Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born
August 28,
1938, in
Windsor, Ontario) was the 21st
Prime Minister of Canada and the former leader of the
Liberal Party of Canada.
He took office as Prime Minister on
December 12,
2003, succeeding
Jean Chrétien. On
February 6,
2006, after his party's defeat in the
2006 general election he resigned, and was succeeded as Prime Minister by
Stephen Harper.
Martin has been the
Member of Parliament for the
riding of
LaSalleâ€"Émard in
Montreal since
1988, and was
Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2002. He 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 cutting various programs including social services.
On
November 14,
2003, Martin succeeded Jean Chrétien as leader of the Liberal Party and would become Prime Minister in December. The
2004 election yielded a
minority government in which the Liberals under Martin remained in power. Forced by a
vote of no confidence, the
January 23,
2006 election produced a minority victory for the opposition
Conservative Party. Martin stayed on as party leader until March 18, handing the reins to
Bill Graham.
According to Canadian protocol, as a former Prime Minister, he is styled "
The Right Honourable" for life.
Martin's father,
Paul Joseph James Martin, a
Franco-Ontarian of half Irish and half French descent, served thirty-three years as a member of the Canadian House of Commons and was a cabinet minister in four Liberal governments. His mother, Eleanor "Nelly" Alice Adams, was of Scottish, MĂ©tis and Irish descent. He has one sister, Mary Anne. Despite the French-Canadian strains in his family tree, Martin was raised in an English-speaking environment in Windsor and
Ottawa. To give him the opportunity to improve his French, his parents enrolled him in a private
French-language
middle school, École Garneau in Ottawa. He then briefly attended the
University of Ottawa.
Martin then went on to study at the
University of St. Michael's College at the
University of Toronto, and graduated with a BA in history and philosophy in 1961. He followed his father's path to the University of Toronto Law School where he received his LL.B in 1965. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1966.
In 1965, Martin married
Sheila Ann Cowan, and they have three sons, Paul, Jamie and David.
|
Martin with one of his ships |
Before entering politics, Martin had a long career in the private sector, serving many positions within the
Power Corporation. In July 1981, he was offered the opportunity to buy
Canada Steamship Lines, then a Power Corporation subsidiary, in a risky leveraged buy out in partnership with acquaintance Lawrence Pathy. He calculated that they could afford the buy-out as long as interest rates, which were at an all-time high in Canada, did not continue to rise. The partners went for it, the largest leveraged buy-out in Canadian history, and the gamble paid off: within a few months rates began to fall - Martin became a millionaire. His declaration of assets upon entering Parliament included ownership of dozens of companies around the world, thirty-three ships, office buildings, apartment blocks and movie theatres. In 2004, Forbes.com estimated Martin's personal wealth at $225,000,000 (USD). Upon assuming the office of Prime Minister, Martin handed over control of his holdings to his three sons. Martin's involvement in Canada Steamship Lines would be brought up often by opponents, mostly for its practice of employing
flags of convenience.
In 1984, the Liberal Party was defeated under the leadership of
John Turner, falling to just 40 seats. Many Liberals looked to replace Turner with a candidate new to politics. A group of young Liberals approached Martin as a possible candidate, 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. In 1988, Martin was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Western Montreal riding of LaSalle-Émard. He has been reelected at every election since then without much difficulty.
He was a candidate at the 1990
Liberal leadership convention, 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. Martin continues to state he had nothing to do with the response from the floor, or the similar outburst by his supporters at the convention when Chrétien accepted the nomination.
Jean Lapierre and his supporters, who were in favour of Martin, wore black armbands at the convention to protest Chrétien's victory. Lapierre then crossed the floor to the newly formed
Bloc Québécois.
After the leadership convention, Chrétien gave Martin a leading position in the party, including having him co-author the election platform "Creating Opportunity," colliqually known as the
Red Book.
Despite lingering bitterness from the leadership race, the Liberal Party won the
1993 election and Martin was appointed minister of finance by the new prime minister, Jean Chrétien. At the time, Canada had one of the highest annual deficits of the
G7 countries. As finance minister, Martin erased a $42 billion deficit, recorded five consecutive budget surpluses, and paid down $36 billion of national debt.
