Dudley Does Right

In the spirit of Canada Day (which is tomorrow and which will undoubtedly spawn a series of Canuck postings on my behalf), I will present an only in Canada offering. BUT before I do, let me ensure that all of my faithful readers are familiar with Dudley Do-Right of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ...

Into the northern region of Canada, at the close of the nineteenth century, rode Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, lonely defender of justice and fair play: handsome, brave, daring... and hopelessly lost.

Dudley was part of the Bullwinkle Show/Fractured Fairy Tales series (debuting in the year of my birth) and parodied the wild frontier music halls of yore, as well as those cliffhanging melodramatic silent films - all the while taking a few jabs at Canada & her iconic Mounties. After a successful run with "Moose" (as in Moose and Squirrel), Dudley was given his own series (in the year of Mr. Cat in Rabat's birth - so you can see the importance of Dudley in my life), bringing with him his much beloved cast of characters, including the thwarted love-interest & eye-poppingly buxom Nell (who was smitten with her horse rather than with Dudley) and his arch-nemesis, Snidely Whiplash (whose preferred modus operandi was lashing Nell to railroad tracks which he described as a "habit" he was "hooked" to).

Here, here! You oughtn't to do a thing like that: going around tying defenseless people to railroad tracks (taking off his hat). It's not the Canadian Way!

Any cartoon worth its salt works on many levels. Just as the Bullwinkle series kept a caustic eye on the developments of the Cold War, Dudley's sexuality - as well as Nell's infatuation with her stallion - was fair game for its writers. And bondage. The writers liked bondage. So, in the spirit of the Mounties, Canada Day and sexual proclivities, I present Canada's first gay marriage between 2 members of our Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Today, not far from my sort-of hometown of Halifax,

Dressed in their distinctive scarlet coats, RCMP constables Jason Tree and David Connors will exchange vows before a justice of the peace and a troop of other Mounties in their fabled red serge.


The happy couple have been the butt of "Brokeback Mountie" jokes as well as speculation that perhaps Mounties always do get their man, but they have also received a host of well-wishes from strangers, praising them for their decision to wed in uniform. And how does the RCMP feel about this? Halifax's Mountie spokesperson said, "The RCMP welcomes a workforce that is representative of Canadian society."

There is a story, or perhaps an urban myth, that the Bullwinkle Show was initially banned in Canada because of the RCMP's less than favourable view of the Dudley Do-Right segments - the RCMP apparently was less than thrilled with the show's representation of their men in serge. Whether this is true or not, it nonetheless seems that today's wedding in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia brings the Dudley saga full circle. Maybe, in the end, he was never meant to "get" Nell at all. Gosh, this makes me feel especially proud of being a Canadian - someone, pass me a beer!