Paul Martin

The Right Honourable Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , MP , LL.B , BA (born August 28, 1938 in Windsor, Ontario) is the Prime Minister of Canada. He is the twenty-first prime minister, having succeeded Jean Chrétien on December 12, 2003. Martin is leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and was elected in his own right with a minority government on June 28, 2004?the first minority government in twenty-four years. The Liberals won 135 of 308 seats in the Canadian House of Commons.

Rise to Prime Minister

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 wasn't promised the Finance portfolio in the event of the Liberals 1993 election victory, Martin would have resigned, splitting the Liberal Party. In fact, Jean Lapierre who was a stauch supporter of Martin wore black armbands at the 1990 Liberal Party convention to protest Chretien's victory. Lapierre then crossed the floor to the newly formed Bloc Québécois party in the House of Commons. After Chrétien's third electoral victory in the 2000 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 into early retirement.

Related Topics:
Bloc Québécois - 2000 election

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The conflicts between the two men reached a peak in 2002. Martin was dismissed from Cabinet, and was replaced by John Manley as Finance Minister. 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 resign in the spring of 2004 after less than half of caucus agreed to sign a commitment to support him. The Liberal party called a leadership convention for the fall of 2003.

Related Topics:
2002 - Cabinet - John Manley

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After that, Martin's opponents for leadership quickly dropped out of the race. On September 21, 2003, he easily defeated his sole remaining opponent, former Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps by securing ninety-two per cent of the party delegates from across the country. On November 14 he was formally declared the winner at the Liberal leadership convention, capturing 3,242 of 3,455 votes. On December 12, he was appointed by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson as the twenty-first Prime Minister of Canada.

Related Topics:
September 21 - 2003 - Sheila Copps - November 14 - December 12 - Governor General - Adrienne Clarkson - Prime Minister of Canada

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When taking office as Prime Minister, Martin provoked controversy as his new cabinet retained only half the ministers from Chretien's administration, and Martin would not even sign the nomination papers for former ministers who wanted to stay in Parliament. 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 Chretien's ten-year tenure. However, once the sponsorship scandal broke out, this tactic backfired spectacularly, as a skeptical electorate saw Martin's cabinet shuffle as a cynical attempt to try to blame the scandal on the past government. Many long-time Liberals were also put off by Martin's control of the riding nomination process, and former Liberal strongholds were weakened due to disgruntled members leaving the party.

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On February 9, 2004, Martin and the Liberals were rocked by a report from Auditor General Sheila Fraser 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 has called a public inquiry into what has come to be known as the Sponsorship Scandal. Opponents, however, state that as finance minister he must have known about these activities. They also noted that the role of the Finance portfolio is uniquely powerful, since that minister budgets for all of the other departments. Some have even compared Paul Martin's time as Finance Minister to Andrew Fastow, former CFO of the Enron Corporation. Those charges were very effective 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.

Related Topics:
February 9 - 2004 - Auditor General - Sheila Fraser - Sponsorship Scandal

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Immediately after becoming Prime Minister, Paul Martin enjoyed record approval ratings and it looked as if he might win a record number of seats in an election. Support slumped, however, as a result of the scandal and a desire for change. Nonetheless, Martin decided to call an election for June 28, such that the public inquiry would not be ready to release a report in a short time, and in order to catch the newly formed Conservative Party off guard.

Related Topics:
Election - June 28

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Polls placed the Liberals in a dead heat with the Conservatives. During the campaign, it was predicted the Liberals would lose by only a few seats, possibly producing a Conservative minority government. The Liberals ended up winning a minority of seats and another term in office, but, as the average length of a minority government in Canada is 18 months, Paul Martin's long term future will depend on his ability to push his agenda through a "wheeling and dealing" House of Commons.

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