During his tenure as finance minister Martin was responsible for lowering Canada's debt-to-
GDP ratio from a peak of seventy per cent to about fifty per cent in the mid-1990s. In December 2001, he was named as 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 how to address 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 ministry. Eventually, it led to a proposal for overhauling the CPP, which was presented to Parliament and was approved soon after, thereby averting a pension crisis if left unaddressed.
While Martin's record as finance minister was lauded in business and financial circles, there were undeniable costs. Some of these costs 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 surplus funds from pension plans and
Employment Insurance, created further controversy.
Prime Minister Chrétien and Martin frequently clashed while in office. It was often reported that Chrétien had never forgiven Martin for running against him in the Liberal leadership convention of 1990, and privately often condemned Martin in bitter terms to his aides. Some suggested that if Martin was not promised the Finance portfolio in the event of the Liberals 1993 election victory, Martin would have resigned, splitting the Liberal Party. Even before Chrétien's 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 the prime minister to retire.
The conflicts between the two men reached a peak in 2002. Martin was removed from
Cabinet, and was replaced by
John Manley as Finance Minister, with some debate on whether Martin resigned or Chrétien had fired him. Soon after, Martin formally 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.
After that, several of Martin's opponents for the leadership 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 dropped out. On
September 21,
2003, he easily defeated his sole remaining opponent, former Deputy Prime Minister
Sheila Copps by securing ninety-three per cent of the party delegates from across the country. On
November 14,
2003, he was formally declared the winner at the Liberal leadership convention, capturing 3,242 of 3,455 votes. On
December 12,
2003, he was formally appointed by Governor General
Adrienne Clarkson as the twenty-first Prime Minister of Canada.
Martin
provoked controversy as his new cabinet retained only half the ministers from Chrétien's government, and Martin would not sign the nomination papers for some former ministers who wanted to run for the Liberals in the upcoming election. At the time, however, this had little impact on Martin's record popularity, since pundits noted that a new cabinet was a refreshing change from Chrétien's ten-year tenure. Many long-time Liberals were put off by Martin's control of the riding nomination process, and former Liberal strongholds were weakened due to disgruntled members leaving the party.
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. Martin has stated that there has to have been political direction but denies involvement in, or knowledge of, the sponsorship contracts, and called a public inquiry into what has come to be known as the
Sponsorship Scandal. 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 cabinet appointments, prompting speculation Martin was simply ridding the government of Chrétien's supporters to distance the Liberals from the scandal.
2004 election
Martin's support fell after the revelations, and Martin would delay his once imminent election call. Martin decided to call an
election for
June 28,
2004.
Polls placed the Liberals in a dead heat with the Conservatives midway through the campaign. The Conservatives would soon take the lead in the early days of the campaign, prompting predictions of an imminent Harper government. The Liberals managed to narrow the gap with attacks on Harper's credibility and motives. The Conservative campaign would be hurt by the allegations, and further gaffes would give the momentum back to the Liberals. Martin was successful in obtaining another term in office, albeit in a Liberal minority government, the length of which would depend on his ability to push his agenda through an unstable House of Commons.
Minority government
Martin's government faced combined challenges from Quebec separatism and general hostility arising from allegations of scandal. The first test of the Liberal minority came following the
Speech from the throne on
October 5,
2004. The Conservatives announced plans to move an amendment to the speech. In this they were supported by the separatist
Bloc Québécois and the
New Democratic Party. The fall of the government was averted only after agreement on a watered-down version of the amendment.
At the
First Ministers' Meeting of September 13-15, 2004, Martin and the provincial premiers reached an agreement on increased funding for healthcare. It was not a "deal for a generation" as promised in the election, but it was a decade-long financial commitment that was expected to lower the heat in federal-provincial relations, which had worsened during Chrétien's time in office.
Martin also introduced changes to the equalization program, under which the federal government transfers money to provinces that have less ability to raise revenues through taxation than wealthier provinces. This was hailed in the "have not" provinces as a great accomplishment, but it was not enough for
Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland and Labrador. In the 2004 federal election campaign, Harper promised the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia that under a Conservative government they would receive 100% of the revenue generated from their natural resources without an equalization clawback. NDP leader
Jack Layton followed suit soon after with a similar guarantee, and later Martin promised that under a Liberal government both provinces would receive the same deal, except only for oil resources. Negotiations over the agreement would be harsh, with
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams, at one point ordering all Canadian flags removed from provincial government buildings in December 2004. The dispute was resolved when the federal government agreed to Martin's original campaign promise.
