The Right Honourable Paul Martin Sr. PC 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 forWindsor—Walkerville, Ontario
In office April 20, 1968 – October 30, 1974
Appointed by	Pierre Trudeau
Member of Parliament forEssex 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
Party	Liberal
Spouse	Eleanor Alice "Nelly" Adams ​ ​ (m. 1937)​
Children	2, includingPaul 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^[1][2] (June 23, 1903 – September 14, 1992), often referred to asPaul Martin Sr., was a Canadian lawyer, politician and diplomat. He was the father ofPaul Martin, who served as 21stprime minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006.

Martin was born inOttawa,Ontario, the son of Lumina (née Chouinard) and Joseph Philippe Ernest Martin.^[1] HisIrish Catholic paternal grandfather's family immigrated fromCounty Mayo, and his mother and paternal grandmother wereFrench Canadian with deep roots in the country.^[1][3]

Martin contractedpolio in 1907,^[4] which left him permanently blind in one eye and with a severely weakened left arm.^[5]

Martin was raised inPembroke, Ontario, in the Ottawa River Valley, although he attended high school atCollège Saint-Alexandre inGatineau, Quebec. He completed his university education at theUniversity of Toronto, and earned his law degree fromOsgoode Hall Law School. Later, Martin studied at theGraduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, on a scholarship.

Martin later opened a law practice inWindsor, Ontario. In 1939–1940, Martin defended the gangsterRocco Perri at his trial for the corruption of public officials.^[6] The trial ended on February 1, 1940, with Perri being acquitted.^[6] In 1961, he purchased theDevonshire Lodge, a mansion in theWalkerville neighbourhood; he lived there until his death.^[7]

A member of theLiberal Party of Canada, he was first elected to theHouse of Commons in 1935 and entered thecabinet 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 andPierre Trudeau.

Martin was viewed as one of the most left-wing members of the Liberal cabinet, and asMinister of National Health and Welfare from 1946 to 1957 he played an important role in the fight againstpolio and overseeing the creation of hospital insurance in Canada, and is sometimes recognized as a father of medicare. Martin served asSecretary of State for External Affairs in the Pearson government, and was instrumental in the acquisition of U.S. nuclear weapons for Canadian Forces.^[8]

He ran for the Liberal leadership three times, in1948, in1958 and1968, but was defeated at all threeLiberal leadership conventions, first by Louis St. Laurent, then by Lester B. Pearson, then by Pierre Trudeau.

Trudeau appointed him to theSenate in 1968. He served asLeader of the Government in the Senate until 1974 when he was appointedHigh Commissioner to theUnited Kingdom. He also served as chancellor ofWilfrid 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 theUniversity of Windsor.

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

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

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

Location	Date	School	Degree	Gave Commencement Address
Nova Scotia	1950	Dalhousie University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[9]
Ontario	1952	University of Toronto	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[10]
Ontario	Spring 1954	University of Windsor	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[11]
Ontario	October 22, 1954	University of Western Ontario	Doctor of Civil Law (DCL)[12]
British Columbia	June 2, 1966	University of British Columbia	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[13]
Ontario	May 1967	Waterloo Lutheran University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[14]
Ontario	1983	Law Society of Upper Canada	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[15]
Ontario	June 2017	Algonquin College	[16][17]	Awarded Posthumously commencement address delivered by his sonPaul Martin Jr.

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(August 2020)

Essex East

There is a Paul Joseph Martinfonds atLibrary and Archives Canada.^[18]

• Vive le Québec libre speech
• Paul Martin

• 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPaul Joseph James Martin.

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

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