Sheila Martin


Sheila Ann Martin is the wife of Paul Martin, who served as the 21st Prime Minister of Canada from December 12, 2003 to February 6, 2006. Her father was William "Bill" Cowan, a lawyer and philanthropist from Windsor, Ontario. She was named after her mother. Sheila was raised Protestant, and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1964.
She and Paul were neighbours and her father was law partners with Paul Martin Sr in Windsor, Ontario. They were engaged over Christmas in 1964 and married on September 11, 1965. They have three sons: Paul William Martin III, Jamie Robert Martin, and David Patrick Martin.
A Canada Steamship Lines ship, Sheila Ann, is named in her honour.
Before her husband became the Prime Minister of Canada, Sheila Martin's work in Ottawa included serving on a committee called Politics and the Pen, and on this committee she helped give prizes and money to Canadian writers. The job was said to fit with her "own literary tastes." In 2002, when Paul Martin left the cabinet, he credited her as a support to him and as an advisor:
Throughout these years, Sheila Martin apparently had little aspirations in regards to her husband's office. Her husband's biographer John Gray quoted her as saying, "Oh, God, I don't want to do this at all, so I just don't think about it."