Liberal victory in the 1993 federal election. As minister, Martin oversaw many changes in the financial structure of the Canadian government, and his policies had a direct effect on eliminating the country's chronic fiscal deficit by sharply cutting spending and reforming programs. In 2002, he was removed as finance minister as tensions with Chrétien reached their peak. Martin initially prepared to challenge Chrétien's leadership, but when Chrétien announced his intention of retiring, Martin entered the 2003 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election. Martin won the leadership in a landslide, and was sworn in as prime minister that December.
Martin led the Liberal Party in the 2004 federal election, in which the party retained power as a minority government, losing its majority due to the sponsorship scandal that began to develop in the late 1990s. After the election, Martin's government signed the Kelowna Accord to improve the living conditions of Indigenous peoples and legalized same-sex marriage through the Civil Marriage Act. In 2005, the opposition parties in the House of Commons passed a motion of no confidence contending that his government was corrupt after the Gomery Commission released new details about the sponsorship scandal, which triggered the 2006 federal election. In that election, Martin's Liberals were defeated by the newly unified Conservative Party led by Stephen Harper, ending over 12 years of Liberal rule.
Shortly after the defeat, Martin stepped down as Liberal leader and declined to seek re-election in 2008. Evaluations of Martin's prime ministership have been mixed, whereas his tenure as finance minister has been viewed more favourably. Now seen as a global diplomat, Martin continues to contribute on the international arena through a variety of initiatives such as Incentives for Global Health and the not-for-profit behind the Health Impact Fund, the latter of which he serves on as a member of the advisory board. He also sits as an advisor to Canada's Ecofiscal Commission.
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Early life
Martin was born at Hôtel-Dieu of St. Joseph Hospital in Windsor, Ontario, and grew up in Windsor and Ottawa. His father, Paul Martin Sr., a Franco-Ontarian of Irish and French descent, served 33 years as a member of the House of Commons of Canada, and was a Cabinet minister in the Liberal governments of Prime Ministers W. L. Mackenzie King, Louis St. Laurent, Lester B. Pearson, and Pierre E. Trudeau. His mother, Eleanor "Nell" Alice (née Adams), was of Scottish and Irish descent. He had one sister, Mary-Anne Bellamy, who was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at a young age. She died on July 20, 2011. Martin contracted polio in 1946 at the age of eight (like his father, who contracted the disease in 1907).
Martin briefly attended the University of Ottawa before transferring to St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto, where he graduated with a B.A. in history and philosophy in 1961. He was a member of the U of T Young Liberals during his time at the University of Toronto. He then attended the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where he received an LL.B. in 1964. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1966.
On September 11, 1965, Martin married Sheila Ann Cowan, with whom he has three sons: Paul, Jamie and David.
Business career
Board of directors
In 1969, Power Corporation took a controlling share in Canada Steamship Lines. On December 2, 1970, Paul Martin, the 32-year-old executive assistant to Power Corporation chief executive officer (CEO) Maurice Strong, was appointed to the CSL board of directors. In 1971, CSL minority shareholders sold outstanding shares to Power Corporation, making CSL a Power Corporation subsidiary.
Presidency
CSL suffered losses in 1972 when forced to cover unexpected cost overruns in the construction of three 80,000-ton ocean-going tankers at Davie Shipbuilding. On November 22, 1973, Martin was appointed president and CEO of the CSL Group. In 1974, CSL earnings were further hurt by an eight-week strike on the Great Lakes.
In 1976, Power Corporation reversed itself and took over the investment portfolio that had been sold to CSL five years earlier. CSL reverted to an operating division of Power Corporation.
Early political career (1988–1993)
In 1988, Martin was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the southwestern Montreal riding of LaSalle-Émard. He was re-elected without much difficulty at every election until he retired from politics.
In 1984, the Liberal Party was defeated under the leadership of John Turner, falling to just 40 seats. A group of young Liberals approached Martin as a possible candidate to replace Turner, and while he did not take part in an attempt to overthrow Turner, he did prepare to succeed him in the leadership should the position open.
