Canadian election: Party leaders

Canadian voters head to the polls in federal elections on 23 January. The BBC News website looks at the men at the helm of the four main parties seeking seats in Ottawa's parliament.

LIBERAL PARTY: PAUL MARTIN

Paul Martin's minority centrist Liberal government was brought down in a vote of no-confidence in November 2005, after just 17 months in office.

Although he was exonerated by a judicial inquiry, the prime minister was unable to distance himself from allegations of corruption in the French-speaking province of Quebec in the late 1990s when he was federal finance minister.

Paul Martin's Liberal party is behind in the polls

Regarded as a fiscal conservative, he was credited with clearing Canada's large budget deficit in the 1990s.

His struggle to stay in power as prime minister and shake off the scandal earned him the nickname "Mr Dithers".

The Quebec MP succeeded the long-serving Liberal Party Prime Minister Jean Chretien in December 2003.

Mr Martin trained as a lawyer and entering parliament in 1988. For 30 years, he was a hugely-successful businessman, owning more than 30 companies.

Born in Ontario in 1938, Paul Martin is the son of post-war Liberal cabinet minister Paul Martin Sr, who made a number of unsuccessful bids for the party leadership.

He is married with three children.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY: STEPHEN HARPER

Alberta MP Stephen Harper was elected leader of the right-wing Conservative Party (CPC) in 2004, created a year earlier by the merging of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

The new party reunited Canada's political right after years of disarray.

Stephen Harper is an MP in Calgary, Alberta

The CPC may be relatively new, but Mr Harper is no newcomer to politics.

Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, he worked in the oil industry in Alberta and got involved in politics while still at school.

After years of working as a political aide, he was elected to parliament in 1993. A fiscal conservative and federalist, he is credited with moving the party towards the centre of the political spectrum.

A keen strategist, he is still the most conservative of the main party leaders, with strong views on taxation, law and order and same-sex marriage.

He failed to defeat the Liberals in 2004, although his party reduced them to a minority government.

His appeal seems to have strengthened however, with the latest opinion polls placing Mr Harper's party in the lead. The polls suggest he may even gain enough support to lead a majority government, which would make his the first Tory government in more than a decade.

He is married with two children.

NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY: JACK LAYTON

Born in Quebec in 1950, the head of the left-wing NDP comes from a family with a political lineage stretching back to the 19th Century.

His father was a Conservative MP, and his grandfather resigned from the Quebec provincial government over its lack of support for Canadian participation in World War II.

Jack Layton was a Toronto city councillor for decades

Mr Layton entered local politics as a Toronto city councillor in 1982, later earning a PhD in political science and teaching at university level.

As an activist and local politician, he was involved in setting up Canada's first municipally sponsored Aids strategy and a number of environmental projects.

Mr Layton was a city councillor until he was elected leader of the NDP in 2003, only entering the House of Commons after the 2004 general election.

His party propped up the minority Liberal government for a number of crucial votes, in exchange for increased social spending, before backing a no-confidence motion late last year.

He is married, with two children from a previous marriage.

BLOC QUEBECOIS: GILLES DUCEPPE

Born in 1947 in Montreal, Gilles Duceppe is the leader of the left-wing federal Bloc Quebecois, which is devoted to the promotion of sovereignty for the province and has close ties to the provincial separatist party, the Parti Quebecois.

The son of a famous Quebec actor, Mr Duceppe says his separatist ideals were fostered by childhood experiences.

Gilles Duceppe says his separatist ideals stem from his childhood

A teacher once slapped him for complaining that French pupils had to stand in the aisle on school buses, and he slapped her right back, he told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.

Like many of the other major party leaders, Mr Duceppe comes from a political family: his father was active in local politics and was one of the NDP's founding members.

He was the first MP elected under the Bloc platform, in 1991, and became party leader in 1997. The BQ won 54 out of Quebec's 75 seats in the 2004 election, and is predicted to do well again in the 2006 vote.

Mr Duceppe is married with two children.