Paul Martin

Paul Martin was born in Windsor, Ontario. At the age of four, he survived a bout of polio. In 1946, his family moved to Ottawa. His influential father, Paul Martin Sr., had been appointed to the Mackenzie King cabinet the previous year. As minister of national health and welfare (1946–57), he was one of the architects of Canada's social safety net. He was also secretary of state for external affairs (1963–68), made three failed bids for the Liberal Party leadership (1948, 1958, 1968) and was high commissioner to Britain (1975–79).

In Ottawa, the younger Martin was educated at a French elementary and bilingual high school. He later attended St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto, where he was a member of the Young Liberals and graduated with an Honours degree in philosophy in 1962. In 1965, he graduated from the University of Toronto law school. He was called to the Ontario bar the next year.

Personal Life

Also in 1965, Paul Martin married Sheila Ann Cowan, daughter of lawyer and philanthropist William Cowan. Paul and Sheila Martin have three sons: Paul, Jamie and David.      

Entrepreneur

In 1966, Martin moved his new family to Montreal, where he joined the Power Corporation of Canada as executive assistant to mentor and president Maurice Strong (and later, Paul Desmarais). Although there was no business experience in the family, Martin displayed a natural entrepreneurial skill. By 1969, he had been appointed vice-president of Power Corp. By 1973, he was president of Canada Steamship Lines and was CEO two years later.

In August 1981, Martin and a business partner bought the company (renamed CSL Group) for $180 million. By 1988, Martin was the sole owner. His creation of an ocean-going fleet equipped with self-unloading technology was highly successful, but other profit-making strategies later became the subject of criticism. They included decisions to build new ships overseas, set up operations in foreign countries, employ low-wage foreign workers, and have his ships operate under so-called “flags of convenience.” Although these were standard procedures in the world of maritime commerce, Martin's track record with CSL was used against him when he entered politics.

Early Career in Politics

Paul Martin Sr. had often counselled his son, eager to enter politics, to wait until he was well established in business. In 1988, when Martin was 50, he ran in the federal election in the Montreal-area riding of LaSalle-Émard. That year, the Progressive Conservative Party under Brian Mulroney swept to its second majority victory. But Martin was one of a strong contingent of Liberals elected to Parliament that year.

After Liberal leader John Turner resigned, Martin ran against Jean Chrétien in 1990 to become Liberal Party leader. One of the major issues of the leadership campaign was the Meech Lake Accord, which Martin supported and Chrétien opposed. At the  Calgary convention that chose a new leader, Martin lost on the first ballot — taking 25 per cent of the vote to Chrétien's 57 per cent. The bitter fight for the leadership marked the beginning of a long and complex rivalry between the two men that eventually tore the fabric of the Liberal Party itself.

Finance Minister

Recognizing the talents of his rival, Chrétien asked Paul Martin to co-author the party's 1993 election platform. After the 1993 election that brought the Liberals to power with a majority government, Martin was appointed finance minister. During his nine-year tenure in that portfolio, he presented a series of widely watched budgets. But it was those of the mid-1990s that brought him new supporters and critics.

By 1994, the Canadian economy was in a deep recession. Interest payments on the country’s $42 billion deficit made up more than a third of the federal budget. In January 1995, the Wall Street Journal called the Canadian dollar the “northern peso” and Canada an “honorary member of the Third World.” In February, the ratings agency Moody’s put Canada “under review.”

Martin’s stated goal as finance minister was to eliminate the deficit “come hell or high water.” In February 1994, he slashed funding for unemployment insurance and closed several military bases. In 1995, he presented a landmark Canadian budget. Determined to reduce the Canadian deficit, Martin cut the spending of virtually every federal department. He reduced government expenditures by more than $25 billion (spread over three years) and eliminated 45,000 public service jobs. Federal transfer payments to the provinces for health and education were chopped by $7 billion. Though he was criticized for cutting social programs, Martin’s popularity was undiminished. The Chrétien government won a second majority in 1997, due in no small part to Martin's record.

