CBC News Indepth: Paul Martin

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INDEPTH: PAUL MARTIN
Timeline
CBC News Online | Updated March 16, 2006

1938 - August 28, Paul Martin Jr. is born in Windsor, Ont. His father, Paul Martin Sr., is the Liberal member for Windsor. Paul Martin Sr. will spend 39 years in the House and run three times for the leadership of the Liberal party, in 1948, in 1958 and again in 1968.

1963 - March 11, Paul Martin marries Sheila Ann Cowan. They have three children, Paul, James and David.

1966 - Martin is called to the Ontario bar after graduating from the University of Toronto Law School. He also attended the universities of Ottawa and Toronto, where he graduated with an honours degree in philosophy.

1974 - Martin is appointed president of Canada Steamship Lines. The company is owned by Power Corp.

1981 - Power Corp. decides to sell Canada Steamship Lines. Martin and a friend buy it for $180 million.

1988 - Martin is elected to represent the Montreal riding of LaSalle-Emard.

1990 - Martin is a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal party, finishing second among five contenders at the party's leadership convention.

1993 - Nov. 4, Martin is appointed finance minister by Prime Minister Jean Chrtien. Martin declares that his first priority is to get the deficit under control.

He balanced the budget by 1997-1998, creating the first surplus since the 1970s. As a co-chair of the National Platform Committee of the Liberal Party of Canada, Martin played a key role in the development of the Liberal platform for the 1993 federal election. He was one of the authors of the "Red Book" that helped to launch the Liberal party to power.

2001

May 4 - It looks like Chrtien may be preparing for retirement as Jean Pelletier leaves his job as the prime minister's personal advisor.

June 28 - Martin hires a new senior political adviser - Tim Murphy, former president of the Ontario Liberal party. It looks like Martin is getting ready for a leadership race.

October - The backroom fight moves into the front room as Martin supporters aggressively manoeuvre to make rule changes that would affect a leadership race.

2002

Jan. 15 - Brian Tobin resigns as industry minister. Chrtien shuffles his cabinet.

Feb. 11 - Another leadership hopeful, Allan Rock, takes a very public shot at Martin. He says Martin's supporters are trying to restrict who can get Liberal memberships.

Feb. 27 - Chrtien comes home from a trade mission to Europe feeling energized. He says he likes his job and leadership hopefuls should forget about an early retirement.

May 25 - Chrtien fires Art Eggleton, the minister of defence. Eggleton had hired his former girlfriend to do some research, creating an uproar within the party over non-tendered contracts and Liberal conflict of interest scandals.

May 30 - After a week of glaring headlines about more and more accusations of Liberal wrongdoing, Chrtien says he's getting tired of ministers spending so much time trying to raise money for their leadership teams. He tells them to stop fundraising and organizing.

May 31 - Martin leaves a fundraising event and tells reporters he is considering his options.

June 2 - Chrtien wants Martin to sign a joint statement announcing his removal from the cabinet. Chrtien orders a cabinet shuffle and replaces Martin with John Manley. Martin is adamant that he was fired from the post, but Chrtien says Martin quit.

Oct. 22 - In Martin's first policy speech as a Liberal leadership contender he advocates parliamentary reform. "Individual MPs need more power and freedom in the House of Commons," Martin says. He believes Canadian lawmakers are hampered by a system in which power is centralized.

Nov. 8 - Martin says he has raised $1,159,789 in campaign donations over the past two months.

Oct. 30 - A House of Commons committee recommends that committees elect their chairs by secret ballot, something Martin supports.

Dec. 8 - Fifty-one per cent of Canadians believe Martin would make a good prime minister, according to an EKOS research poll conducted for the CBC, the Toronto Star and La Presse.

Dec. 22 - Time magazine names Martin Canadian Newsmaker of the Year.

2003

Jan. 6 - Canadian political magazine The Hill Times, writes that fellow politicians vote Martin the country's most valuable politician.

