Liberal Party.
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin was born in 1938 in Windsor Ontario, the son of Paul Joseph James Martin, who himself was a member of the Canadian Parliament for years and served in the cabinets of four Prime Ministers from Mackenzie King through Pierre Trudeau. His roots were both French and English-Canadian. He graduated from St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto with a degree in history and philosophy in 1961. He got a law degree from the University of Toronto Law School and was called to the bar in 1966. For a number of years he was involved with the Canada Steamship Lines company, serving as executive assistant to the CEO and later as President and CEO.
In 1984 he was considered for leadership of the Liberals after Turner was resoundingly defeated, however he lost out to Jean Chretien at that time and the two men soon became bitter political rivals within the Liberal Party. In 1993 when the Liberals were swept into power, Turner, in spite of his antipathy to Chretien, was appointed finance minister. This was at a time of turmoil in the Canadian economy. He made deep cuts in public spending which eventually revived the economy in the private sector and enhanced government revenues. Moody's revised upward Canada's bond rating back to AAA.
He was chosen new Liberal leader and Prime Minister in late 2003 when Chretien resigned. New elections were called in 2004, an in spite of the resurgence of Stephen Harper's Conservative party, the Liberals won a small plurality in parliament and formed a minority government.
Changes made to the "equalization program" which ensured that the "have-not" provinces received aid for government service expenses led to conflict with Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia over revenue from natural resources. Martin was opposed to same-sex marriages, but reversed his position following court cases which favored legalization. Thus the Civil Marriage Act was passed in 2005, making Canada the 4th nation in the world allowing same sex marriage. The Martin government signed what is known as the Kelowna Accord, which was an effort to equalize health, education, and economic opportunity between First Nations peoples, Metis and Inuits and other Canadians.
When the Gomery commission reported its investigation of the Sponsorship scandal, which uncovered corruption in the payment of advertising contracts designed to promote the role of the Federal government in Quebec, it indicated that there has been lack of oversight in the administration of funds. The NDP, in the wake of these revelations started making demands on its coalition partner and this led to a vote of no confidence and the calling of early elections in 2006. After his defeat in January 2006, Martin stepped down as Liberal party leader.
27. Stephen Harper (2006-present) Conservative Party of
Canada.
Harper was born in Toronto in 1959, the son of an accountant for Imperial Oil. After dropping out of the University of Toronto, he moved to Edmonton, Alberta where he worked in the mailroom of Imperial Oil, then went to the University of Calgary where he earned both a bachelor's and then a master's degree in economics.
He was a chief aide to Jim Hawkes a PC MP in Edmonton. Later, he broke with the Progressive Conservative Party and was later elected as the Reform Party candidate in 1993 after having been defeated in the previous election by his former boss, Jim Hawkes. Not entirely happy with the Reform Party he resigned from his seat in parliament in 1997 and went on to head the National Citizen's Coalition.
A persistent theme in Harper's career has been opposition to populism and "social conservatism" and support for "economic conservatism". This led him to conflict with both Preston Manning and Stockwell Day. When Day announced new leadership elections for the Reform Party in 2002, Harper stepped down from the NCC and was elected Reform Party leader later standing for and being elected to parliament from Calgary Southwest.
The Reform Party soon became the "Canadian Alliance" and then in 2003 merged with the Progressive Conservative Party to become the Conservative Party of Canada. Early in 2004 Harper left his post as head of the opposition to run for leadership of the new party, and won.
As Prime minister, Harper has had three governments, the first two as minority governments and a third, elected in 2011 as a majority. The Goods and Services Tax was reduced from 7% to 5%. The Federal Accountability act outlawed corporate and union contributions to federal campaigns. In 2012 the government eliminated the Federal Long Gun Registry, as promised in their platform. In 2011 Harper's government suceeded in tipping the balance in the Senate towards the conservatives filling six new vacancies with conservative senators. The government made in the 2011 census the providing of detailed demographic information optional, which provoked a storm of protests from those who saw it as weakening the statistical framework upon which targeted government programs were based. Harper has taken a basically pro-Israel stance which may have cost Canada a chance to gain a seat on the UN Security Council. In 2007 Canada announced it has finalized an agreement with the European Free Trade Association, consisting of four European countries not in the European Union including Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
During the US Presidential campaign prior to Obama's getting the Democratic Party nomination, a campaign operative was reported to have reassured the Canadian government that Obama's public statements regarding possible "renegotiation" of NAFTA was just for domestic consumption and not to be taken seriously. In the event, this turned out to be true, though at the time it was embarrassing to the Obama campaign.
As Canadian governments must hold an election at most after a period of five years, its next election must be in 2016 or sooner, depending on the current political situation. Recently Harper visited Israel and expressed pessimism at the resolution of the Syrian civil war and for the chances of democracy in Egypt. Of the latter he said that Egypt was not ready for Democracy.
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