Keith Martin (physician)

Life and career

Martin was born in London, UK and grew up in Toronto. He attended Neil McNeil High School. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a Doctorate of Medicine and a Bachelor of Science with high distinction. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. and Victoria, British Columbia. He practiced emergency and family practice from 1987 to 2005. He also did two terms as a doctor in a rural region of South Africa during the Mozambique war.

He was first elected in 1993 as a member of the Reform Party of Canada for the riding of Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca. However, unlike most Reformers, he was socially liberal, and he often clashed with Reform's conservative leaders. He is conservative on economic issues but is socially liberal. When the Reform Party was folded into the Canadian Alliance, he sought the party leadership, but finished fourth with 2% of the vote. Despite his ideological differences, he did not join the dissidents who briefly left the party in 2001–02 to protest the leadership of Stockwell Day.

In both 2009 and 2010, political commentator Rex Murphy, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's The National, recognized Martin as the most underrated politician in the House of Commons.

Martin led many initiatives in the House of Commons, including legislation to ban landmines (1995, 1996), establish an international mechanism to prevent deadly conflict (Responsibility to Protect) 2007, democratize Parliament, support early learning programs (Head Start) 2000, and modernize Canada's healthcare system.

Martin has been on many diplomatic missions to areas in crisis, including Sudan, the Middle East, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and the Sahal. He led many initiatives to provide emergency relief in times of crisis, e.g., the 2004 tsunami, famine in Niger, North Pakistan, Dem. Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe etc. He also took an international leadership role in global health, including chairing global pre-G8 parliamentary committees in Japan and Rome.

He has had extensive experience between 1986–2007 volunteering on conservation programs in Africa, especially on rhino and other large mammals projects. He has been an ardent campaigner against the trafficking of illegal wildlife products, and has strongly supported the integration of conservation into development initiatives.

On April 17, 2002, he caused a controversy as he attempted to remove the ceremonial mace from the table of the Clerk of the House to protest an intervention by the government that violated MP's fundamental democratic rights. He was found to be in contempt and not allowed to retake his seat until he had apologized to the House from the Bar. The reason for his actions was as a result of an amendment that would have removed the entire contents of Martin's Private Members' Bill C-344 which violated the spirit and meaning of Private Members Business.

In January 2004, after the Canadian Alliance merged with the centre-right Progressive Conservative Party to form the Conservative Party of Canada, Martin announced he would not join the new party. He sat as an independent for the remainder of the 37th Parliament, but ran as a Liberal in the 2004 election. He was re-elected, and served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence. Martin was subsequently re-elected in the 2006 and 2008 federal elections. He has served in many shadow cabinet positions including foreign affairs, health and international development. He has taken leadership roles in many areas including: global health, domestic health, foreign affairs, conservation and the environment and human rights He was appointed in 2004 by Prime Minister Paul Martin to be a member of the Queen's Privy Council.

On November 9, 2010, Martin announced that he would not run in the next election, stating that "Canada's institutions need new blood and new ideas." He has been an outspoken critic of the decline in democracy in parliament and the increasing disempowerment of Members of Parliament.

From 1996 to 2000 he had his own nationally syndicated television program on current events called Beyond Politics. Martin is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons' Advisory Committee on International Initiatives.

He is the founder of several global health and conservation initiatives. He is Founder and Chair of the first all Party International Conservation Caucus. In 2010, he founded the International Conservation Forum, a website that increases awareness and facilitates action on key conservation issues through the use of social media and the publication of the online magazine, The Horn.

Martin has organized several relief efforts to ship urgent medical supplies to areas in crisis.

In September 2012, Martin was selected to be the Consortium of Universities for Global Health's first Executive Director. He works with over 120 academic institutions around the world through research, education, and service to apply knowledge across disciplines to improve health outcomes for the world's poor.

November 2014, Martin made presentations on the nexus between environmental sustainability, conservation, and human health at the World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia.

Other positions: