The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr. by Greg Donaghy Grit
| Published date | 01 June 2020 |
| Author | Robin S. Gendron |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702016641634 |
| Date | 01 June 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Greg Donaghy
Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr.
Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2015; 496 pp., $39.95 (cloth)
ISBN: 9780774829113
Reviewed by: Robin S. Gendron, Nipissing University (gendronrs@nipissingu.ca).
By almost any objective measure, Paul Martin Sr. was one of Canada’s most
successful and influential politicians in the twentieth century, having held key
portfolios and important roles in successive Liberal governments from the 1940s
to the 1970s, including minister of national health and welfare under both Prime
Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent
from 1946 to 1957, and secretary of state for external affairs in the Pearson gov-
ernment from 1963 to 1968. He also won and successfully defended his Windsor,
Ontario riding in 10 straight federal elections from 1935 to 1965 before his
appointment to the Senate by Pierre Trudeau in 1968, where he served as govern-
ment leader until 1974. Despite these successes, Martin Sr.’s political career is often
derided, as much for his three failed attempts to win the leadership of the Liberal
Party—most bitterly finishing a distant second to Lester Pearson in 1958—as for
the ambitiousness and self-promotion that, in the eyes of other ambitious political
animals, supposedly undermined his influence within the Liberal Party and kept
him from reaching the pinnacle of Canadian government.
In this biography of the Liberal stalwart, historian Greg Donaghy does not
absolve Martin Sr. of his shortcomings. Rather, Donaghy has written an in-
depth examination of a complicated and dedicated individual who, from his
youth, committed himself to a career in politics and public service, believing it
to be a noble calling. Here, we see Martin Sr. as a fiercely partisan Liberal often at
odds with or belittled by the most senior members of his party; an idealist often
considered out of touch by those who worked most closely with him; and a suc-
cessful politician and statesman who ultimately failed to fulfill his own highest
ambitions yet passed them, along with his dedication and values, to his son in
particular. This is no hagiography. Yet Donaghy has produced a sympathetic
treatment of Martin Sr. that highlights his many accomplishments at home and
abroad, from his role in getting the federal government involved in the fight against
polio in the mid-1950s and in helping to build the structure of the Canadian wel-
fare state, to his contribution to breaking the deadlock that enabled more than a
dozen states to join the United Nations in 1955, to the successful conclusion of the
Columbia River Treaty with British Columbia and the United States in 1963–1964,
and to his insistence on expanding Canadian foreign aid in the 1960s. At the same
time, Donaghy explores in great detail Martin Sr.’s difficulties, including his ulti-
mately naı
¨ve belief in the possibility of a negotiated settlement during the early
stages of the Vietnam War.
284 International Journal 75(2)
To continue reading
Request your trial