Martin was a candidate at the 1990 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, losing to Jean Chrétien in a bitter race that resulted in lasting animosity between the two men and their supporters. A key moment in that race took place at an all-candidates debate in Montreal, where the discussion quickly turned to the Meech Lake Accord. Martin, favouring Meech, attempted to force Chrétien to abandon his nuanced position on the deal and declare for or against it. When Chrétien refused to endorse the deal, young Liberal delegates crowding the hall began to chant "vendu" ("sellout" in French) and "Judas" at Chrétien. Chrétien was upset at the response from the floor and another similar outburst by Martin supporters at the convention when Chrétien accepted the party leadership. Jean Lapierre and his supporters, who supported Martin, wore black armbands at the convention to protest Chrétien's victory. The Meech Lake accord was officially defeated just one day before the Liberal leadership was to be decided. In the House of Commons, Lapierre then crossed the floor to the newly formed Bloc Québécois.
After the leadership convention, Martin co-authored the election platform Creating Opportunity, colloquially known as the Red Book. The Liberal Party won a landslide majority government in the 1993 election.
Finance Minister (1993–2002)
After the Liberals formed the government, Martin was chosen as minister of finance by Prime Minister Chrétien. At the time, Canada had one of the highest budgetary deficits of the G7 countries. Standard & Poor's had lowered its rating on Canada's foreign-denominated government debt from AAA to AA-plus in 1992, and in 1994, Moody's lowered its rating on Canada's foreign currency debt from Aaa to Aa1, partly due to Canada's growing public debt. In his debut as finance minister, Martin made huge budget cuts that almost ground economic growth to a halt, scaling down government to 1951 levels. In 1994–96, when these cuts were made, economic growth decreased by 3.5 percentage points, according to a study by CIBC-Wood Gundy. The resulting loss in tax revenue almost eliminated the savings made by the cuts and turned the economy away from the public sector toward the private sector. The cuts endangered the provinces' abilities to pay for social programs, health care, and public infrastructure. In response, the Bank of Canada lowered interest rates to avoid contributing to a growing recession, causing a huge spurt of economic growth and resulting increase in government revenue. In 1998, Martin introduced a balanced budget, an event that had occurred only twice in 36 years before 1997. In 2002, Moody's and Standard and Poor's restored Canada's domestic and foreign currency debt ratings to AAA.
During his tenure as finance minister, Martin was responsible for lowering Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio from a peak of 70 percent to about 50 percent in the mid-1990s. In December 2001, he was named a member of the World Economic Forum's "dream cabinet." The global business and financial body listed Martin along with United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as top world leaders.
Also during his tenure as finance minister, Martin coordinated a series of meetings between the finance ministers of all provinces to discuss the pending crisis in the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Consequently, Martin oversaw the creation of a general public consultation process in February 1996 that eventually led to major structural reform of the CPP. The results of this public consultation process were collected and analyzed by the Finance department. Eventually, it led to a proposal for overhauling the CPP, which was presented to Parliament and was approved soon after, averting a pension crisis.
While Martin's record as finance minister was lauded in business and financial circles, there were undeniable costs. Some of these took the form of reduced government services, affecting the operations and achievement of the mandate of federal and provincial departments. This was probably most noticeable in health care, as major reductions in federal funding to the provinces meant significant cuts in service delivery. Martin's tactics, including those of using contributor's funds from RCMP, Military and Civil Service pension plans and Employment Insurance, created further controversy. CAW economist Jim Stanford said that a combination of a spending freeze at 1994 levels and lower interest rates would have eliminated the deficit in two years through economic growth alone, without the reduction in services.
Relations with Chrétien
Chrétien and Martin frequently clashed while in office. It was reported that Chrétien privately often condemned Martin in bitter terms and had never forgiven Martin for running against him in the Liberal leadership convention of 1990. During that bitter contest, Martin had forced Chrétien to declare his opposition to the Meech Lake Accord and, as a result, Chrétien was generally unpopular in his home province for the next decade.
Even before the Liberals' second electoral victory in the 1997 election, there was much speculation in the media and in Ottawa that Martin was after Chrétien's job and wanted to force him to retire. As the Liberals emerged with a smaller majority government after the 1997 election, it seemed unlikely that any opposition party could pose a serious challenge, but Martin began to gain support from those who began to disagree with Chrétien. Chrétien, however, resolved to stay on after the Liberals were reelected in 2000, having regained much of the ground lost in 1997. By this time, Martin had gained control of much of the party machinery.
