Paul Martin Sr.

Paul Joseph James Martin was a transformative figure in 20th-century Canadian social legislation. Serving in the federal cabinets of Mackenzie King, Louis St. Laurent, and Lester B. Pearson for over three decades, Martin possessed a passionate vision for social justice born of his own childhood battle with polio.

In 1946, Martin introduced the Canadian Citizenship Act, creating distinct Canadian citizenship for the first time separate from British subject status. As Minister of National Health and Welfare, he distributed the Salk polio vaccine nationwide free of charge in 1955 and drafted the landmark Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act of 1957, the foundation of universal Canadian medicare.