In a forest full of squabbling, self-interested animals, it takes a Wise Owl to find order.
Thatās the message, at least, in āThe Wise Owls,ā a new that seeks to explain the Red Chamberās role in Canadian democracy.
āSeven-year-olds donāt care about Canadaās bicameral parliaments unless you give them some reason to,ā the bookās author, Tony Spears, a former Ottawa Sun journalist who now works on the Senateās communications team, told CTVNews.ca.
āWe had lots of fun with it.ā
The story is set in the Forest of Canada, where, with the permission of a lioness who rules from an island overseas, the forestās creatures -- moose, foxes, wolves and all -- have decided to govern themselves through a grand Council of Animals.
āThe Council of Animals worked well,ā the story reads, ābut it didnāt take long to realize the animals sometimes thought only about what was good for their own kind.ā
Bickering ensues when an eager beaver displaces a squirrel and a badger while chomping down trees for his clan. Luckily, before a flurry of scratching and biting ensues, a Wise Owl intervenes.
āEveryone in the Forest knew the Owls were wise,ā the story reads. āThey had been in the Forest as long as anyone could remember. They had big eyes to see whatever was going on. And when they took to the skies on their big, soft wings, they could see the entire Forest from east to west and from north to south.ā
At the urging of shaggy bear, the Wise Owls then āform a second council to make sure every decision would benefit every animal.ā They call the new council the āSenate of Owls.ā
To Spears, it made perfect sense to have owls oversee the chamber of āsober second thought.ā
āThe group noun for owls is āa parliament,āā he explained. āOwls are symbols of wisdomā¦ there are a lot of senators who qualify as wise.ā
As for those who donāt? Spearsā story never touches on how wayward raptors -- like , who has recently been accused of multiple acts of sexual impropriety -- are dealt with.
āThat was a level of detail that we did not really get into,ā he said. āI mean, itās a childrenās story! We wanted it to reflect the ideal of the Senate. You know, the Senate is a body that has so much capacity to do good -- and it does a lot of good, and I think more than people give it credit for.ā
The storybook came as the Senate sought to update its roster of educational brochures. Richly illustrated by the Upper Houseās internal graphics design team, the Senate spent only $6,179 to externally print 3,500 copies of the book. Additional copies, the Senate says, will be printed in-house starting in August. Copies of the book will be left in the Senateās foyer for visitors and children to take home.
Senator Mobina Jaffer, who sits on Senateās communications committee, even tested the book out on her family.
āShe took them to her grandkids and said that they were really enthralled,ā Spears said.
As for Spearsā inspiration, he swears that the book has little to do with George Orwellās 1945 allegorical novella āAnimal Farm.ā
āIt was more of an Aesopās Fable,ā he laughed.
Some MPs, however, donāt see anything funny about being portrayed as fighting fauna.
āI think the Canadian children need to be protected from this sort of thing,ā NDP Leader Tom Mulcair told CTVās Kevin Gallagher on Friday. āEspecially since the ethics in the current Senate are more like a tire fireā¦ Itās going to take a little bit more than a book to restore the tarnished image of Canadaās Senate."
Conservative MP Tony Clement was a little more lighthearted.
āYou know, Iāve been called a fox before in a pejorative way and I kind of liked it,ā he told Gallagher. āBut thatās just me.ā
But perhaps Green Party Leader Elizabeth May put it best.
āItās very sweet, but itās not good democratic education,ā she told Gallagher. āThe notion of sober second thought is not that the Council of Owls are wiser than the people who are electedā¦ Thatās not the right message, even for a childrenās book.ā
