The Story of MouseLand

Mouseland, was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died, and lived pretty much like you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every 4 years they had an election. They 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's strange that mice would elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for the 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 the 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 mice holes had to be big enough, so the cats could get their paws in. Another law said, mice had to travel at certain speeds, so the cat could get his breakfast without too much physical effort. All the laws were good laws for cats. But oh they were hard on the mice, and life was getting harder and harder.

When the mice couldn't take it anymore, they decided that something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the Black cats out. They put in the White cats. The White cats had put up a terrific campaign. "All that Mouseland needs is more vision." They said, "The trouble with Mouseland is all those round mouse holes. If you put us in, we'll give you square mouse holes." And they did. But the problem was that the square mouse holes was twice as large as the round mouse holes, so now the cat could get both his paws in.

And life was tougher than ever. And when they couldn't take that anymore, they voted the White cats out and put the Black ones in again. Then they went back to the White cats, and back to the Black cats, they even tried half Black cats and half White cats. And called that coalition. They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them. They were cats that tried to make noise like a mouse, but ate like a cat.

The trouble wasn't the colour of the cats, but the fact that they were cats. And since they were cats, they naturally looked after the cats, instead of mice. Presently, there came along one little mouse, who had an idea.

My friends, watch out for a little fellow with an idea.

And he went to the other mice and said, "My friends, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats, why don't we elect a government made up of mice?" "Oh!" They said, "He's a Bolshevik". So they put him in Jail.

But what I want to remind you, You can lock up a mouse or a man, but you cannot lock up an idea.

As recited by Tommy Douglas (1904-1986), the well-known Canadian politician, on January 1st, 1961 on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio.

Tommy Douglas led the first democratically elected socialist government in North America. - the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government, which ruled Saskatchewan and pioneered universal health insurance in Canada. The CCF was a forerunner of today's New Democratic Part

"Mouseland" is a political fable, originally told by Clare Gillis, a friend of Tommy Douglas. Tommy has used this story many times to show in a humorous way how Canadians fail to recognize that neither the Liberals or Conservatives are truly interested in what matters to ordinary citizens; yet Canadians continue to vote for them.

When creating our MouseLand we considered the moral of Tommy Douglas' story: our country is inhabited only by mice and the basis of our state system is constitutional monarchy.

You can read the original story of Tommy Douglas at:
http://www.iamm.com/mouseland.htm