DARREN YOURK

Globe and Mail Update

Friday, November 28 – Online Edition, Posted at 12:37 PM EST

Two weeks to the day before he officially becomes Prime Minister, Paul Martin made his first appointments to the new Prime Minister's Office.

Tim Murphy, a former Ontario MPP and executive assistant to Mr. Martin at the Finance Department, has landed the top job of chief of staff in the new PMO.

Francis Fox, a Trudeau-era cabinet minister and member of the Martin transition team, has been named principal secretary.

“Not only are they known quantities, but they are people who have worked closely with me over the years in one way or the other,” Mr. Martin said. “They are people of great capacity, great intelligence and great dedication.”

In January, 1978, Mr. Fox, then solicitor-general, resigned from the federal cabinet and confessed to the Commons that he had signed someone else's name on a hospital document to help secure an abortion for a woman with whom he had been having an affair.

“That's something that happened a long time ago,” Mr. Martin said Friday. “It is a matter of public knowledge. Francis Fox is somebody who has enormous capacity. He has an understanding of the country, he's somebody who understands government and it is very important for us to hit the ground running.”

“Mr. Fox brings a great wealth talent to this particular job and those are the considerations that I looked at.”

Mr. Martin said that Mr. Fox, a Quebec MP and cabinet minister from 1972 to 1984, will quit his job as president of strategic alliances at Rogers AT&T Wireless to avoid any conflicts.

“The people that I have appointed and will be appointing are people of unquestioned integrity and character,” Mr. Martin said. “That is the essential foundation upon which any appointment would be made.”

Friday's press conference marked the first of what the Prime Minister in waiting promised will be frequent press meetings with a more open government.

“I really do believe that openness and transparency is by far the best way for a government to operated,” he said. “Certainly one of the principle ways of communicating that is by having these kinds of meetings on a regular basis.”

Mr. Martin, who takes office on Dec.12, said the recent controversial remarks by Canadian Alliance MP Larry Spencer that he would support any initiative to make homosexuality illegal again and the beating of federal MP Andy Scott will not change his plans to proceed on same-sex marriage legislation.

“I'm going to proceed exactly as I said before,” Mr. Martin said. “I voted in favour of the motion. I believe that there has to be an extensive discussion in Parliament, and I think members of Parliament are entitled to bring up all of the options. But one thing is very clear: the Charter of Rights is an essential support of the Canadian democratic system. The Charter of Rights, in the end, must dictate the course of action that would be taken by the government.

Mr. Martin called the attack on Mr. Scott, who recently helped vote down a House of Commons motion seeking to reserve marriage exclusively for opposite-sex couples, “abhorrent.”

He also praised Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper for speaking out against the comments and firing Mr. Spencer from his position as critic for family issues.

“I congratulate Mr. Harper for defending the rights of gay Canadians and doing so as quick as he did,” Mr. Martin said.

On the health-care front, Mr. Martin reiterated the need to form a Canadian Health Council, as recommended by Roy Romanow's report on the future of health care, and said he is ready to move ahead without the support of Alberta Premier Ralph Klein.

“(Health Minister) Anne McLellan has already said that is the intention,” Mr. Martin said. “I will certainly support her, and I believe that is supported by nine of the 10 provinces and the territories as well.”

Mr. Martin carefully deflected questions about the names in or the size of his cabinet, but did say the role of parliamentary secretaries will be enhanced when he becomes Prime Minister.

“They are the essential linchpin between the executive branch of government, the cabinet and parliament,” he said. “I believe that there is an enormous role that they can play and it should be enhanced.”

Mr. Martin also shrugged off concerns about the possible power of a united Conservative Party of Canada in the next election, saying he believes Canadians will share in the Liberal vision if his government does its job.

“I think that as long as we provide good government and give Canadians the opportunity to see that the country is advancing, that we are going to be doing things very differently, then I feel very confident in terms of the election.”