Same-sex marriage proved to be a
defining issue of Martin's mandate. Martin opposed same-sex marriage in a 1999 vote on the issue along with a majority of MPs, but changed his stance on the issue in 2004, citing recent court rulings. In the midst of various court rulings in 2003 and 2004 that allowed for the legalization of same-sex marriages in seven provinces and one territory, his government proposed a bill to legalize
same-sex marriage across Canada. The House of Commons passed the
Civil Marriage Act in late June 2005 in a late night last-minute vote before parliament closed down, and the
Senate passed it in July 2005. This made Canada the fourth country in the world to allow same-sex marriages.
2005 Budget
The
2005 federal budget was presented in the House of Commons on
February 23,
2005. The budget included an array of new spending for the armed forces, the environment and for a national child care program, which prompted claims of being an "election budget."
Public hearings of the
Gomery Commission inquiry into the
sponsorship scandal involving alleged kickbacks and "donations" from
Quebec advertising agencies and corporations to Liberal Party operatives led to a drop in the Liberal Party's popularity. The security of the minority government came under fire as the Conservatives threatened to force an election by use of their "opposition day," when they get to set the Parliament's agenda. The Conservatives would use this time to hold a
vote of no confidence in order to topple Martin's government. To avoid this, Martin removed all opposition days from the schedule and made a public appearance on
April 21,
2005, to attempt to gain support from the Canadian people to let the inquiry run its course before an election is called. In the rebuttal speeches by the opposition party leaders, Layton offered his party's support provided that they were given major concessions in the budget such as cancelling the proposed corporate tax cuts. Days later, the Liberals took the NDP up on their offer and negotiated tax cut deferments and new spending initiatives. Among the new commitments was aid for
Sudan, which Sudan's officials turned down as Martin did not consult them about it beforehand. This aid was attacked as a perceived attempt to win the vote of a single independent MP, former Liberal
David Kilgour. Kilgour nevertheless would vote against the government.
The situation worsened in May, when Parliament passed a motion asking one of its committees to express a lack of confidence in the government. The Liberals dismissed this as a procedural matter, causing some to accuse them of governing unlawfully by ignoring parliamentary tradition. The Conservatives and Bloc interpreted it as a vote of no confidence, and they combined their votes to shut down the House of Commons early for two days in a row.
On
May 17,
2005,
MP Belinda Stronach crossed the floor from the Conservative Party and joined the Liberal Party to become
Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. Martin claimed Stronach's move was due to concerns over the direction the Conservative Party was taking, while others accused Stronach of political opportunism. This event changed the balance of power in the
House of Commons in favour of Martin's government. This, and the support of independent MP
Chuck Cadman, caused a tie during a May 2005 confidence vote, meaning that the
Speaker of the House needed to cast the deciding vote. He voted with the government, following the tradition that the Speaker votes to continue debate, and that allowed the budget to pass on
May 19,
2005.
Foreign relations
|
Paul and Sheila Martin with George and Laura Bush |
On
February 24,
2005, Foreign Affairs Minister
Pierre Pettigrew told the House of Commons that Canada would not participate in the
American National Missile Defense Program, and that he expected to be consulted in the case of a missile being launched over Canadian air space. Polls taken at the time suggested that Canadians did not wish to be involved with the US Missile Defense Program. Martin's decision came with much praise from the left, but on the right was seen as another way the government was distancing itself from the U.S. His government continued to cooperate with the United States on border control, refugee claimants, and defence, and he appointed seasoned Liberal politician
Frank McKenna as Canada's ambassador to Washington.
Martin was criticized for failing to reach a foreign-aid target of 0.7 per cent of
GDP, most notably by
Bono of Irish rock group U2 (who claimed that he was going to "kick
[Martin's] butt," over the issue), despite much rhetoric that he favoured an increase in foreign aid after the cut-backs of the 1990s. Martin later responded that, in his view, many foreign leaders had made pledges that were too fanciful.
Martin had been promoting, without much success, the expansion of the
G8 into a larger group of twenty nations
G20. He had also been trying to forge a closer relationship with the
People's Republic of China by announcing the
strategic partnership initiative during PRC President
Hu Jintao's state visit to Canada in September 2005.