By 1998, Martin had erased the $42 billion deficit he had inherited, establishing a reputation at home and abroad as a fearless deficit cutter. Starting in 1998, he achieved five straight years of budget surpluses — the first in a quarter century — while cutting income tax rates and increasing government spending. He grew the National Child Benefit to over $7 billion annually and worked to ensure that the benefits of globalization were shared by all. He was a driving force behind the creation of the Group of 20 (G20) and served as its inaugural chair in 1999. The Liberals won a third consecutive majority government in the election of 2000. The victory had much to do with Martin's success as the most influential finance minister in decades.

Martin vs. Chrétien

During his years as finance minister, Martin's relationship with Jean Chrétien was strained. But the tensions were usually kept from public view. The two worked closely together, despite having conflicting ideas on some sensitive files, including Quebec, the home base of both politicians. Martin was ambivalent in his support for the Clarity Act, one of Chrétien's key pieces of legislation, privately favouring a less confrontational approach to Quebec separatism.

By 2002, anticipating Chrétien's retirement, Martin and others had begun campaigning for the Liberal Party leadership. In the winter and spring of that year, the Liberal government was besieged by accusations of incompetence and corruption, particularly related to the growing Sponsorship Scandal. Believing that damaging leaks were being orchestrated from within Cabinet, Chrétien ordered leadership campaigning to stop.

A leadership review, which Liberal Party rules required after each general election, was set for March 2003. By late May 2002, the controversies within the Liberal Party dominated Canadian politics. Martin was on the verge of resigning, when, on 2 June 2002, Chrétien fired him. He had served in the role for nine years, making him Canada’s longest-serving finance minister since the First World War. Martin announced that he would continue to sit in the House of Commons as an MP. In August, Chrétien, no doubt fearing repudiation at the upcoming party convention, announced he would resign from office — but not for another 18 months.

Prime Minister

In November 2003, following a campaign in which Paul Martin's victory was never in serious question, he won the leadership by a massive majority (3,242 to 211 votes, or 95 per cent to 5 per cent) over his only remaining opponent, Sheila Copps. In taking the mantle of Liberal leader, Martin had succeeded where his father, who had tried three times for the leadership over four decades, had failed. Chrétien left earlier than expected and on 12 December 2003, Martin became Canada's 21st prime minister. (Martin brought the flag that was flown at half-mast on Parliament Hill after his father died to his swearing-in ceremony.) Martin rewarded some but not all of his key supporters; Chrétien loyalists were mostly shut out of the top jobs.

Initially, public approval of the new prime minister was stunningly positive (64 per cent). Yet, despite 15 years in Parliament, more than half of them as a high-profile finance minister, Martin was still largely an unknown quantity. To some observers he was an enigma, a politician without fixed policy priorities. To others, including colleagues and friends, he was a man full of intellectual curiosity whose ambition was to transform the government and the country.

Although he was accused during his long run for the leadership and after becoming prime minister of being vague on specifics, Martin articulated an ambitious number of priorities for his government. He promised to create improved ties with the US, a stronger military and a skilled workforce. He also pledged to reduce health care wait lists and poverty among Indigenous peoples, and to repair what he called “the democratic deficit” in Parliament, expanding the role of backbenchers in government decision making. All this would be done as he cut taxes and reduced the national debt.

New Government, Old Scandals

Whatever Canadians' expectations and Paul Martin's own ambitions, Canada's new prime minister inherited a party suffering from the wounds of bitter infighting.

As Martin struggled to set a new agenda, the auditor general revived the Sponsorship Scandal in a report outlining the misspending of $100 million in federal funds, some of which had been diverted through government agencies and advertising companies to Liberal supporters in Quebec. As the Liberals sank dramatically in the polls, Martin went on the offensive. He denied knowledge of and involvement in the scandal and promised to resign if he was proved untruthful. He appointed the Commission of Inquiry into the  Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities (Gomery Commission) to look into what he called “the disgusting mess.” He tried to ally himself with an outraged Canadian public, going on national talk shows and announcing he would punish those responsible.

In February 2004, the prime minister fired ambassador Alfonso Gagliano, who was implicated in the scandal as a former public works minister. Martin also suspended the presidents of the Business Development Bank, VIA Rail and Canada Post. The scandal and Martin's forceful actions to meet it exacerbated tensions between his supporters and those of former prime minister Chrétien. At the same time, the scandal presented Martin with an opportunity to act on promises to reform the structure of government and end the concentration of power in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Martin pledged that in the future all senior appointments, including those to crown corporations and the Supreme Court, would be vetted by Parliament.

