Moose Jaw set to salute Norway

It’s one of the conditions upon which peace has been built between Norway and the city of Moose Jaw.

Many will recall this year’s friendly battle between the Saskatchewan city and the nordic nation over which one was home to the world’s tallest moose.

The epic back and forth culminated in a weekend summit in March in Moose Jaw.

It was then that the deputy mayor of the Norwegian town involved, Linda Henriksen, conceded that her community would be henceforth known as home to the world’s second-tallest moose statue.

But there were some terms to the agreement, one of which will see Moose Jaw pay tribute to Norway on that country’s constitution day, May 17.

That means that Friday is to be known as Norway Day in Moose Jaw.

“They were very gracious in saying, ‘Listen, this has been such a fun thing. If you guys go ahead and make yours bigger, we’re fine with being second-biggest. Let’s see what else, in terms of friendships and partnerships, we can get out of this,’ ” said Craig Hemingway, communications manager with the City of Moose Jaw.

On Friday, Moose Jaw will raise the Norwegian flag and will have a special performance of the Norwegian national anthem. But that’s just the beginning.

“We’re going to have a video message from Linda Henriksen. We’re going to have an update on plans to make Mac the Moose the tallest moose statue. We’ll let everybody know where we’re at with that plan,” Hemingway said.

Norway Day celebrations happen from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. at the moose statue by the Tourism Moose Jaw information centre on Friday.

But even though Moose Jaw took the world’s tallest moose title, Hemingway said in the end, both communities were winners.

“It’s been amazing how this whole thing caught fire and became an international story. I mean, being on Stephen Colbert, BBC, the South China Morning Post — the amount of publications that ran stories on this was beyond remarkable,” Hemingway said.