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The Right HonourablePaul MartinPC CC QC
Martin Sr. in 1943
Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
In office October 31, 1974 – November 1, 1979
Prime Minister	Pierre Trudeau Joe Clark
Preceded by	Jake Warren
Succeeded by	Jean Casselman Wadds
Secretary of State for External Affairs
In office April 22, 1963 – April 19, 1968
Prime Minister	Lester B. Pearson
Preceded by	Howard Charles Green
Succeeded by	Mitchell Sharp
Minister of National Health and Welfare
In office December 12, 1946 – June 20, 1957
Prime Minister	Louis St. Laurent W. L. Mackenzie King
Preceded by	Brooke Claxton
Succeeded by	Alfred Johnson Brooks (Acting)
Minister of Labour
Acting August 2, 1950 – August 6, 1950
Prime Minister	Louis St. Laurent
Preceded by	Humphrey Mitchell
Succeeded by	Milton Fowler Gregg
Secretary of State for Canada
In office April 18, 1945 – December 11, 1946
Prime Minister	W. L. Mackenzie King
Preceded by	Norman Alexander McLarty
Succeeded by	Colin W. G. Gibson
Senator for Windsor—Walkerville, Ontario
In office April 20, 1968 – October 30, 1974
Appointed by	Pierre Trudeau
Member of Parliament for Essex East
In office October 14, 1935 – April 19, 1968
Preceded by	Raymond Morand
Succeeded by	Riding abolished
Personal details
Born	Joseph James Guillaume Paul Martin (1903-06-23)June 23, 1903 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Died	September 14, 1992(1992-09-14) (aged 89) Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Eleanor Alice "Nelly" Adams ​ ​(m. 1937)​
Children	2, including Paul Martin
Alma mater	University of Toronto Osgoode Hall Law School Graduate Institute of International Studies
Occupation	Diplomat Lecturer Barrister Lawyer

Joseph James Guillaume Paul Martin PC CC QC (June 23, 1903 – September 14, 1992), often referred to as Paul Martin Sr., was a noted Canadian politician and diplomat. He was the father of Paul Martin, who served as 21st prime minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006.

Early life

Martin was born in Ottawa, Ontario, the son of Lumina (née Chouinard) and Joseph Philippe Ernest Martin. His Irish Catholic paternal grandfather's family immigrated from County Mayo, and his mother and paternal grandmother were French Canadian with deep roots in the country.

Martin contracted polio in 1907, which left him permanently blind in one eye and with a severely weakened left arm.

Martin was raised in Pembroke, Ontario, in the Ottawa River Valley, although he attended high school at Collège Saint-Alexandre in Gatineau, Quebec. He completed his university education at the University of Toronto, and earned his law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. Later, Martin studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, on a scholarship.

Martin later opened a law practice in Windsor, Ontario. In 1939-1940, Martin defended the gangster Rocco Perri at his trial for the corruption of public officials. The trial ended on 1 February 1940, with Perri being acquitted.

Politics

Member of Parliament

A member of the Liberal Party of Canada, he was first elected to the House of Commons in 1935 and entered the cabinet in 1945. He went on to serve as a noted member of the cabinets of four Prime Ministers: William Lyon Mackenzie King, Louis St. Laurent, Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau.

Martin was viewed as one of the most left-wing members of the Liberal cabinet, and as Minister of National Health and Welfare from 1946 to 1957 he played an important role in the fight against polio and overseeing the creation of hospital insurance in Canada, and is sometimes recognized as a father of medicare. Martin served as Secretary of State for External Affairs in the Pearson government, and was instrumental in the acquisition of U.S. nuclear weapons for Canadian Forces.

Liberal leadership bids

He ran for the Liberal leadership three times, in 1948, in 1958 and 1968, but was defeated at all three Liberal leadership conventions, first by Louis St. Laurent, then by Lester B. Pearson, then by Pierre Trudeau.

Senator and beyond

Trudeau appointed him to the Senate in 1968. He served as Leader of the Government in the Senate until 1974 when he was appointed High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He also served as chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University from 1972 to 1977, as a result of which the university named the Paul Martin Centre in his honour. Until his death Paul Martin was an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Windsor.

His two volume memoirs, A Very Public Life, was published in 1983 (ISBN 0888790929) and 1986 (OCLC 165756245 A very public life: So many worlds Volume 2 of A very public life at Google Books).

Honours

In 1976 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. In recognition of his accomplishments, Martin was granted the right to use the honorific Right Honourable in 1992, a rare honour for one who has never been Prime Minister, Governor-General or Chief Justice of Canada. He died on September 14, at the age of eighty-nine.