The Sponsorship Scandal severely diminished the popularity of Martin's government. Though the Sponsorship program had started under Chrétien, more than twice as many Canadians blamed Martin, believing that as finance minister he must have known about the improper use of funds. The ongoing scandal was a major issue in the election on 28 June 2004 and a significant factor in Martin’s government being reduced to a minority with 135 of 308 seats.

Martin continued to pursue an active agenda. But he found that much of his attention was now focussed on saving his beleaguered government. The bold businessman and finance minister was now seen as cautious and indecisive, both in Ottawa and internationally.

In February 2005, Martin testified at the Gomery Inquiry, becoming the first sitting prime minister to testify at a public inquiry since John A. Macdonald in 1873. The first report of the Gomery Commission was released on 1 November 2005. It exonerated Martin, but his government was damaged by the report. It pointed to the misuse of sponsorship funds and corruption within the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal Party. Sensing an opportunity, the opposition parties combined on 28 November to bring down the government and force an election. On 23 January 2006, the Liberals won 103 seats, 21 fewer than Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. That night, Martin conceded defeat and announced that he would step down as Liberal leader.

Martin had floundered on international issues. He had trouble producing a statement of Canadian foreign policy and deciding whether Canada should take part in the US ballistic missile defence system. But he was extremely active on several other fronts during his two years in office. His government legalized same-sex marriage, created a national child care program, negotiated a $41 billion health care accord with the provinces, and forged the Kelowna Accord with the provinces and territories to improve the standard of living for Indigenous peoples.

Although Martin resigned as party leader in 2006, he remained as Member of Parliament for the riding of LaSalle–Émard. He did not run for re-election in the 2008 federal election. His memoir, Hell or High Water: My Life In and Out of Politics, was published in 2008.

Career after Politics

After retiring from politics, Paul Martin served as an in-demand public speaker. In 2014, he advised Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne on the development of a new provincial pension plan.

Paul Martin and his family established the Capital for Aboriginal Prosperity and Entrepreneurship (CAPE) Fund and the Martin Family Initiative (MFI). The MFI works with Indigenous leaders, governments and the private sector “to support K-12 education for Indigenous children, and the wider determinants that influence their educational outcomes,” such as health. Martin was also founding co-chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund and works with the Advisory Council of the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa. He was also a member of the Global Ocean Commission (2013–16).

(See also Timeline: Elections and Prime Ministers.)

Honours and Awards

• Member, Privy Council (1993)
• Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Toronto Faculty of Law (2002)
• Companion, Order of Canada (2011)
• Excellence in Aboriginal Relations Award, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (now the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business) (2011)
• Award for Excellence in the Cause of Parliamentary Democracy, The Churchill Society (2011)
• Lincoln Alexander Outstanding Leader Award, University of Guelph (2013)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Canadian Club of Toronto (2014)
• Gold Medal, Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2022)

Honorary Degrees

• Doctor of Laws, Concordia University (1998)
• Doctor of Letters, University of St. Michael’s College (1998)
• Doctor of Laws, Wilfrid Laurier University (2001)
• Doctor of Laws, University of Windsor (2007)
• Doctor of Civil Law, Bishop’s University (2009)
• Doctor of Laws, Queen’s University (2010)
• Doctor of Laws, University of Western Ontario (2010)
• Doctor of Laws, University of Toronto (2011)
• Doctor of Laws, McMaster University (2011)
• Doctor of Education, Nipissing University (2012)
• Doctor of Laws, University of British Columbia (2012)
• Doctor of Laws, Lakehead University (2013)
• Honorary Doctorate, University of Ottawa (2013)
• Doctor of Laws, University of New Brunswick (2013)
• Doctor of Philosophy, University of Haifa (2013)
• Doctor of Laws, Mount Allison University (2014)
• Doctor of Laws, Dalhousie University (2014)
• Doctor of Laws, Brandon University (2016)
• Doctor of Laws, McGill University (2017)
• Doctor of Laws, Trent University (2017)
• Doctor of Laws, Carleton University (2019)
• Doctor of Laws, University of Lethbridge (2019)
• Doctor of Laws, Brock University (2020)
• Doctor of Civil Laws, Acadia University (2021)