Mouseland http://www.mun.ca/ndp/youth/mouseland.html
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As Told by Tommy Douglas in 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 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's 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 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 s 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 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
Mouseland needs is more vision." They said: "The trouble with Mouseland is
those round mouseholes we got. If you put us in...we'll establish square
mouseholes." And they did. And the square mouseholes were twice as big as
the round mouseholes, and now the cat could get both his paws in. And life
was tougher than ever.

And when they couldn't take that any more, they voted the white cats out
and put the black ones in again. Then they went back to the white cats.
Then to the black cats. They even tried half black cats 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 cats. The
trouble was that they were cats... they naturally looked after cats instead
of mice.

Presently there came along one little mouse with 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 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
Communist. 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.

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