Bios of top four Canadian candidates

Brief biographies of the four top federal party candidates vying for leadership of the House of Commons in Canada's elections:

Paul Martin, 67, is head of Canada's Liberal Party and succeeded Jean Chretien to become the 21st prime minister in December 2003. The son of a longtime Liberal Party Cabinet minister, Martin was born in Windsor, Ontario, and has a bachelor's degree in history and philosophy and a law degree from the University of Toronto. He worked for Montreal-based conglomerate Power Corp. of Canada, before becoming president, then sole owner of Canada Steamship Lines. Elected to Parliament in 1988 as Liberal candidate in a Montreal district, he served as finance minister under Chretien from 1993-2002.

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Stephen Harper, 46, is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. He was born in Toronto and has a master's degree in economics from the University of Calgary. After working as a computer programmer, he became a founding member of the Reform Party and was elected to House of Commons in 1993. He left parliament in 1997 to head the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative advocacy group. He was elected leader of a new party, Canadian Alliance, in 2002, then spearheaded efforts to merge the alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party and was elected leader of the new Conservative Party in 2004.

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Jack Layton, 55, is leader of the New Democratic Party. Born in Hudson, Quebec, he has a bachelor's degree in political science from McGill University and holds a doctorate in political science from York University in Toronto. A former city councilor and deputy mayor of Toronto, he was elected to Parliament in June 2004. A strong supporter of labor unions and national health care, Layton was elected leader of the New Democratic Party in 2003.

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Gilles Duceppe, 58, is leader of the Bloc Quebecois, a separatist party devoted to the sovereignty of the French-speaking province of Quebec. Born in Montreal, he studied political science at the University of Montreal. A labor organizer, he became the first politician ever elected to House on a sovereignty platform after winning a 1990 by-election in Montreal. Duceppe became leader of the party in 1997.