Electoral history of Paul Martin

For the biography of Paul Martin, see Paul Martin.

This article is the Electoral history of Paul Martin, the twenty-first prime minister of Canada.

Paul Martin in 2006.

A liberal, Martin served one term as prime minister (2003 to 2006), succeeding Jean Chrétien.

Martin led the Liberal Party of Canada in two general elections (2004 and 2006). Following his defeat in the 2006 election, he resigned as prime minister and party leader. He was succeeded as prime minister by Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Stéphane Dion succeeded him as leader of the Liberal Party.

Martin stood for election to the House of Commons of Canada six times and was elected each time. He served continuously in the House from 1988 to 2008.

Martin stood for election as leader of the Liberal Party twice. He lost in 1990 to Chrétien, but he won in 2003, succeeding Chrétien as Liberal leader and prime minister.

Summary

Canada had ten provinces and three territories throughout Martin's term as Prime Minister.

Martin ranks fifteenth out of twenty-three prime ministers for time in office, serving one term of two years and fifty-six days.^[1]

Martin was the seventh of eight prime ministers from Quebec, the others being Sir John Abbott, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Louis St. Laurent, Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien, and Justin Trudeau.

Martin was first elected to the House of Commons at age 50, in the federal election of 1988. Following the Liberal victory in the 1993 general election, Martin was appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. He remained in Cabinet until 2002, when he resigned to begin a challenge to Chrétien's leadership of the Liberal Party.^[2][3]

Martin sought the leadership of the Liberal Party twice, in 1990 and 2003. He lost the 1990 challenge to Chrétien, but following Chrétien's announcement of his retirement in 2002, Martin won the 2003 leadership convention and succeeded Chrétien as Liberal leader and prime minister.

Martin led the Liberals in the general elections of 2004 and 2006. In the 2004 election, he won a minority government against Stephen Harper, but his government was defeated in the House of Commons on a motion of no confidence in November 2005. In the subsequent election in January 2006, he was defeated by Harper and the Conservatives, who formed a minority government.

Stéphane Dion succeeded him as leader of the Liberal Party.

Martin stood for election to the House of Commons six times, and was elected each time, for the riding of LaSalle—Émard. His total service in the House of Commons was nineteen years, ten months, and twenty-three days.^[2]

Following his defeat in the 2006 election, he resigned as Liberal leader, but remained in the House of Commons until the 2008 general election. He then retired from politics.

Federal general elections: 2004 and 2006

Martin led the Liberal Party in two general elections: 2004 and 2006. He was reduced to a minority government in the 2004 election, but lost to Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2006 election.

Federal election, 2004

For more detailed tables of election results, see Canadian federal election, 2004.

For information about the 38th Parliament, 2004 to 2005, see 38th Canadian Parliament.

For information about Martin and political events during the 38th Parliament, see Paul Martin § Prime minister (2003–2006).

In his first general election, Martin won a minority government, defeating the new Conservative leader, Stephen Harper. However, he lost the majority the Liberals went into the election with.

Canadian Federal Election, 2004 - Parties, Leaders, Seats Won and Popular Vote

Party		Leaders	Seats Won	Popular Vote
	Liberal	Paul Martin1	135	36.7%
	Conservative	Stephen Harper2	99	29.6%
	Bloc Québécois	Gilles Duceppe	54	12.4%
	New Democratic Party	Jack Layton	19	15.7%
	Independent	–	1	0.5%
Total			308	94.9%3
Sources: Library of Parliament – History of Federal Ridings since 1867

¹ Prime Minister when election was called; Prime Minister after election.
² Leader of the Opposition when election was called; Leader of the Opposition after the election.
³ Table does not include parties which received votes but did not elect any members.

Federal election, 2006

For more detailed tables of election results, see Canadian federal election, 2006.

For information about the 38th Parliament, 2006 to 2008, see 39th Canadian Parliament.

For information about Martin and political events during the 39th Parliament, see Paul Martin § After the 2006 election).

In his second general election, Martin was defeated by Harper, who formed a minority government.

Canadian Federal Election, 2006 - Parties, Leaders, Seats Won and Popular Vote

Party		Leaders	Seats Won	Popular Vote
	Conservative	Stephen Harper1	124	36.3%
	Liberal	Paul Martin2	103	30.2%
	Bloc Québécois	Gilles Duceppe	51	10.5%
	New Democratic Party	Jack Layton	29	17.5%
	Independent	–	1	0.6%
Total			308	95.1%3
Sources: Library of Parliament – History of Federal Ridings since 1867

¹ Leader of the Opposition when election was called; Prime Minister after election.
² Prime Minister when election was called; Member of Parliament after the election.
³ Table does not include parties which received votes but did not elect any members.

Federal constituency elections: 1988 to 2006

Martin stood for election to the House of Commons eight times. He was elected each time, often with substantial majorities.

1988 Federal Election: LaSalle—Émard

Federal Election, 1988: LaSalle—Émard, Quebec

Party		Candidate	Popular Vote	%
	Liberal	Paul Martin	23,394	45.5%
	Progressive Conservative	X Claude Lanthier	21,979	42.7%
	New Democratic Party	Jean-Claude Bohrer	5,458	10.6%
	Non-affiliated	Ginette Boutet	305	0.6%
	Communist	Ginette Gauthier	212	0.4%
	Commonwealth of Canada	Nancy Guice	117	0.2%
Total			51,465	100.0%
Source: Library of Parliament – History of Federal Ridings since 1867: LaSalle—Émard

Elected.
X Incumbent.

