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About: Tommy Douglas

The Story of Mouseland
as told by Tommy Douglas, 1944

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 the
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 the last 90 years and maybe
you'll see that they weren't any stupider then 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 mouse holes 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.

All the laws were good laws. For cats. But, oh, they
were hard on the mice. And life was getting harder and
harder. And when the mice couldn't put up with it any
more, 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.

Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign.
They said: "All that's Mouseland needs is more
vision." They said: "The trouble with Mouseland is
those round mouse holes we got. If you put us in we'll
establish square mouse holes." And they did. And the
square mouse holes were twice as big as the round
mouse holes, and now the cat could get both paws in.
And life was tougher then ever.

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

You see, my friends, the trouble wasn't with the
colour of the cat. The trouble was that they were
cats. And because they were cats, they naturally
looked after cats instead of mice.

Presently there came along one little mouse who had an
idea. My friends, watch out for the little fellow with
an idea. And he said to the other mice, "Look fellows,
why do we keep 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. Lock him up!" So
they put him in jail.

But I want to remind you: That you can lock up a mouse
or a man but you can't lock up an idea.

--Tommy Douglas, 1944

Hope this helps.  Keep us posted.

We are a fine board trying to make it better.
http://www.pris.bc.ca/ghannah
ghannah{at}pris.bc.ca
Cheers! Gord
-=Team OS/2=-
--- timEd/2 1.10.y2k+