John Manley

John Paul Manley (born January 5, 1950) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the eighth deputy prime minister of Canada from 2002 to 2003.

He received a BA from Carleton University in 1971 and an LL.B. from the University of Ottawa in 1976.

He also studied at the University of Lausanne.

After law school Manley clerked under Bora Laskin, the Chief Justice of Canada.

He was called to the Ontario bar in 1978.

He is married to Judith Manley with whom he has three children: Rebecca, David and Sarah.

Manley is also an accomplished marathoner.

He served as Liberal Member of Parliament for Ottawa South from 1988 to 2004.

He was first elected as an MP in the 1988 election.

When the Liberals came to power under Jean Chrétien following the 1993 election he became Minister of Industry.

During his time in Industry, Manley was a staunch supporter of Canada-based research and development, and also of increased technology use in public schools.

In particular, he felt that the so-called "wired classroom" would help to equalize the gap between urban and smaller, rural schools.

These initiatives were partially aimed at combating the "brain drain", and Manley himself stated that "Canada needs to pursue policies that will make it a magnet for brains, attracting them from elsewhere and retaining the ones we have."

Manley also unveiled a multimillion-dollar rescue package for the cash-strapped Ottawa Senators, being a friend of owner Rod Bryden, but later withdrew the aid after critics argued that there were better uses for public funds.

Manley supported Dalton McGuinty's successful bid to lead the Ontario Liberal Party in 1996.

He was shuffled to Minister of Foreign Affairs on the eve of the 2000 election.

He was widely applauded for his work in foreign affairs, particularly for helping to ease strained Canada-U.S. relations.

He was seen as able to communicate with the U.S. administration, and had a good working relationship with both Colin Powell and Tom Ridge.

David Rudd, then director of Toronto's Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies said: "Under Manley, the government of Canada talks to Washington, not at it."

For his performance in these roles, he was named Time Magazine's "Canadian newsmaker of the year" in 2001.

In January 2002 he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and given special responsibility for security in response to 9/11.

In May 2002, Chrétien appointed Manley as Minister of Finance, following the departure of Paul Martin.

Martin's record as Minister of Finance was impressive and he also controlled much of the party machinery by 2002.

Manley attacked Martin's refusal to disclose his campaign contributors, but failed to make a significant dent in Martin's support.

Manley generally polled around 25% during his time in the contest, and he had the support of ministers Jane Stewart and Susan Whelan and backbench MP John H. Bryden.

The rest of cabinet and most of caucus said that they would back Martin (with Martin's large lead, even most Chrétien supporters grudgingly voted for Martin), including Rock who dropped out of the race early on.

His 2003 federal budget laid out billions of dollars in new spending, primarily in health-care, child-care, and for First Nations.

It also introduced new accountability features to help limit federal waste.

When Jean Chrétien announced his decision to retire, Manley announced his intention to run for the Liberal leadership.

His primary competition was Martin, although Industry Minister Allan Rock and Heritage Minister and former Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps also ran, while Brian Tobin briefly contemplated running.

Manley's polling numbers and fundraising were slightly behind that of Rock's, while well ahead of Copps but far behind Martin.

From the beginning, it was apparent that Martin had a significant head start on his rivals.

Seeing his inevitable defeat, Manley withdrew from the race on July 22, 2003, and endorsed Martin.

Upon Martin's landslide victory at the leadership convention on November 14, 2003, political commentators wondered whether someone so closely linked to Chrétien would avoid a potentially embarrassing demotion in Martin's new cabinet.

That year, Manley had several times expressed his interest in returning to the Foreign Affairs ministry, as it was likely that Martin would appoint his own lieutenant to the Finance portfolio.

Though both were ideologically on the right wing of the Liberal party, Manley's attacks on Martin's campaign donations had likely poisoned the relationship between the two men, hurting Manley's chances of remaining a Minister.

Indeed, Manley, Stewart, and Whelan were dropped from cabinet, while Bryden's constituency was abolished after Martin was sworn in as Prime Minister.

From January 2010 to October 2018 he was president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada.

He is currently the chairman of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and serves on the advisory board of the Leaders' Debates Commission.

Manley was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and attended Bell High School.