Canada & Norway Embroiled In Bizarre Dispute Over Worlds Largest Moose Statue
Canada is known to be a friendly nation, filled with people who have perfect manners and are always polite. However, there are a few things they don’t take lightly.
“There are some things that you just don’t do to Canadians: You don’t water down our beer, you don’t tell us we can’t put maple syrup on our pancakes and you don’t mess with Mac the Moose,” explains mayor of the city of Moose Jaw, Fraser Tolmie.
And do you know what Norway did? Yup, you guessed it, they messed with Mac the Moose.
According to the New York Times, Mac, who is located in the city of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, has been the tallest sculpture of a moose in the world for the past three decades, standing 32-feet tall. That is until just recently when Norway unveiled a nearly 33-foot tall moose statue of their own named Storelgen.
Tolmie has taken the new world record moose a little personally, claiming that Mac is the pride of the entire Great White North.
Mac has been standing since 1984 and was created out of steel, metal, and layers of concrete. Storelgen is mirrored stainless steel, giving off a rather garish shine in sunlight as a result.
Which moose is taller? https://t.co/M35j97mbSs
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) January 22, 2019
Linda Bakke, the designer of Storelgen, said she had been researching large moose statues around the world when she found out about Mac and thought it would be “a little fun to beat Canada in something.”
“Canada is pretty much like Norway in many ways just that in Canada most things are bigger. You have a different and larger moose type as well. It was decided to build a statue in a large dimension, so we could just as well step into making it the world’s largest.”
Canada is now taking steps to remedy the perceived injustice. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help make Mac the biggest moose in the world again. Justin Reves and Greg Moore, who started the page, even recorded a video to get people in Moose Jaw on board.
So far, $2,000 has been raised to restore Mac’s dignity and pride, but another $48,000 is still required for the project. The Ford dealership in the city donated half of what has been raised and released a statement about the cause.
“I think what is fun is when a community gets behind something and sees what it can accomplish. We can make him taller, and give him some new antlers and have some fun with it,” said Shaun Airey, the general manager.
Bakke, for her part, was surprised by the Canadian response to Storelgen, not having realized quite how important his world record was to the people.
“I have to admit that I didn’t think about that Mac The Moose meant so much for the citizens of Moose Jaw,” she said. “So I have a bit of bad conscience for that. I’m sorry.”
It also appears that the feud won’t end with giving Mac a bigger pair of antlers, a hat, or some festive tinsel. Bakke has already stated that the Norwegians plan on building another large moose, this one double the size at 65-feet tall, and made of gold.
