Tommy Douglas, Greatest Canadian
Monday, November 29th, 2004Tommy Douglas, has won The Greatest Canadian competition. Who’d have thought I’d vote with the majority of Canadians? The other good news is that George Stromboloupolous, Douglas’ advocate and from MuchMusic and 102.1 The Edge is now part of the CBC and hosting a show called ‘The Hour’. Good news all around.
So, in honour of Tommy’s win, here’s his story of Mouseland. (A lesson on winning an election without using the words ‘keep more of their money’ but still talking about fat cats).
It’s the story of a place called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do.
They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election. Used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats.
Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for last 90 years and maybe you’ll see that they weren’t any stupider than we are.
Now I’m not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows. They conducted their government with dignity. They passed good laws–that is, laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats weren’t very good for mice. One of the laws said that mouseholes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds–so that a cat could get his breakfast without too much effort.
