The Third Annual Samuel Cunard Prize for Vision, Courage & Creativity Awarded to The Right Honorable Paul Martin

Cunard, along with the Canadian Maritime Heritage Foundation and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, will award the third annual Samuel Cunard Prize for Vision, Courage and Creativity to former Prime Minister of Canada, The Right Honorable Paul Martin, P.C., C.C. The distinguished official will receive the award on August 10, 2017, on board flagship ocean liner Queen Mary 2 while she is docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Samuel Cunard Prize was inaugurated in 2015 to celebrate the company’s 175th Anniversary in the ancestral home of its founder, Sir Samuel Cunard. The award acknowledges an extraordinary individual who demonstrates the qualities exemplified by Cunard throughout his life.

“Receiving the 2017 Samuel Cunard Prize is a great honour,” said Martin. “To do so in Halifax, the ancestral city of one of the Maritime Industry's greatest sons and on board the Queen Mary 2 makes it all the more special and I am very grateful to the three sponsoring organizations.”

Before entering politics, Paul Martin had a distinguished career as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CSL Group Inc., which he acquired in 1981. Under his leadership, Canada Steamship Lines was transformed from a mid-sized shipping company centered in the Great Lakes into the largest self-unloading shipping company in the world ̶ a global transportation powerhouse.

Paul Martin was the Minister of Finance in Canada from 1993 to 2002, the twenty-first Prime Minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006 and served as the Member of Parliament for LaSalle-Émard in Montréal, Québec from 1988 to 2008. Since leaving office, Martin co-chaired a United Nations panel, co-chaired a panel for the African Development Bank, was a founding co-chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund and an administrator for the Global Ocean Commission. Martin was a co-founder and the inaugural chair of the Finance Ministers’ G-20 as well as being appointed a Companion to the Order of Canada.

At home in Canada, Paul Martin has founded the Martin Family Initiative (MFI) focusing on elementary and secondary education opportunities for Indigenous students, and the Capital for Aboriginal Prosperity and Entrepreneurship (CAPE) Fund, an investment fund developing business expertise and mentoring for Indigenous business.

This year, Cunard will salute the 150th Anniversary of Canada’s Confederation with a special sailaway by Queen Mary 2 as she departs Halifax on the evening of August 10 for New York.

Local dignitaries, port officials and key members of the community will be in attendance to celebrate Martin’s award and the journey he has taken to receive it.