Ray Martin (politician)

Raymond James Martin (born August 8, 1941) is a Canadian politician in Alberta who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1982 to 1993 and from 2004 to 2008.

Martin served four terms as an Alberta MLA and two terms as an Edmonton Public School Board Trustee. In 2018, Martin published his memoir, Made in Alberta: The Ray Martin Story.^[1]

Born in 1941 in Delia, Alberta, Martin attended the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He later attended the University of Calgary in order to earn his master's degree.

He taught in Edmonton public schools.

Martin ran for a seat in the 1975 Alberta general election in Calgary and in 1979 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 Legislative Assembly of Alberta to join Grant Notley in a two-member Alberta New Democratic Party (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 in Edmonton back in 1956.^[2]

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 in the legislature.^[3] Still under Ray's leadership, the NDP took that same number of seats in the 1989 election.

In 1993, 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 (MLA) for Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview in the 2004 general election.

He was defeated in 2008 by Progressive ConservativeTony Vandermeer.

Martin ran again for the NDP in the 2012 provincial election, in the riding of Edmonton-Glenora. He was defeated by Progressive Conservative Heather Klimchuk.^[4]

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.

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

Ray Martin has run and lost in four federal elections, each time as an NDP candidate. He ran in the 1997, 2000, 2008, and 2011 federal elections, in Edmonton North, Edmonton Centre-East, and Edmonton East (twice), respectively.