Raymond James Martin (born August 8, 1941) is a politician in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada and former member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

. Martin served four terms as an Alberta MLA and two terms as an Edmonton Public School Board Trustee. In 2018, Martin published his

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

, "Made in Alberta: The Ray Martin Story."

Early life

Born in 1941 in Delia, Alberta, Martin attended the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

. He was a member of

Kappa Sigma Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig or KSig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international Fraternities and sororities in North America, fr ...

fraternity. He later attended the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

in order to earn his master's degree. He taught in Edmonton public schools.

Provincial politics

Martin ran for a seat in the 1975 Alberta general election in Calgary and in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

in Edmonton-Norwood but both times was unsuccessful. Martin ran again in Edmonton-Norwood in 1982 provincial election. This time he was elected to the

to join Grant Notley in a two-member

Alberta New Democratic Party The Alberta New Democratic Party (Alberta NDP; ), is social democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left to left-wing of the political spectrum and is a provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Democra ...

(NDP) caucus. At the time, the two NDP-ers and two Independent members were the only opposition MLAs in the Legislature, sitting in opposition to more than 70 Conservative MLAs. Martin was the first NDP MLA elected in Edmonton since the end of the use of

single transferable voting The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vo ...

in Edmonton back in 1956. He became leader of the Alberta NDP in 1984, succeeding Grant Notley after his death in a plane crash. Martin led the party to a highwater mark (at the time) winning 16 seats in the 1986 provincial election, making him

leader of the opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

in the legislature. Still under Ray's leadership, the NDP took that same number of seats in the 1989 election. In

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

, none of the party's sitting MLAs were re-elected. Martin was defeated in his constituency, Edmonton-Norwood, by Liberal Andrew Beniuk. He quit the party's leadership in 1994, being replaced by former NDP MP Ross Harvey. After an absence of eleven years, Martin returned to the Legislature as the NDP

Member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...

(MLA) for Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview in the 2004 general election. He was defeated in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

by Progressive Conservative Tony Vandermeer. Martin ran again for the NDP in the 2012 provincial election, in the riding of

Edmonton-Glenora Edmonton-Glenora is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada. It is located north of the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton. The electoral district, as defined by the ''Electoral Divisions Act, 2003,'' ...

. He was defeated by Progressive Conservative Heather Klimchuk.

Municipal politics

In the 2001 Edmonton municipal election, Martin won election as the Edmonton Public School Board Trustee for Ward D. He did not seek re-election to this role in the 2004 election. In the 2013 Edmonton municipal election, Martin once again won election as the Edmonton Public School Board Trustee for Ward D. He did not seek re-election in the 2017 election.

Federal politics

In 2003, Martin supported Bill Blaikie's unsuccessful campaign to become leader of the federal

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

. Ray Martin has run and lost in four federal elections, each time as an NDP candidate. He ran in the

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

federal elections, in Edmonton North, Edmonton Centre-East, and Edmonton East (twice), respectively.

Electoral record

Provincial

Federal

, - , Liberal , Jonathan Murphy , align="right", 11,820 , align="right", 32.47% , , align="right", $46,517 ,

, Ray Martin , align="right", 5,413 , align="right", 14.87% , , align="right", $60,286 , Progressive Conservative , Mitch Panciuk , align="right", 2,811 , align="right", 7.72% , , align="right", $51,169 ,

Natural Law Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...

, Ric Johnsen , align="right", 226 , align="right", 0.62% , align="right", , align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 36,394 !align="right", 100.00% ! ! , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 99 !align="right", 0.27% ! ! , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", 36,493 !align="right", 55.63% ! !

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Ray Living people Alberta New Democratic Party MLAs Leaders of the Alberta CCF/NDP Alberta school board trustees New Democratic Party candidates for the Canadian House of Commons University of Calgary alumni 1941 births 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta