Greg Donaghy

“I am not afraid to be called a politician,” declared Paul Martin Sr., defending his life’s work in politics. “Next to preaching the word of God, there is nothing nobler than to serve one’s fellow countrymen in government.” First elected to the House of Commons in 1935, Martin would serve in the cabinets of four prime ministers and run for the Liberal Party leadership three times. This book examines his remarkable career not only as a politician but as a liberal reformer who relentlessly tackled the issues of his day with consummate political skill and gritty determination.

Cutting a broad swath through the history of twentieth-century Canada, Greg Donaghy uses extensive interviews and untapped archival sources to present a view sharply at odds with conventional images of Paul Martin Sr. as simply an ambitious Windsor ward heeler. This Martin drew from the liberalism of John Stuart Mill and the contemporary social teachings of his Catholic Church and its key thinkers to fashion a reformist politics that defended the individual against unbridled capitalism and the authoritarian state. Martin also thought hard about Canada’s place in the world, offering Canadians a progressive view of their country’s global obligations. He backed notions of citizenship that freed Canadians from the vestiges of imperial Britain and embraced the postwar ideals of global citizenship.

Though some mocked his ambition and doubted his progressive politics, Martin embraced a tolerant politics of compromise and accommodation that sought to unite Canadians in search of a more just and equitable world. His resolute championing of health care and pension rights, new meanings for Canadian citizenship, and internationalism in world affairs would leave its mark on Canada’s political landscape.