The University of Windsor has a Paul Martin Chair in law and political science, recently held by former Manitoba Premier Howard Pawley (until his retirement from the university), and the Paul Martin Law Library. The City of Windsor had also renamed their "Post Office Building" the Paul Martin Sr. Building in his honour on November 18, 1994.

Honorary degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree	Gave Commencement Address
Nova Scotia	1950	Dalhousie University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Ontario	1952	University of Toronto	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Ontario	Spring 1954	University of Windsor	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Ontario	22 October 1954	University of Western Ontario	Doctor of Civil Law (DCL)
British Columbia	2 June 1966	University of British Columbia	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Ontario	May 1967	Waterloo Lutheran University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Ontario	1983	Law Society of Upper Canada	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Ontario	June 2017	Algonquin College		Awarded Posthumously commencement address delivered by his son Paul Martin Jr.

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2020)

Electoral record

Essex East

Archives

There is a Paul Joseph Martin fonds at Library and Archives Canada.

See also

• Vive le Québec libre speech
• Paul Martin

References

1. ^ Martin, Paul (1983). A Very Public Life: Far from home. Deneau. p. 2. ISBN 0-88879-092-9.
2. "Heads of Post List". Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013.
3. "A boy's life". CanWest MediaWorks Publications. November 16, 2004. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012.
4. "Famous People Who Had and Have Polio". Disabled World. 27 October 2019. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
5. Andrew-Gee, Eric (12 December 2020). "Rhesus monkeys, 'pizza boxes,' and armed robbery: Canada's history shows that, when it comes to vaccination, details matter". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
6. ^ Nicaso 2004, p. 173.
7. Clearwater, J. "Canadian Nuclear Weapons.", Chapter 1. Dundurn Press, 1998.
8. "Honorary Degrees". Dalhousie University. Archived from the original on August 16, 2006.
9. "Last updated: June 23, 2022 University of Toronto Honorary Degree Recipients Chronological 1850-2022" (PDF). University of Toronto. 23 June 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022. 1952 Martin, The Hon. Paul Doctor of Laws
10. "HONORARY DEGREES CONFERRED (Chronological)" (PDF). University of Windsor. p. 1. Retrieved 15 August 2022. First convocation (Spring 1954) ... Paul Joseph James Martin - Doctor of Laws (External Affairs Minister)
11. "Western University - Canada. HONORARY DEGREES AWARDED 1881 - PRESENT" (PDF). University of Western Ontario. August 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2022. Martin Paul Joseph James D.C.L. honoris causa
12. "The Title and Degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) Conferred at Congregation, June 2, 1966: Paul Martin". University of British Columbia. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
13. "Honorary Degrees | Wilfrid Laurier University".
14. "Honorary LLD". Law Society of Ontario. Retrieved 15 August 2022. The Honourable Paul Joseph James Martin, 1983
15. "Former Prime Minister Paul Martin to Speak at Pembroke Campus Convocation Ceremony as late Father Bestowed an Honorary Degree" (PDF). Algonquin College. February 27, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
16. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "AC 2017 Convocation - Paul Martin Honorary Degree Presentation & Convocation Address". YouTube.
17. "Paul Joseph Martin fonds, Library and Archives Canada". 20 July 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2020.

Further reading

• Donaghy, Greg. Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2015). Pp. 480
• Nicaso, Antonio (2004). Rocco Perri The Story of Canada's Most Notorious Bootlegger. Toronto: John Wiley & sons. ISBN 9780470835265.

External links

• Paul Martin Sr. – Parliament of Canada biography
• Order of Canada citation
• A retiring Paul Martin gives a CBC Interview

• 1903 births
• 1992 deaths
• 20th-century Canadian lawyers
• Canadian Roman Catholics
• Canadian Secretaries of State for External Affairs
• Canadian senators from Ontario
• Canadian people of Irish descent
• Chancellors by university and college in Canada
• Companions of the Order of Canada
• Franco-Ontarian people
• Lawyers in Ontario
• Liberal Party of Canada leadership candidates
• Liberal Party of Canada MPs
• Liberal Party of Canada senators
• Martin family
• Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
• Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada
• Politicians from Ottawa
• Politicians from Windsor, Ontario
• Writers from Ottawa
• Writers from Windsor, Ontario
• University of Toronto alumni
• Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni
• Academic staff of University of Windsor
• High commissioners of Canada to the United Kingdom
• Canadian politicians with disabilities
• Parents of prime ministers of Canada
• 20th-century Canadian memoirists
• Canadian lawyers with disabilities
• Polio survivors
• 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada