The year the mice won
one. In Tommy Douglas's Mouseland, the voters were mice and the candidates were always cats. Black cats out, white cats in; square mouse holes twice as big, both paws in; coalition cats, half and half; spotted cats that squeaked like mice but ate like cats. The trouble was never the colour of the cats. The trouble was that they were cats.
two. The teller was a Baptist minister from a poor Scottish family, in Parliament since 1935. He learned a joke opened a door; his speeches began with stories, and Mouseland was the longest. The point underneath: working people kept electing the two old parties, then wondered why the laws served the wealthy.
three. June 15, 1944. The mice elected mice. The CCF, the farmers-and-workers party, took 47 of 52 seats: the first socialist government in North America. Douglas resigned his federal seat and stayed premier 17 years, winning four more elections.
four. 1947. The fable had to govern: universal hospital insurance, first in Canada, then medicare in 1962, pushed through a doctors' strike. The idea went national. In 2004 CBC viewers voted Douglas the Greatest Canadian. The punchline still lands: the cats were never the problem.
Sources: Tommy Douglas, 'Mouseland' (speech, 1944); The Canadian Encyclopedia; Canada's History.
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