Following a candid discussion with elementary school students in a North York public school, Prime Minister Paul Martin declared that education is a priority that requires significant investment.

January 20, 2004
Toronto, Ontario

Prime Minister stops by Fenside Public School, meets with students

Video highlights of Flat Mark’s adventures

Following a candid discussion with elementary school students in a North York public school, Prime Minister Paul Martin declared that education is a priority that requires significant investment.

“We have two major national priorities in this country: health care and education… We are going, in fact, to continue to reinvest very, very heavily in education,” he said.

The government is committed to supporting lifelong learning that starts from an early age, he stated.

“As far as we're concerned it’s prenatal to age six, it's six through to the end of high school and then it's after post-secondary. It's life long,” he said. “And there are a wide range of areas in there where the federal government has a major responsibility to play and we are going to play it to the end.”

Prime Minister Martin made the remarks after stopping by Fenside Public School to meet the Grade Four class that organized Flat Mark’s trip to Parliament Hill.

The Flat Mark civics and literacy project started when students mailed Prime Minister Martin a paper-doll – Flat Mark – and a letter asking if the cut-out could tag along with him on Parliament Hill. At the time, Prime Minister Martin was preparing to take over the PMO, and so Flat Mark accompanied him to transition meetings, Rideau Hall and his government’s swearing-in ceremony.

At the school, the Prime Minister participated in a 30-minute exchange with students and gave them a Flat Mark scrapbook detailing their adventures together. Click here to view the Flat Mark photo gallery.

The Flat Mark project was based on an international movement, dubbed the Flat Stanley Project, whereby kids send their own versions of the paper doll to politicians and celebrities around the world. Flat Stanley is a popular children’s book about a boy who is accidentally crushed by a bulletin board and then has all sorts of adventures made possible only because he’s flat.


Video highlights of Flat Mark’s adventures