All the talk and back-and-forth controversy over the world’s largest moose statue finally came to a head a few moments after Moose Jaw mayor Fraser Tolmie and Stor-Elvdal deputy mayor Linda Otnes Henriksen stepped outside for a photo op with Mac the Moose.
Henriksen broke out a cell phone, cued up a tune, and moments later the duo was dancing to the ‘Moose Truce’ song despite the bitterly cold weather on Saturday morning.
Such is the turn the great moose debate has taken, as Henriksen arrived in Moose Jaw late Friday to kick off a week-long ‘Moose Summit’ in the Friendly City.
After her first-ever breakfast in Canada on Saturday, Henriksen and Tolmie gathered in front of an assembled media horde at the Tourism Moose Jaw building to discuss the ongoing, er, ‘war’ between Moose Jaw and Stor-Elvdal over the largest Alces alces 3D physical reproduction on the planet.
Interestingly enough, this was one occasion where it was a good thing that a first impression didn’t stick.
“We were coming in from the airport last night, Mayor Tolmie drove us past Mac and my first thought was ‘it’s tiny, it looks so little’ because we were out on the road and the buildings were around,” Henriksen said to laughs from the gathered reporters. “But once I got here today, he’s huge, and he looks really nice. He’s something to be proud of.”
The entire moose controversy developed out of a discovery by the social media duo Justin and Greg, who put together a video pointing out that Mac was no longer the largest moose statue in the world, that a silver reproduction outside of a small town in Norway had taken over first place.
CJME radio personality John Gormley got wind of the international incident, joined Justin and Greg on his daily morning program to discuss the situation, and a worldwide media storm was born.
“When I first got the first message asking if I wanted to do a live interview for a T.V. show in Canada, I just didn’t know what to believe,” Henriksen said. “I was so surprised, and I just said to myself ‘okay, you can do this, you’re not just representing yourself, you’re representing the whole municipality and all of Norway’. So my face has been out there all this time and I felt like I got thrown into the deep end of the pool, just trying to make it as everything happened.
“But once you have a couple of interviews, things get easier and better and things have worked out really well.”
The back-and-forth has seen duelling songs, political jests and – most importantly – a sense of fun and goodwill between two communities that quite frankly knew little of each other prior to things taking off.
That’s what brought Henriksen to Moose Jaw for what promises to be a whirlwind of visits all over the city.
“It’s been in news articles and T.V. stories in some of the biggest places in the world and it’s been going on so long I thought we should just get together and talk and show the world we’re friends and want to make a positive thing out of this, make some friendships between our towns,” Henriksen said.
Mayor Tolmie has been at the forefront of discussions from the very first reveal and couldn’t be happier with how the publicity and general positivity has developed from day one.
“Right now, we’ve been floored by the attention we’ve been given,” Tolmie said. “We did talk about branding our community and it really has taken off, it’s gone viral, and people are talking about the city of Moose Jaw. But beyond that, people are learning about Stor-Elvdal, so there have been some great synergies and we’re very excited.”
While a lot of what has happened since Justin and Greg’s discovery has looked purely organic, there has been a planning component to the whole thing, beginning before the controversy even began as the City of Moose Jaw looked to increase promotion of the community.
“When they put out their video, we could have ignored it or responded,” Tolmie said. “We responded and look what’s happened. So this is some success from some of the pre-planning we’ve done. You don’t know what it’s going to look like but when it happens you roll with it.
We’ve been getting up at five o’clock in the morning to do interviews in different locations, it’s been amazing and we’re looking forward to what happens in the future.”
Tolmie was also quick to give credit to the rest of city council as well – in addition to Couns. Heather Eby and Dawn Luhning being on hand to welcome Henriksen at Tourism Moose Jaw, city representatives will be showing their Norwegian guest all the Moose Jaw sites and activities during her stay here.
“This has become such a community thing, and I’m really proud to see council stepping up and helping out as much as they have and will over the next week,” Tolmie said. “It’s great to see so many people embracing this with open arms.”
To that end, Henriksen’s impression of the city thus far has been nothing but positive.
“I think it’s a really pretty town, I love all the old buildings and how the downtown looks,” she said. “I’ve had a really good impression and I’m looking forward to seeing as much of what you guys have to offer as I can.
“Not in the least the people I’ve met so far, they’ve all been so friendly and welcomed me with open arms. So that’s been so much fun.”
Henriksen’s visit is about more than Mac vs. Storelgen, as could be expected. The opportunity to foster relations between two cities on opposite sides of the planet is too good to resist, especially when it comes to what can be done with such a positive relationship.
“It’s friendship for the first part, then I’d like to see us have a partnership in the future,” Henriksen said. “That way we can lean on each other and maybe do some marketing together and try to show that even though we’ve had this war going on for quite some time now, we’re actually friends and want to market ourselves and our moose the best way we can.”