Appointment of Governor General
On
August 4,
2005, the government announced that Martin had advised
Queen Elizabeth II to appoint
Michaëlle Jean as Governor General. The reception to the appointment was mixed: Some applauded the move, including Harper, while revelations that her husband had both dined with members of the former terrorist organization,
FLQ, and had been warmly supportive of them in the past surprised some critics. Subsequent to her appointment she reaffirmed her commitment to
federalism and the issue died down.
Fall of Government
The first volume of the Gomery Report, released on November 1, 2005, cleared Martin of any wrong doing while placing blame for the scandal on former Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien. However, many have criticized the Gomery Inquiry as not having the scope to assign criminal responsibility for the Scandal or to investigate Martin's role, and indeed some have accused Martin of purposely "tying Gomery's hands." While the
Gomery Report: Phase 1 exonerated Martin from responsibility and liability for the misspending of public funds, Liberal support dropped in the polls, leading to speculation that there would be an election in early 2006.
During this period leaked information about the scandal not published in Canadian news media was widely circulated in an American blog
Captain's Quarters, which attracted a large Canadian audience.
After the Gomery findings, NDP leader
Jack Layton notified the Liberals of conditions for the NDP's continued support, one of which included a ban on private health care. Martin turned down the offer, as well as rejecting an opposition proposal to schedule an election in February 2006 in return for passing several pieces of legislation. The Conservatives, supported by the other two opposition parties (the NDP and Bloc Quebecois), introduced a
motion of non confidence against Martin's government. The motion passed on November 28 by a count of 171-133, defeating the Martin government and forcing the
vote to be held on January 23, 2006.
The motion was notable in that it was the first time a ruling government had been defeated on a non-confidence motion not associated with any legislation; previous defeats of minority governments in Canada had occurred in connection with the failure of financial legislation, such as budget bills.
For Martin and the Liberals, the 56-day campaign entailed an emphasis on choosing a vision of Canada different from that of the Conservatives, centring on issues of health care, daycare, tax cutting, and national autonomy. Instead, the campaign focused on the perception of corruption within the Liberal Party, stemming from revelations of details regarding the
sponsorship scandal.
Martin became involved in a diplomatic row with the current United States administration after accusing, with
Bill Clinton, the US of not listening to
global environmental concerns. Martin rejected the US Ambassador
David Wilkins' rebuke and stated that he was standing up for Canada's interests over softwood and other issues.
[CBC story.] Wilkins, Conservative Leader
Stephen Harper, and NDP leader
Jack Layton accused Martin of orchestrating a row with the US in order to garner public support during an election campaign and noted that Canada's record in cutting carbon dioxide emissions is worse than that of the US.
Prior to the campaign and upon
dropping of the writs,
opinion polling indicated the Liberals were ahead of the Conservatives by 2-10% popular support (
30 November 2005: Liberals 35%, Conservatives 30%). However, the Liberal lead did not last because they did not plan much serious campaigning during December, allowed the Conservatives to take the initiative in rolling out policy ideas. Several early gaffes were picked up by an
unsympathetic media. One notable gaffe was Liberal Party strategist
Scott Reid's suggestion that parents might buy beer and popcorn with the Conservative's child care subsidy, although Martin declined to apologize. Martin was also criticized for portraying himself as the defender of Canadian unity; some opponents pointed that this election was not a referendum while others pointed to the sponsorship scandal.
[CTV story. See also CBC story.]Near the end of December, the Liberals were rocked by a
Royal Canadian Mounted Police criminal investigation into the leaking of news of a federal tax change for
income trusts. This again brought the sponsorship scandal into public attention, at the time when Martin planned to make important policy announcements. Under constant campaign pressure by all opposition parties casting Martin and the Liberals as corrupt, Liberal support fell to as low as 26% in the early weeks of January 2006.
Compounding the damage of opposition campaigning, Martin was deficient in the televised campaign debates: while appearing passionate in his message, Martin stuttered in making statements and appeared somewhat flustered. During one debate, Martin pledged that he would eliminate the
notwithstanding clause, which surprised many in his own party since it was not part of their announced platform. Opinion polls indicated that his opponent, Harper, appeared 'most prime ministerial' in the debates.
