Joseph Martin (politician)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph Martin

Joseph Martin (born September 24, 1852 in Milton , Ontario , † March 2, 1923 in Vancouver ) was a Canadian politician , teacher , lawyer and journalist . He is one of the most controversial Canadian politicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Martin was a member of the parliaments of the provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia , in the Canadian lower house and also in the British lower house . He was Prime Minister of the Province of British Columbia from February 28 to June 15, 1900, and his three-and-a-half month term is the shortest ever.

Early life

Martin moved to Michigan with his family in 1865 . There he worked in a telegraph office when there was no school . In 1872 he entered the state teachers ' college in Ypsilanti , continued his teacher training in Toronto and was expelled from the teachers' college there in 1874 for improper behavior. Martin had a belligerent character and tended to use his fists to disagree, which earned him the nickname Fighting Joe ("Fighting Joe").

Despite the exclusion, he was able to teach in Ottawa for three years . In 1877 he enrolled at the University of Toronto , but dropped out after two years. Then he was headmaster of a school in the suburbs of Ottawa. He married in 1881 and settled with his wife in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba Province , the following year . He had studied law in evening classes, was admitted to the bar and opened a law firm.

Manitoba

Martin soon became interested in provincial politics. He joined the Liberal Party and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in January 1883 as a member of the Portage la Prairie constituency. Martin took a leading role in the opposition, criticizing Prime Minister John Norquay and the monopoly of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the west. In January 1888 Thomas Greenway formed a new government and appointed Martin Attorney General and Commissioner for Railways.

In 1890, Martin introduced a bill that provided for the French language to be deprived of its status as an official language and for Catholic schools no longer to be financially supported. Although the law violated the Manitoba Act , the provincial parliament approved it, causing legal controversy. For more than five years, the courts grappled with the Manitoba school issue.

Federal politics

In the general election in March 1891 , Martin ran unsuccessfully for the seat in the Selkirk constituency. When Hugh John Macdonald , the son of Canadian Prime Minister John Macdonald , resigned, Martin ran for the Winnipeg by-election for his seat and won by acclamation . In the House of Commons, he didn't really fit into the Liberal Party faction . His ideas about free trade did not win a majority and French-Canadian MPs despised him for his role in the Manitoba school question. In the general election in June 1896 , Martin lost his seat back to Macdonald.

British Columbia

In 1897 Martin settled in Vancouver and opened a law firm there. In July 1898 he was elected to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly. The provincial political system was very unstable due to the lack of political parties and was characterized by numerous changes of government. After John Herbert Turner , who had represented corporate interests, resigned in August 1898, Charles Augustus Semlin became the new Prime Minister and appointed Martin Attorney General.

Martin caused controversy again. Against the opposition of the mine owners, he introduced the eight-hour day and passed a law that forbade the Chinese from buying land. The federal government took steps to reverse Martin’s legislation. At a public hearing on the matter, he sharply criticized the provincial government and eventually brought it down.

On February 28, 1900, Martin himself became Prime Minister. In the election on June 9, 1900, neither his group nor those around Semlin achieved a majority. A week later, on June 15, Martin was sacked by Lieutenant Governor Thomas Robert McInnes . He went back into the opposition and lost his seat in the October 1903 election. In 1907 he founded the Vancouver Guardian newspaper . For the 1908 general election, Martin ran as an independent candidate in Vancouver, but did not make the election.

Great Britain

In 1909 Martin moved to Great Britain and settled in London . He joined the Liberal Party and was elected MP for the constituency of St Pancras East in the 1910 general election. Because of the First World War , the legislature lasted until 1918. However, Martin returned to Canada in 1914 and left his British parliamentary seat orphaned.

Hardly back in Vancouver, he ran for the office of mayor, but without success. In 1916 he founded the Evening Journal newspaper . He was also unsuccessful in the provincial election in October 1920, when he ran for the Asiatic Exclusion League , which spoke out against the immigration of Asians.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Martin, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician, Member of the House of Commons, teacher, lawyer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Milton , Ontario
DATE OF DEATH March 2, 1923
Place of death Vancouver