Early Life
Martin was born in Windsor, Ontario. His father, Paul Joseph James Martin, a Franco-Ontarian of Irish and French descent, served thirty-three years as a member of the Canadian House of Commons, and was a Cabinet minister in the Liberal governments of Prime Ministers W.L. Mackenzie King, Louis St. Laurent, Lester B. Pearson, and Pierre E. Trudeau. His mother, Eleanor "Nelly" Alice (née Adams), was of Scottish, Irish, and Métis descent. He has one sister, Mary Anne.
Martin contracted polio in 1946 at the age of eight (like his father had, before him, who contracted the disease in 1907). He grew up in Windsor and Ottawa. To give him the opportunity to improve his French, his parents enrolled him in a private French-language middle school, École Garneau in Ottawa. He then briefly attended the University of Ottawa.
Martin graduated from St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto with a B.A. in history and philosophy in 1961. He then attended the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where he received an LL.B. in 1964. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1966.
In 1965, Martin married Sheila Ann Cowan, with whom he has three sons: Paul, Jamie and David.
Read more about this topic: Paul Martin
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“The conviction that the best way to prepare children for a harsh, rapidly changing world is to introduce formal instruction at an early age is wrong. There is simply no evidence to support it, and considerable evidence against it. Starting children early academically has not worked in the past and is not working now.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“That man is to be pitied who cannot enjoy social intercourse without eating and drinking. The lowest orders, it is true, cannot imagine a cheerful assembly without the attractions of the table, and this reflection alone should induce all who aim at intellectual culture to endeavor to avoid placing the choicest phases of social life on such a basis.”
—Mrs. H. O. Ward (1824–1899)