1993 Federal Election: LaSalle—Émard

Federal Election, 1993: LaSalle—Émard, Quebec

Party		Candidate	Popular Vote	%
	Liberal	Paul Martin	30,869	59.5%
	Bloc Québécois	Éric Cimon	17,279	33.3%
	Progressive Conservative	Johanne Senécal	2,378	4.6%
	New Democratic Party	Richard Belzile	707	1.4%
	Natural Law	George Amarica	418	0.8%
	Commonwealth of Canada	Giampaolo Carli	120	0.2%
	Abolitionist	Thérèse Turmel	103	0.2%
Total			51,874	100.0%
Source: Library of Parliament – History of Federal Ridings since 1867: LaSalle—Émard

Elected.
X Incumbent.

1997 Federal Election: LaSalle—Émard

Federal Election, 1997: LaSalle—Émard, Quebec

Party		Candidate	Popular Vote	%
	Liberal	Paul Martin	32,317	60.9%
	Bloc Québécois	Jean-Pierre Chalifoux	12,953	24.4%
	Progressive Conservative	Josée Bélanger	6,445	12.1%
	New Democratic Party	Joe Bowman	920	1.7%
	Natural Law	Russell Guest	453	0.9%
Total			53,088	100.0%
Source: Library of Parliament – History of Federal Ridings since 1867: LaSalle—Émard

Elected.
X Incumbent.

2000 Federal Election: LaSalle—Émard

Federal Election, 2000: LaSalle—Émard, Quebec

Party		Candidate	Popular Vote	%
	Liberal	Paul Martin	32,069	65.8%
	Bloc Québécois	Denis Martel	11,805	24.2%
	Canadian Alliance	Giuseppe Joe De Santis	1,806	3.7%
	Progressive Conservative	Deepak T. Massand	1,111	2.3%
	New Democratic Party	David Bernans	837	1.7%
	Marijuana	Mathieux St-Cyr	765	1.6%
	Natural Law	Gilles Bigras	273	0.6%
	Communist	Irma Ortiz	107	0.2%
Total			48,773	100.1%1
Source: Library of Parliament – History of Federal Ridings since 1867: LaSalle—Émard

Elected.
X Incumbent.
¹ Rounding error.

2004 Federal Election: LaSalle—Émard

Federal Election, 2004: LaSalle—Émard, Quebec

Party		Candidate	Popular Vote	%
	Liberal	Paul Martin	25,806	56.6%
	Bloc Québécois	Thierry Larrivée	14,001	30.7%
	Conservative	Nicole Roy-Arcelin	2,271	5.0%
	New Democratic Party	Rebecca Blaikie	1,995	4.4%
	Green	Douglas Jack	1,000	2.2%
	Marijuana	Marc Boris St-Maurice	349	0.8%
	Marxist–Leninist	Jean-Paul Bédard	210	0.4%
Total			45,632	100.1%1
Source: Library of Parliament – History of Federal Ridings since 1867: LaSalle—Émard

Elected.
X Incumbent.
¹ Rounding error.

2006 Federal Election: LaSalle—Émard

Federal Election, 2006: LaSalle—Émard, Quebec

Party		Candidate	Popular Vote	%
	Liberal	Paul Martin	22,751	48.4%
	Bloc Québécois	May Chiu	13,501	28.7%
	Conservative	Georges-Alexandre Bastien	5,994	12.8%
	New Democratic Party	Russ Johnson	2,805	6.0%
	Green	Serge Bellemare	1,512	3.2%
	Independent	Jean-Philippe LeBleu	281	0.6%
	Marxist–Leninist	Jean-Paul Bédard	152	0.3%
Total			46,997	100.0%
Source: Library of Parliament – History of Federal Ridings since 1867: LaSalle—Émard

Elected.
X Incumbent.

Liberal Party Leadership Conventions: 1990, 2003

Martin contested the Liberal leadership twice. He lost in 1990 to Chrétien, who then led the Liberal party in the next three general elections. Turner retired in 2003 and Martin won the subsequent leadership convention.

1990 Leadership Convention

For more detailed information about the 1990 Liberal leadership convention, see Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, 1990.

Following the Liberal defeat in the 1988 general election, Turner announced his retirement. At the leadership convention held in 1990, Martin lost to Chrétien, who became the Liberal leader.

Liberal Leadership Convention, June 23, 1990
Voting results by ballot

Candidate		First Ballot
		Votes cast	%
	Jean Chrétien	2,652	56.9%
	Paul Martin	1,176	25.2%
	Sheila Copps	499	10.7%
	Tom Wappel	267	5.7%
	John Nunziata	64	1.4%
Total		4,658	99.9%1
Source: CPAC – 1990 Liberal Leadership Convention

¹ Rounding error.

2003 Leadership Convention

For more detailed information about the 2003 Liberal leadership convention, see Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, 2003.

In 2002, Chrétien announced that he would retire in 2003. At the 2003 leadership convention, Martin overwhelmingly won the Liberal leadership on the first ballot.

Liberal Leadership Convention, November 14, 2003
Voting results by ballot

Candidate		First Ballot
		Votes cast	%
	Paul Martin	3,242	93.9%
	Sheila Copps	211	6.1%
Total		3,453	100.0%
Source: CPAC – 2003 Liberal Leadership Convention

See also

• Electoral history of Jean Chrétien - Martin's predecessor as leader of the Liberal Party and as prime minister.
• Electoral history of Stephen Harper - Martin's successor as prime minister.

References

1. PARLINFO: Prime Ministers of Canada.
2. PARLINFO: The Right Hon. Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, P.C., C.C.
3. Canadian Encyclopedia: "Paul Martin."

External links

• Library of Parliament: History of Federal Ridings since 1867
• CPAC – 1990 Liberal Leadership Convention
• CPAC – 2003 Liberal Leadership Convention