This sub-series contains documents gathered by Tim Murphy, Paul Martin's political advisor, when Martin was a Member of Parliament and a candidate in the Liberal Party of Canada leadership race.
Timothy John [Tim] Murphy (1956- ) is a lawyer. In 1989-1990, he was responsible for the province of Ontario during Paul Martin 1990 Liberal Party of Canada leadership campaign. In April 1993, he was elected as an Ontario Liberal MPP in a by election. He was defeated in the April 1995 general election. He went back to practising law and served as the president of the Ontario Liberal Party from 1997 to 1999. In June 2001, Paul Martin, then Minister of Finance, hired Murphy as an executive assistant. Although Paul Martin left the Department of Finance in June 2002, Murphy remained a close political advisor, a sort of shadow chief of staff, during the transition period in 2002-2003. When Paul Martin was sworn in as Prime Minister in December 2003, he appointed Murphy as his chief of staff, a position Murphy held until Paul Martin's defeat in February 2006. Murphy then returned to Toronto, joining a law firm and teaching law at various universities.
This sub-series documents the activities of Paul Martin and his team (including Tim Murphy, John Duffy, Mark Resnick and Bernard Patry) during the transition period from the time Martin left the Department of Finance until he was sworn in as Prime Minister. It was during this period that the policies of the future Martin government were created. This sub-series includes two sub-groups of records. The first contains files on various topics, such as health, ethics, the environment, finance, and cities. The files include documentation, correspondence with experts and Members of Parliament, briefing notes, drafts of policies, positioning documents, drafts of speeches, and survey results. The second sub-group of documents consists of briefing books created by the Privy Council Office for the "Prime Minister-elect" in November 2003 to facilitate the transition from the Jean Chrétien government to the Paul Martin government. The documents focus on the practical aspects of the transition and on hot issues, and provide an overview of some of Canada's key issues, such as the economy, governance, cities and regions, and international relations.