Prime Minister Paul Martin paid a visit yesterday to a nervous and excited grade 4 class in North York Ontario, that had sent him a present.

Flat Mark is being talked about in coffee shops today.
The kids made Martin a flat cut out doll with 3D bangs and sent it to him when he was sworn in as PM. The cut out doll has been a bridging tool between Ottawa and children.

“Flat Mark actually got into trouble, but some of those stories I don’t think I should talk about,” he quipped, prompting laughs among the 8- and 9-year-olds seated on the carpet of the school library near Ellesmere and Victoria Park Aves.

“He didn’t always pay attention and I don’t know what he did at night, but he showed up about an hour and a half late in the mornings,” Martin added.

The Flat Mark diplomat was inspired by a story called Flat Stanley, about a little boy who got flattened and could mail himself all over the place.

The Prime Minister’s office compiled a photo album of what Flat Mark has been up to since the children sent it to him 2 months ago.

In the two months since he received the crayoned cut-out, Martin clearly enjoyed compiling an album of photos — presented to the school in a Liberal-red cover — of Flat Mark accompanying him doing everything from eating a sandwich to being sworn in by the Governor-General.

“But we don’t know how they made him stand up in one of the pictures,” mused student Steven Natskoulis, 9, who suggested the class send Flat Mark to Ottawa after Steven’s family visited Parliament Hill.

“It’s just flat paper, but they got him to stand beside a cup of coffee,” he said.

The favourite photo for many children was Flat Mark perched on Martin’s shoulder as he read the newspaper.

I don’t remember history and civics classes being that much fun.
The visit was so impromptu that the school had to borrow a red carpet.