Paul Martin (politician, 1938)

Paul Martin (2011)

Paul Edgar Philippe Martin PC (born August 28, 1938 in Windsor , Ontario ), also known as Paul Martin, Jr. , is a Canadian politician . He was the country's 21st Prime Minister and ruled from December 12, 2003 to February 6, 2006. During that time, he was also chairman of the Liberal Party of Canada . From June 2004 he headed a minority government that failed after a year and a half due to a vote of no confidence . In the House Martin is represented since 1988. From 1993 to 2002 he was finance minister in Jean Chrétien's government.

Education

Paul Martin is the son of Paul Joseph James Martin , an influential member of the Liberal Party of Canada who served in the House of Commons for 37 years and served in four different governments. Although Martin is actually a Franco-Ontarian , he grew up in Ottawa and Windsor in an English-speaking environment. To improve his French language skills, he attended a private school in Ottawa and studied briefly at the University of Ottawa .

In 1961, he made at University of St. Michael's College of the University of Toronto to conclude a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and philosophy. Following his father's example, he then studied law at the Toronto Law School until 1965 , completing a Bachelor of Laws . In the same year he married Sheila Ann Cowan; together they have three sons named Paul, James and David. In 1966 Martin was admitted to the bar.

Entrepreneur

After finishing his studies, Martin made a career in the private sector. He and his family moved to Montreal , where he worked as assistant to the managing director of the Power Corporation of Canada . When the Power Corporation took over the majority of Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) in 1969 , Martin was appointed to its board of directors. Two years later he was promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer of the CSL Group. He was also vice president of parent company Power Corporation and Consolidated Bathurst, another subsidiary. He has also served on the boards of other companies such as CB Pak, Redpath Industries, Fednav, Manufacturers Life Insurance, Canadian Shipbuilding & Engineering and Imasco.

In July 1981, Power Corporation announced its intention to sell the CSL Group. Martin took over the company through a risky management buyout , along with his friend Lawrence Pathy. They figured they could do the takeover as long as interest rates, which were then at an all-time high for Canada, stopped rising. The risk paid off thanks to falling interest rates. The takeover proved to be a success and Martin became a multimillionaire.

Finance minister

Only when he was 50 years old did Martin get into politics. In 1988 he was elected to the House of Commons as a member of the LaSalle-Émard constituency in Montréal. In 1990 he ran for chairmanship of the Liberal Party. While Jean Chrétien rejected the Meech Lake Accord , Martin supported it. After a bitter election campaign, he was finally defeated in the first ballot with 25% of the vote, while Chrétien received 57%. This argument led to a deep rift between the two opponents and their supporters.

Nevertheless, the Liberals achieved an overwhelming victory in the general election in October 1993, not least because of the very poor performance of the previously ruling Progressive Conservative Party of Kim Campbell . On November 4, 1993, Martin was appointed Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Chrétien. At the time, Canada had one of the highest budget deficits of the G7 countries .

Martin managed to reduce debt by $ 36 billion and run a surplus five times in a row. Over five years, he cut the tax burden by $ 100 billion, the largest tax cut in Canadian history. During his tenure as finance minister, Martin reduced the share of national debt in gross domestic product from 70 to 50 percent. He also initiated extensive reforms of the Canada Pension Plan , which averted a profound financial crisis. His achievements as finance minister were praised in financial circles, but also aroused criticism because the services of the state were massively reduced, especially in the health sector.

There were more and more bitter differences of opinion between Prime Minister Chrétien and Finance Minister Martin, and neither of them got on particularly well personally. Political observers assume that Martin would have left the party after the party convention in 1990 if Chrétien had not offered him the office of finance minister after the election victory in 1993. The result would have been a split in the Liberal Party. After the election victory in 2000, rumors surfaced that Martin was aspiring to the office of prime minister and that Chrétien wanted to press for an early resignation.

The conflict peaked in 2002. Martin resigned from the cabinet on January 6th and was replaced by John Manley . Soon after, he officially announced that he would run for chairmanship at the next party convention in January 2003. When it became clear in autumn that only a minority of delegates supported him, Chrétien announced that he would resign in spring 2004. After this announcement, Martin's strongest competitors withdrew their applications. On September 21, 2003, Martin defeated his only remaining competitor, Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps , with over 92 percent of the delegate's votes. On December 12th, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson appointed him 21st Prime Minister of Canada.

prime minister

First term

After taking office, Martin caused a stir within the party because he had only taken over half of the ministers in the Chrétien government. Nevertheless, the government enjoyed high approval ratings in opinion polls at the beginning. This changed abruptly on February 9, 2004 when the parliamentary auditor Sheila Fraser published a report. After Québec's independence referendum, which was narrowly rejected in 1995, Chrétien's government had signed contracts with various advertising agencies in order to strengthen the confidence of the federal authorities among the French-speaking population . But many of the agencies commissioned had close ties to the Liberal Party, and around 100 million of the approved $ 250 million had disappeared without a trace.