In an attempt to sway voter sentiment in the final two weeks of the campaign, the Liberals prepared a series of negative-focus
attack ads. One unreleased ad was seen widely as a slander to the military and it not only overshadowed the other ads but also forced Martin to defend the controversial ad in interviews instead of releasing new policies. During the last week, Martin was forced to defend Harper after the latter was called a separatist by
Buzz Hargrove. In another tactic similar to the 2004 campaign, Martin and Hargrove urged all progressive voters to unite under the Liberal banner to stop the Conservatives, hoping to attract voters who were leaning towards the NDP, but Jack Layton responded by focusing his attacks on Liberal corruption.
In the end, the Conservatives won a
plurality of support and seats, finishing 31 seats short of a majority. The Liberals held their base of support in Ontario, with 54 seats of the 103 in the province. The Liberals lost a number of seats in Quebec: winning only 13 (down from 21 in 2004) of the 75 seats in the province. The Conservatives won 10 seats. The Liberals did not improve their standings in the Western provinces, winning only 14 of the 92 seats, the same number as in 2004.
After the 2006 election
Due to the closeness of the results, it was mathematically possible for Martin to remain prime minister in a majority coalition with the Bloc or in a minority coalition with the NDP with confidence-and-supply support from the Bloc. However, neither combination would have been politically realistic. Near the end of the 2004 election, Martin and Harper both pledged that they would not form a government unless they won a plurality of seats.
As a result, shortly after midnight on
January 24,
2006, after it became clear that the Conservatives were on their way to a plurality, Martin conceded defeat and announced his resignation as party leader. He said: "I will continue to represent with pride the people of LaSalleâ€"Émard, but I will not take our party into another election as leader." The announcement came as a surprise to many, including Liberal insiders.
The next day, Martin officially informed
Governor General Michaëlle Jean of his intention to resign as Prime Minister of Canada.
[Governor General's website.] Jean formally asked Harper to form a government later that day. Martin remained as prime minister until Harper's minority government was sworn in
February 6,
2006.
[Governor General's website] On February 1, Martin stepped down as Liberal leader and the Liberal caucus appointed
Bill Graham, MP for
Toronto Centre and outgoing
Defence Minister, as interim leader.
The party's national executive accepted Martin's resignation as Liberal leader on March 18, 2006, handing the post to Graham for the interim. In doing so, Martin became the shortest serving non-interim leader of the Liberal Party since confederation - serving for less than two-fifths the time (2,197 to 855 days) than the next shortest serving leader, John Turner. At the same meeting as his resignation the date for the leadership convention to select Martin's permanent 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 in order 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.
[Star article.]Martin appointed the following Justices to the
Supreme Court of Canada:
*
Rosalie Abella - (
October 4,
2004 - present)
*
Louise Charron - (
October 4,
2004 - present)
Martin had the prenominal title "The Honourable" and the postnominal "PC" for life by virtue of being made a member of the
Queen's Privy Council for Canada on November 4, 1993.
[Web Reference.]His prenominal was upgraded to "The Right Honourable" for life when he was appointed prime minister on
December 12,
2003.
*Martin appeared on
Corner Gas, in a comedic sketch with comedian
Brent Butt.
*Martin also appeared in the intro sequence of
Infoman,
Radio-Canada's news/comedy program, until 2006.
* Wilson-Smith, Anthony; Greenspon, Edward (1996).
Double Vision: The Inside Story of the Liberals in Power. Doubleday Canada. ISBN 0385256132.
* Conservative Party of Canada. Various documents.
*
2004 Liberal Party of Canada infighting*
Canada Steamship Lines
*
Political biography from the Library of Parliament*
Official Liberal Party bio*
CBC News Indepth: Paul Martin A series of articles by
CBC News about Paul Martin.
*
PaulMartinTime - Critical commentary on Paul Martin
*
CBC documentary on Martin's business practices*
How'd They Vote?: Paul Martin's voting history and quotes*
"Prime Minister Paul Martin says he would use the Constitution's notwithstanding clause".
*
Paul Martin Editorial Cartoon Retrospective: by Graeme MacKay 1997-2006*
CBC Digital Archives â€" Paul Martin: Prime Minister in Waiting
