Memorable Manitobans: Joseph Martin (1852-1923)

Lawyer, MLA (1883-1886), MLA (1886-1888), MLA (1888-1892), MP (1891-1896).

Born at Milton, Ontario on 24 September 1852,“Fightin’ Joe” Martin was educated at the Toronto Normal School and the University of Toronto. He was Principal of the public school at Edinburgh (near Ottawa) for three years, afterwards studying law and being admitted to the Ontario Bar. He moved to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba and was called to the Manitoba Bar in August 1882, practicing law at Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg. A Liberal, he was elected MLA from Portage 1883-1892, serving as Attorney General in the Greenway administration (1889-1891) where he introduced the notorious separate schools legislation.

He became MP for Winnipeg (1893-1896) then moved to Vancouver, where he soon entered the provincial legislature and briefly became premier in 1900. He later became a British MP from East St. Pancras (1910-1918). He thus sat in four different legislative bodies during his political career.

On 2 September 1881, he married Mrs. G. W. Eaton.

More information:

Ethnic Politics on the Urban Frontier: “Fighting Joe” Martin and the Jews of Winnipeg, 1893-96 by Henry Trachtenberg
Manitoba History, Number 35, Spring/Summer 1998

Sources:

A Political Manual of the Province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories by J. P. Robertson, Winnipeg: Call Printing Company, 1887.

J. A. Gemmill (editor), The Canadian Parliamentary Companion, 1887. Canadiana.org.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J. M. Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 17 July 2010

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