Martin, Lawrence

Lawrence Martin is a Canadian journalist and author of several books on Canadian politics. Born in 1948 and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, he received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from that city’s McMaster University in 1969, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University in 1983.

Martin has spent many years at the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail where he began as a sports reporter in 1974. He served as the newspaper’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief from 1978 to 1981, and as Moscow bureau chief from 1985 to 1988. He was then national affairs columnist for the Southam chain until July 2001.

Now living in Ottawa and a columnist for The Globe and Mail, and iPolitics, Martin also writes an occasional column for the Quebec daily La Presse and appears frequently on Canadian television and radio as a political commentator.

Much of Martin’s efforts in recent years have focused on writing biographies about contemporary Canadian political figures. Martin has written ten books during his career, including a biography of Canadian hockey player Mario Lemieux.

He wrote a controversial biography of Quebec sovereigntist leader Lucien Bouchard which was followed by his books on the life and career of Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien, in two volumes titled “Will to Win” and “Iron Man”. Harperland: The Politics of Control, a book about the first four years of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s governance was released in October 2010.