Becoming prime minister
The conflict between the two men reached a peak in 2002. Martin left Cabinet, being replaced by John Manley as finance minister. There is some question about whether Martin resigned or Chrétien had him dismissed. Being out of Cabinet was likely a boost to Martin's campaign as he was no longer obligated to disclose his donors. Soon after, Martin declared his intention to run as leader of the Liberal Party at the next party convention. Over the summer of 2002, Martin toured the country campaigning to succeed Chrétien while his Liberal organizers prepared to challenge Chrétien's leadership during a review vote in January 2003. During the fall, Chrétien announced that he would step down in the spring of 2004 after less than half of caucus agreed to sign a commitment supporting him. The Liberal party called a leadership convention for the fall of 2003, to be held in Toronto.
Several other potential leadership contenders, such as Brian Tobin and Allan Rock, declined to enter the contest. John Manley's attacks on Martin's refusal to disclose his campaign contributors did little to dent the latter's commanding lead and Manley eventually conceded the race. This left no strong candidate for Chrétien supporters to rally around, and some of them grudgingly voted for Martin.
On September 21, 2003, Martin easily defeated his sole remaining opponent, former deputy prime minister Sheila Copps, securing 93 percent of the party delegates. On November 14, 2003, he was declared the winner at the Liberal leadership convention, capturing 3,242 of 3,455 votes. He had won the leadership almost unopposed, due to his hold on the party machinery, and because Chrétien supporters did not rally around either of the leadership opponents.
Simon Fraser University professor Doug McArthur has noted that Martin's leadership campaign used aggressive tactics for the 2003 leadership convention, in attempting to end the contest before it could start by giving the impression that his bid was too strong. McArthur blamed Martin's tactics for the ongoing sag in Liberal fortunes, as it discouraged activists who were not on side.
Prime Minister (2003–2006)
Majority government and sponsorship controversy
On December 12, 2003, Martin was appointed by then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson as the 21st Prime Minister of Canada. When sworn in as prime minister, Martin held the flag that flew on Parliament Hill when the elder Martin died. Both father and son had served as Cabinet ministers and contested the Liberal leadership on multiple occasions; their attempts from 1948 to 1990 were unsuccessful. Martin's election as leader and becoming prime minister was described as fulfilling a family dream. Both also earned the honorific prefix The Right Honourable. One difference between them was that Paul Sr. was one of the most left-wing members of the party, while Paul Jr. is considered on the right-wing.
When he was sworn in, Martin's new cabinet retained only half the ministers from Chrétien's government, a noteworthy break in tradition from previous instances where a retiring prime minister handed over power to his successor as party leader. Martin and his supporters exercised control over the riding nomination process, breaking with the precedent to automatically sign the nomination papers of backbenchers and former ministers who wanted to run for reelection. While these were signs of open party infighting, this had little impact on Martin's record popularity, with several pundits suggesting that the cabinet change was meant to present a new government different from Chrétien's ten-year tenure. Martin declined to appoint leadership contestants John Manley and Sheila Copps to cabinet.
Martin and the Liberals were adversely affected by a report from Auditor General Sheila Fraser on February 9, 2004, indicating that sponsorship contracts designed to increase the federal government's status in Quebec resulted in little to no work done. Many of the agencies had Liberal ties, and roughly $100 million of the $250 million in program spending went missing. The scandal hurt Martin's popularity, especially in Quebec, where Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe even accused Martin of planning to widen the St. Lawrence seaway to benefit his own Canada Steamship Lines. The scandal also cast skepticism on Martin's recommendations for Cabinet appointments, prompting speculation Martin was simply ridding the government of Chrétien's supporters to distance the Liberals from the scandal. Martin acknowledged that there was political direction but denied involvement in, or knowledge of, the sponsorship contracts. He had a judicial inquiry called to investigate what came to be known as the Sponsorship Scandal, and nominated John Gomery to head it.
Minority government
The Martin government faced combined challenges from Quebec separatism and general hostility arising from the Sponsorship Scandal. The first test of the Liberal minority came following the Speech from the throne on October 5, 2004. The Bloc Québécois moved an amendment to the speech challenging the government over provincial jurisdiction. The Conservatives supported the amendment, but the NDP opposed it. Collapse of the government on the confidence vote was averted after Martin called Harper and reached a last-minute deal watering down the motion's wording. The government faced another hurdle when the Conservatives announced their own plan to move an amendment to the speech. Harper denied that the Tories intended to bring down the government. The fall of the government was averted for the second time after the Liberals reached a deal with the opposition parties. Don Boudria, the Liberals' Chrétien-era House leader, likened the brinkmanship in the first few weeks of the 38th Parliament to a game of Russian roulette.
