Elie Martel was, according to his daughter Shelley, larger than life, a mentor, a fighter, a believer in social and economic justice.
“He was such a mentor in terms of his moral compass and his values,” Shelley said. “We benefitted from his support and loved that he was proud of us. We carry all of that with us despite this loss.”
A 20-year New Democrat MPP for the now-defunct Sudbury East riding, Elie Martel passed away Aug. 14 at the age of 90.
His obituary said he is survived by his wife of 65 years, Gaye, four children, including his daughter Shelley, who succeeded him as an area NDP MPP, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Family members and several past and present NDP politicians shared their thoughts on Martel’s legacy with Sudbury.com at his wake at the Lougheed Funeral Home in Hanmer on Sunday. A funeral mass will be held at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church at a later date.
Shelley said her father was a lifelong New Democrat. “He only ever once voted something else, and never again, and that was very, very early on,” she said.
He was inspired to run for the NDP by his father-in-law, Norman Fawcett, a former New Democrat MP in the Nickel Belt riding.
Elie won the Sudbury East seat in 1967 and decided to retire from politics in 1987, with daughter Shelley running in his place in the riding. She was just 24 years old at the time, having graduated from university only the year before.
But when she put her name forward, her dad was with her every step of the way, as he was during her own 20 years as an area MPP, first in the former Sudbury East riding, and then for Nickel Belt, stepping aside in 2007.
Between father and daughter, they represented the region provincially for 40 years.
“There were many, many people who said they would give me their support the first time because they had supported him, but I would have to earn their trust after that, and I appreciated that I was able to run under that condition,” Shelley said.
“Because I think that is what actually allowed me to win that very first time was because of his reputation, the work that he had done, the fact that people knew he would be close by to provide advice and input.”
She said her dad was passionate about fighting for the people who came through the doors of his constituency office, whether they were injured workers, single moms in need of social assistance benefits or families with special needs kids.
“On a personal level, his legacy is his unwavering love for my mother,” Shelley said.
“They were married 65 years on the day that he died. That and his support and his pride for his children and grandchildren. These are the things that we take with us.”
Nathan Martel, the eldest of Elie Martel’s eight grandchildren, said his “Papa” was always there for his family as well as the community.
He said anywhere he went with his grandfather, somebody knew him, remembering being stopped in the mall frequently. “I haven't met anybody who has anything bad to say about him,” said Nathan.
Given his strong New Democrat pedigree, asked if it’s basically mandatory to be a member of the NDP in his family, Nathan laughed and said it is. “I don't think I know if people are allowed to have different political beliefs, but not in our family,” he said,
Martel’s wake this past weekend was attended by several area NDP politicians, past and present. That includes Claude Gravelle, who was the New Democrat MP for Nickel Belt from 2008 to 2015.
“Elie Martel is the reason I got elected in Nickel Belt,” said Gravelle, saying that almost every weekend, they’d take a drive out to one of the small towns comprising the riding.
“And Elie always knew somebody in the little towns, so we would visit and campaign,” he said, adding that it took him three elections, but eventually he was successful at the polls.
“He was just a gentle giant,” Gravelle said. “I mean, he had the gift of the gab, obviously. And he knew a lot of people, and people respected him, and when he would ask people to help get me elected, they would say ‘yes.’”
France Gélinas succeeded Shelley Martel as the New Democrat MPP for Nickel Belt in 2007, and has now held the riding for 18 years. She also said she owes a lot to Elie Martel.
“When Shelley retired and I came in, he, I would say, helped me like I was his daughter,” she said. “He was there for everything.”
The Martel legacy continued when Shelley herself ended up working with Gélinas for several years at Queen’s Park.
Gélinas said she remembers visiting Martel at his home, and they would talk politics, laughing that he would often go into his huge personal library for reference material on certain subjects, quoting the father of Medicare and NDP royalty, Tommy Douglas himself.
When she was first elected, Gélinas said she was not enjoying having “anglophone rich old white men screaming at me,” but it was Elie Martel that showed her the other side of her job as MPP — constituency work.
“That part of the job I love, and I still love it to this day,” she said. “And it's Elie who showed me that part of the job, and he was top notch at it, way better than any other politician. He was really, really good at it. So I had a fantastic mentor who showed me a side of politics that I didn't even know existed, but that I love.”
Former Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing New Democrat MP Carol Hughes said Elie Martel was a “great man” and a “man of the people.”
She referred to Martel’s work on behalf of United Steelworkers members in Elliot Lake, who held a wildcat strike when they learned that their employer and the government of the day knew that their cancers were workplace-related.
Out of that work came the basis of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in Ontario.
“He got a lot done during his career, and we are blessed to have had him as an MPP,” she said.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor.