Moose War

Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie says “don't mess with Mac”

Moose Jaw is a town in southern Saskatchewan, Canada and since 1984, the one thing about which residents could boast about is a 9.75m (32-foot) statue of a moose! They even named him Mac the Moose. 

And the steel and concrete sculpture took pride in its status as the home of the world’s tallest moose statue. He has survived brutal winters, graffiti and even the inglorious loss of his jaw – but his recognition was so great that in 2013, he was named the prairie town’s most popular celebrity. 

Until 2015 when artist Linda Bakke in partnership with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration built a moose sculpture – Storelgen, or “Big Elk”, a glitzy stainless steel bull, which stands at 10.3 metres, which is just over 50 centimetres taller than Mac the Moose. In the municipality of Stor-Elvdal, midway between the two cities of Oslo and Trondheim. 

I read in one press report that it was erected with the explicit aim of surpassing Mac’s height and stealing his place in the record books. 

Now, however, the Canadians are fighting back, after YouTubers Justin Reves and Greg Moore posted a video in January urging Moose Jaw to add 31cm to Mac or to rename the town as simply "Jaw". 

Its mayor, Fraser Tolmie told the BBC, "You don't mess with Mac the Moose". He even made the claim: “You may not know this, but it’s personal for me”, he said in a Facebook video in which he divulged that the moose was named after his wife’s great uncle. And he is ready to “stick it to Oslo”. 

Tolmie said he has since fielded a number of suggestions from residents on how to add to Mac's height. 

"There's even been a suggestion about stilettos", he said, but noted the most popular suggestion so far has been to "give Mac a bigger rack" of antlers. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Norwegian municipality where Storelgen stands, has shown little appetite for backing away from the fight. 

“We’re not letting this one go. Not a chance. We’re going to do whatever we can to make sure this is the world’s tallest moose – or biggest moose in the future, as well”, said Linda Otnes Henriksen (right), Stor-Elvdal’s deputy mayor, in a video also posted to Facebook. 

Staff in the municipality have said their moose – with the artist’s permission – could be doubled in size if needed, to a full 20 meters. 

Meanwhile, Tolmie said his fight isn’t simply about one Canadian town. Rather, this is about trying to “protect Canada’s national treasures”. 

In fact, a Facebook poll by Norwegian online newspaper Dagbladet, posted on Thursday, has Canada's Mac in the lead as the favourite moose statue among 60% of more than 20,000 online voters. 

Hmmm, it’s like asking the Petronas Twin Towers to add at least another 376.1 metres (1,234 ft) to their heights to reclaim the title of the tallest building in the world. As it currently stands, that recognition has been given to the 828-metre (2,717 ft) tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai since 2008.

I'm happy we can still keep the title of the tallest twin towers in the world.