Paint My Mailbox Blue

In an effort to promote pan-Canadian participation in the coming Conservative campaign, I have found an ideal theme song with the appropriate Canadian content. The inspiration for this new advice goes back a few years.

When I was grinding my way through law school at Dalhousie University, class of '78, Associate Professor Norman Mason was a constant inspiration. In these days, the idea of a satellite campus was a novel one but, Dalhousie, even then on the leading edge of academic innovation, had a popular off campus site on Wyse Road in Dartmouth. Just a ferry ride across magnificent Halifax harbour, the Wyse Road campus was the domain of only one academician, the irreverent Norman Mason. One of the tics of the good doctor was his insistence on being known to his students by his boyhood moniker of 'Dutch'. So, we were instructed in the ways of life by Dutch Mason. His legacy has not gone unrecorded, especially his 1976 album of legal advice, appropriately titled 'The Blues Ain't Bad'.

Side one of this testament to the breadth and scope of legal education in Halifax starts off with the tune destined to serenade the voters of Canadian this coming 2005 election. 'Move Up To The Country' starts with this evocative line, " I'm going to move up to the country and paint my mailbox blue".

Blue mailboxes throughout Canada are the order of the day when voters get to choose between the Blues of Stephen Harper and the Red Choo Choo Train chasing Paul Martin around the country.