Keith Martin

Keith P. Martin, PC, MP, BSc, MD (born April 13, 1960, in London, UK) is a Canadian physician and politician. He is the Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca.

Martin was first elected in 1993 as a member of the Reform Party of Canada. However, unlike most Reformers, he was socially liberal, and he often clashed with Reform's conservative leaders. He is conservative on economic issues such as the privatization of health care services, but has socially liberal views on homosexuality, abortion and other issues. When the Reform Party was folded into the Canadian Alliance, he sought the party leadership, but finished a poor fourth with barely 2% of the vote. Despite his ideological differences, he did not join the dissidents who briefly left the party in 2001-02 to protest the leadership of Stockwell Day.

On April 17, 2002, he caused a controversy as he attempted to remove the ceremonial mace from the table of the Clerk of the House. He was found to be in contempt and not allowed to retake his seat until he had apologized to the House from the Bar.The reason for his actions was as a result of the an amendment moved by MP John Maloney to withdraw Mr. Martin's Private Members' Bill C-344 (An Act to amend the Contraventions Act) and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (marijuana)), and to have the subject matter referred to the Special Committee on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs.

In January 2004, after the Canadian Alliance merged with the centre-right Progressive Conservative Party to form the Conservative Party of Canada, Martin announced he would not join the new party. He sat as an independent for the remainder of the 37th Parliament, but ran as a Liberal in the 2004 election. He was re-elected, and served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence.

During the 2006 federal election he was re-elected and is currently the Official Opposition critic for Foreign Affairs.

While being an English Canadian, he is also of Portuguese ancestry