Don Martin (journalist)

Newspaper career

In 1978, Martin was hired by the Calgary Herald newspaper where he began a 22-year career as city hall bureau chief, 1988 Winter Olympics bureau chief and civic affairs columnist. In 1993, he was transferred to Edmonton as the newspaper’s provincial affairs columnist. In 2000, he relocated to Ottawa as the Calgary Herald’s national affairs columnist, syndicated opinion writer for the Southam newspaper chain and regular on-air contributor to CBC, CTV and CPAC political shows.

In 2008, Martin published a column criticizing the campaign of former journalist Arthur Kent for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 2008 Alberta general election. The case spent eight years in the courts before the judge found in favour of Kent, awarding him $200,000 in damages, in 2016. Kent was awarded a further $200,000 in damages in 2018, after filing an appeal on the grounds that the initial award was not sufficient to compensate for the damage to his reputation.

Television career

In 2010, CTV hired Martin to host the news channel’s flagship politics show Power Play. In 2012 he received the Public Policy Forum’s Peter Lougheed Award for Public Service in Western Canada. He retired as host of Power Play in December 2019, but continues to write a weekly blog for CTVNews.ca.

Writing

Martin has written two biographies. His first, King Ralph: The Life and Political Success of Ralph Klein, was published in 2002 and became a national bestseller. His second book, Belinda: The Political and Private Life of Belinda Stronach, was published in 2006.

References

References

1. Dave Obee, "Martin's column offered a view from the west". ''[[Victoria Times-Colonist]]'', December 19, 2010.
2. Patricia Best, "Scud Stud opens litigation silo". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', October 21, 2008.
3. Meghan Grant, [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/arthur-kent-defamation-trial-decision-1.3622366 "Arthur Kent awarded $200K in defamation lawsuit against Postmedia, Don Martin"]. [[CBC News]], June 8, 2016.
4. "Arthur Kent awarded more cash in defamation case". ''[[Lethbridge Herald]]'', May 26, 2018.
5. "Don Martin takes reins as CTV Power Play host". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', November 30, 2010.
6. "Public Policy Forum to honour Western leaders". ''[[Canada NewsWire]]'', May 31, 2012.
7. Aidan Chamandy, [https://www.hilltimes.com/2019/12/16/so-long-don/228218 "CTV’s Don Martin delivers barn burner speech, brings the house down at farewell shindig"]. ''[[The Hill Times]]'', December 16, 2019.
8. Mark Milke, "King Ralph: Guts first, then glory: B.C. Liberals have the right ideas, but need to take some cues from the Alberta premier's playbook to get voters onside". ''[[Vancouver Sun]]'', November 25, 2002.
9. Barbara Yaffe, "More than we wanted to know". ''[[The Guardian (Charlottetown). The Guardian]]'', October 11, 2006.