Tony Martin makes generous donation to Soup Kitchen

As a politician, he was respected by constituents on both ends of the political spectrum for his hard work, compassion, and tenacious attitude.

Years later, that remains unchanged.

The Sault’s Tony Martin recently made a generous donation to the Soup Kitchen Community Centre when he paid a visit to their team this past Friday.

Martin played an important role in establishing the Soup Kitchen back in 1983 and is considered a founding father of the community centre.

He was recognized in 2018 for his decades of efforts for the centre when the Soup Kitchen named their dining area as the Tony Martin Community Hall.

Despite facing health challenges in recent years, the now 74-year-old still makes visits to the places that hold a special place in his heart.

“His heart is for advocating for anyone living in poverty,” Soup Kitchen general manager Ron Sim says. “He was on the board right until he took ill. It was great to see him stop by last week.”

In addition to his community work, Martin served as Sault Ste. Marie’s MPP at Queen’s Park from 1990 to 2003, then later as its MP in Ottawa from 2004 to 2011.

Working alongside Martin for his entire 20-year political stint, Madge Sanderson has many fond memories of him.

“It was the best job, and he was the best person to work for,” she says.

“He was very respectful to his employees as he was to his constituents. He treated us all on a professional level and entrusted his office to us when he was away from the Sault.”

Mostly retired now, Sanderson had worked in Martin’s constituency office during his time in provincial and federal politics, where she says she got a behind-the-scenes look at his ambitious attitude.

“It’s hard to keep up to him,” she says. “We would often encourage him to take more credit for the work that he did on a file, but he wasn’t all that interested. He was more interested in getting onto the next project.”

Sanderson still runs into Martin at events to this day, most recently seeing him this past summer.

She says he’s still just as enthusiastic today.

“He definitely keeps busy, you can’t keep him at home for too long,” she says.