Martin invested heavily in Quebec, for example with the Bombardier Inc. C series project, which was later taken over by Airbus when the owner got into financial difficulties and called the Airbus A220. By June 2005 Martin gave the Federation of Canadian Municipalities a GST rebate and was about to supply to them a portion of the federal gasoline tax; the programme was called "New Deal for Cities and Communities". This was a left-over of his time as Minister of Finance, spurred by continued carping by academics, some of whom did not hesitate to note in 2004 that "[u]nlike the federal and provincial governments, municipalities cannot borrow for operating purposes; they can only do so for capital expenditures."
At the First Ministers' Meeting of September 13–15, 2004, Martin and the provincial premiers reached an agreement on increased funding for healthcare. This 10-year plan outlined $18 billion in increased transfers to the provinces over 6 years, notably through increases in the CHT:
The CHT was to be increased by $3 billion in 2004-05 and $2 billion in 2005-06;
A new CHT base set at $19 billion starting in 2005–06, greater than suggested in the Romanow Report;
An escalation factor set at 6% starting in 2006–07.
Supreme Court appointments
Martin chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada by the Governor General:
Rosalie Abella (October 4, 2004 – July 1, 2021)
Louise Charron (October 4, 2004 – August 30, 2011)
Return to the back benches (2006–2008)
Choosing not to take on the office of Leader of the Opposition, the first defeated Prime Minister who had retained his seat not to do so, Martin stepped down as parliamentary leader of his party on February 1, and the Liberal caucus appointed Bill Graham, MP for Toronto Centre and outgoing Defence Minister, as his interim successor.
Martin temporarily remained nominal Liberal party leader until March 18, 2006, when he submitted his resignation to party executives, who handed that post to Graham for the interim until that next leadership convention could be held. At the same meeting Martin tendered his resignation, the date for the leadership convention to select his successor was set for the weekend of December 2–3, 2006. According to media reports, Martin decided to move up the date of his resignation to end speculation that he might lead the Liberals into another election if Stephen Harper's minority government were to fall prior to the Liberal leadership convention. This began a trend of high turnover among permanent Liberal leaders, in contrast to their predecessors who usually served over two or more elections, including Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien who each led for over a decade.
At the Liberal convention in Montreal, Martin was officially neutral in the contest. The party's tribute to Martin was hosted by former Olympian Mark Tewksbury. Martin's press secretary denied that the tribute was low key due to the Sponsorship Scandal and lingering bitterness inside the party, saying that the former prime minister wanted a simple evening. In his farewell speech, Martin paid homage to Chrétien, though the latter was not present for the event, and urged the Liberals to emerge united from the convention. Stéphane Dion was elected Liberal leader from a field of eight candidates.
For his last years of public office after resigning as prime minister, Martin was a backbencher, devoting his time to projects related to improving educational opportunities for Aboriginals (The Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative), and protecting the Congo Basin rain forest. In the 2008 federal election, Martin did not run for re-election to Parliament.
Retirement (2008–present)
In November 2008, CTV reported that Martin would be a member of a four-person council of economic advisers to a coalition government formed by the Liberals and the NDP if they succeeded in toppling the Harper government. However, the proposed coalition dissolved, as outgoing Liberal leader Stéphane Dion was quickly forced out and replaced by Michael Ignatieff, who distanced the party from the coalition.
Martin published his memoirs, Hell Or High Water: My Life In And Out of Politics (ISBN 0771056923), in late 2008. Published by McClelland & Stewart, the book draws heavily upon interviews conducted by Sean Conway, a former Ontario Liberal provincial cabinet minister, which were carried out for the Library and Archives Canada.
Martin was asked by Kofi Annan (at that time Secretary General of the United Nations), Gordon Brown (then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), and other international politicians and diplomats to help African countries develop their economic potential.
In 2009, Martin was co-chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund, along with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai, to address global warming and poverty issues in a ten-nation region in Africa.
In September 2022, Martin attended Elizabeth II's state funeral, along with other former Canadian prime ministers.
After his retirement from active Canadian politics, Martin was an adviser to the International Monetary Fund and to the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa. He also worked with the Martin Family Initiative, which assists First Nations youth. He lives in Knowlton, Québec.
Honours
Prenominal title "The Honourable" and postnominal "PC", for life upon being made a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, November 4, 1993
Upgraded prenominal title "The Right Honourable", for life upon becoming prime minister, December 12, 2003
A Trillium-class freighter in Canada Steamship Lines, Rt. Hon. Paul E. Martin, is named for him.