by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Ex-Montrealer Rob Maguire is a man on a mission. Posing as socially conscious, good-humoured, Halifax-based college students, Maguire and his cohorts Dru Oja Jay and Montreal-born Dave Ron have quickly become a thorn in the side of new Prime Minister Paul Martin with their Web site www.
paulmartintime.ca.

"The bottom line is that we want to draw attention to who Paul Martin really is, what his agenda really is and the consequences this will have for Canadians," says Maguire. Some of the consequences for Canadians, according to Maguire, will be a further erosion of their health-care system and social safety net, increasing inequality between rich and poor, and a more subservient relationship with the United States.

One-third of the team behind the site, which describes itself as "your source for critical news, analysis and parody of our recently unelected Prime Minister," will be in Montreal this week, accompanied by someone bearing a giant, papier-mâché ballot box for a head. They'll be visiting various locales around town over the next few days to do some "advanced polling" for the election Martin is soon expected to call.

"We want to draw attention to the upcoming federal election and how Martin came to be our prime minister, which was extremely undemocratic," Maguire says. "As we all know, there really only is one choice for the next election. There's very little chance Paul Martin will not be our prime minister, therefore the 'ballots' will reflect the reality of Canadian politics."

Any press is good press

The three students are currently waiting to hear whether Martin and the Liberal Party of Canada will carry through with a threatened lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement for the similarities between www.paulmartintime.ca and Martin's official Web site, www.paulmartintimes.ca.

In a move worthy of Dickens, they were contacted a few days before Christmas and were given until 5 p.m., Dec. 24, to change their site or face the legal consequences.

"We figured we wouldn't be too surprised if they came after us," says Maguire. "What did surprise us is that it only took a week."

Deciding their best bet was to go public, Maguire and company called in the press, which led to a slew of pre-Christmas, David vs. Goliath media stories that may have made Martin's lawyers reconsider.

They also made some small changes to their site in an effort to avoid costly litigation, but when they tried contacting Martin's representatives to inform them of the changes, they were completely ignored, says Maguire. Just before Christmas, they were informed by a reporter from CTV that Martin's people told her the suit was being dropped. Weeks later, however, they have yet to be able to confirm this.

Talking to the man

They recently had the opportunity to meet Martin and question him personally on the matter during the PM's visit to Nova Scotia. During a public meeting in Wolfville, Maguire's colleague Dru Oja Jay managed to ambush Martin in a crowd of well wishers.

"He approached the Prime Minister and they shook hands and, as he was shaking hands with Martin, Dru essentially said, 'Are you still going to sue us or what?'" says Maguire. "He said something like 'Uh, no, maybe, I don't know,' and that was it."

Following their Wolfville run-in, they followed/stalked Martin to Windsor, Nova Scotia, where Maguire spotted the PM sitting quietly in an RCMP car following an event. Knowing an opportunity when he saw one, Maguire proceeded to launch question after question at Martin, who ignored him.

"He just sat there, making eye contact with me, which was the strange part," says Maguire. "Eventually, the RCMP car started pulling away, and as it pulled away he looked at me and smiled, and gave me a cocky little wave. It was quite endearing really."

For their part, Martin's lawyers were unavailable for comment and requests for an interview with the Prime Minister's Office were not responded to by press time.

On Friday, Jan. 16, Maguire's Martin tour will be visiting the offices of the PM's former company Canada Steamship Lines, now run by Martin's sons, as well as his riding office in Ville-Émard. He also plans to visit local campuses.

"I thought the people who represent him would likely want to get a head start on the election and vote for him nice and early," he says.