Feb. 26 - Martin tries to quell the growing controversy over his private business holdings saying he will establish new conflict-of-interest rules if he becomes prime minister. The opposition says he has to choose between running his business empire, Canada Steamship Lines, and running the country. Martin has said he will not sell his companies if he becomes PM.

March 6 - Martin enters the Liberal leadership race and says he will launch his campaign fully in his own riding within weeks.

March 11 - Martin announces he will hand over the control of his business holdings to his three sons, saying his "only business will be the public's business." Although he pledges to stay completely out of his businesses, the opposition remains skeptical and questions why he didn't simply divest his holdings to a third party.

Aug. 28 - Martin formally gives control of Canada Steamship Lines, his family's shipping business, to his three sons. He tells a news conference that CSL will continue to report its activities to the federal ethics commissioner. Martin also intends to remove himself from government decisions involving maritime transportation.

Sept. 17 - In his first major economic speech since leaving cabinet in 2002, Martin tells a Montreal business audience he plans to lead a government that will lower taxes and reduce debt. He also emphasizes the importance for Canada to close the productivity gap with the U.S. by providing more support for research and development. In a news conference earlier in the week, Jean Chrtien told a Quebec audience that his successor should freeze taxes and boost social spending.

Nov. 14 - Martin is selected leader of the federal Liberal Party. He wins an overwhelming majority - 3,242 of the 3,453 eligible votes - more than 93 per cent of the ballots. His only opponent is Heritage Minister Sheila Copps.

Dec. 12 - Paul Martin is sworn in as the 21st prime minister after Jean Chrétien handed his resignation to Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. It is the first overhaul of Canada's top office since Chrétien took office in 1993.

2004

Jan. 13 - Martin flies to Mexico for the special Summit of the Americas in his first foreign visit as prime minister.

Feb. 4 - Martin asks Auditor General Sheila Fraser to find out why the government in February 2003 said his family's company, Canada Steamship Lines, received $137,000 in contracts from Ottawa, when the figure is in fact $161 million.

April 23 - Martin meets the Dalai Lama, the first Canadian prime minister to meet the Tibetan religious leader.

May 23 - Martin calls a federal election for June 28.

June 28 - Martin's Liberals win a minority government, Canada's first since Joe Clark's short-lived government in 1979.

July 20 - Martin names his new cabinet.

Sept. 16 - Martin signs a 10-year, $41-billion health-care deal with the provinces.

Oct. 27 - Martin's minority government faces its first challenge when the Bloc Québécois proposes an amendment to the government's throne speech. A last-minute deal averts a vote that may have brought down the government.

2005

Feb. 10 - Martin testifies before the Gomery inquiry, saying he had played no role in the unity fund that bankrolled the sponsorship program. Martin was finance minister at the time the sponsorship program was active.

Feb. 17 - The Economist magazine gives Martin the nickname "Mr. Dithers" for his indecisiveness in his first 14 months as prime minister.

Feb. 24 - Martin announces that his government has decided not to join the U.S. missile defence program. Martin emphasizes that Canada will continue to support Norad.

March 6 - In a leadership review, Martin gets the support of 88 per cent of Liberal party members.

April 27 - Martin reaches an agreement with the NDP to add $4.6 billion in social spending to the Liberal budget in exchange for support in the budget vote.

May 19 - Martin's minority government survives two votes of confidence, the second by a vote of 152 to 152. The Liberals had the support of Independent MP Chuck Cadman in the second vote, and Speaker Peter Milliken broke the tie in favour of the government.

June 24 - Liberals force a surprise midnight vote, with several Conservative members missing from the House, to pass a budget amendment and keep the government alive until the fall.

Nov. 28 - The Liberal minority government falls on a straight motion of no confidence, by a vote of 171 to 133.

2006

Jan. 23 - Stephen Harper's Conservative party wins a minority government and Martin announces he will step down as Liberal party leader.

March 16 - Martin tells the Liberal executive that he will resign immediately as leader as soon as the party sets a date for a leadership convention. The executive had scheduled a meeting in Ottawa for the weekend of Mar. 18-19.

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