Martin asserted that he had no knowledge of the various agency contracts and ordered a public investigation, which subsequently turned into a " sponsorship scandal ". His opponents, however, said that as finance minister, Martin should have known about the treaties. As a result of the scandal, approval fell rapidly. Even so, Martin decided to schedule new elections for June 28, 2004 to avert harm to the Liberal Party before the commission of inquiry could publish further reports.

This announcement caught the Conservative Party of Canada unprepared. During the election campaign, the ruling party managed to divert media attention from the scandal by claiming that the Conservative party leader Stephen Harper had a "secret party program" and was planning massive tightening of abortion law . Although the Liberals lost their absolute majority in the 2004 elections, Martin managed to form a minority government.

Minority government

Martin's new government was harassed from various quarters, most notably from Québec's separatists. The widening scandal also began to affect government activities more and more. Relations with the US deteriorated and the government struggled to get its cause through parliament. During the speech from the throne on October 5, 2004, the Conservative Party forced the government to compromise and was supported by the separatist Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party .

A major concern of the government was the registered partnership of same-sex couples, also popularly known as "gay marriage". The Roman Catholic Paul Martin had rejected this in 1999 together with a majority of members of parliament, but had since changed his mind. In 2003 and 2004 same-sex partnership was legalized in seven provinces and territories. Now this regulation should be extended to all of Canada. The House of Commons approved the bill in June 2005, and the Senate followed suit a month later.

On May 17, 2005, the Conservative MP Belinda Stronach switched to the Liberal Party and became Minister for State Personnel ( Ministry of Human Resources and Skills Development ). The opposition accused Stronach of political opportunism and even accused Martin of bribery. Stronach's change meant that the balance in parliament shifted in favor of the government. On May 19, 2005, when the budget was to be discussed, the vote of no confidence requested by the opposition turned out to be a draw. Peter Milliken , the Speaker of the House of Commons, then cast a casting vote in favor of the government, which thus remained in office.

On August 4, 2005, Martin announced that he had advised Queen Elizabeth II to appoint Michaëlle Jean , originally from Haiti , as the new Governor General of Canada . The Gomery Commission, which investigated the scandal surrounding the contracts with advertising agencies, published the first volume of the investigation report on November 1, 2005 and acquitted Martin of all guilt. She mainly blamed his predecessor Chrétien for the scandal, as he had not acted criminally, but had no overview of the various contracts. Martin's political opponents criticized the report, claiming that it influenced the investigation in his favor.

2006 elections

On November 28, 2005, opposition leader Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party again requested a vote of no confidence and was supported by the Bloc Québecois and the New Democratic Party. The motion passed with 171 votes to 133 and the government was ousted. It was the first time that a Canadian government had to resign after a direct vote of no confidence, previous minority governments had been overthrown in connection with important parliamentary decisions, for example in budget votes.

In the early general election on January 23, 2006, the Liberal Party suffered a defeat, even if it was not quite as severe as feared. For the first time in 13 years, the Liberals became only the second strongest force and thus lost the government mandate that Stephen Harper has now assumed. Paul Martin announced the following day that he was no longer available for any further candidacy as chairman of the Liberal Party.

Foreign policy

Paul Martin with George W. Bush and Vicente Fox

Paul Martin took office as prime minister with the intention of improving relations with the United States, which had cooled noticeably during the later reign of Jean Chrétien. But after many delays, Secretary of State Pierre Pettigrew announced on February 24, 2005 that Canada would not participate in the US National Missile Defense program. Paul Martin also requested to be notified should American missiles cross Canadian airspace. This attitude corresponded to the opinion of the majority of the population.

Martin repeatedly criticized the US government for not caring about environmental protection and playing down the consequences of global warming. The opposition accused Martin of hypocrisy with regard to the upcoming elections and pointed out that Canada had an even worse record than the US in terms of carbon dioxide reduction. The Canadian government has been criticized several times for failing to target 0.7% of gross domestic product for development aid. U2 singer Bono announced that he would "kick Martin in the butt" because of it.

After resigning as Prime Minister

On February 6, 2006, Martin handed over his office as head of government to his successor Harper. Six days earlier he had resigned as party chairman and had entrusted Defense Secretary William Graham with the interim management of the Liberal Party. At the party convention in December 2006, he remained neutral. Former Olympic swimming champion Mark Tewksbury gave the official acceptance speech, and Stéphane Dion was elected the new party chairman.

Martin continues to exercise his mandate as a member of the LaSalle-Émard constituency in Montréal. On June 14, 2007, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Windsor .

His name appeared in connection with the so-called Paradise Papers , which expose tax avoidance tactics of the super-rich.

See also

• 27. Canadian Cabinet

literature

• Anthony Wilson-Smith, Edward Greenspon: Double Vision - The Inside Story of the Liberals in Power. Doubleday Canada, 1996. ISBN 0-385-25613-2 .

Web links

Commons : Paul Martin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Paul Martin's personal website
• Paul Edgar Philippe Martin ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Paul Martin (politician, 1938) - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Massive tax haven data leak reveals financial secrets of world's wealthy - from Queen to Russian oligarchs . In: CBC News . ( cbc.ca [accessed December 1, 2017]).