Oh, to be a conservative now that spring is here...

The Conservative Party of New Brunswick has a plan for the schools. It's even bigger than the Liberal plan to turn all New Brunswick students into patriots by making the listen to blurred, scratchy, and barely audible recordings of O Canada on sound systems never designed for music.

But Conservative leader Alward is daring to go where no person (with any brains) has dared to go before. He is going to make it compulsory for high school students to volunteer their services to various service agencies in their communities. There are, of course, details to be ironed out.

1. Very large numbers of students don't want to be in school. Go figure; but there it is. That's why they talk, doze off, play with cell phones, and generally make nuisances of themselves. They,and others,may not be crazy about volunteering.  As a result, agencies will get stuck with trying to control hordes of disruptive kids.

2. The close observer may note that New Brunswick has a large, rural population. Rural areas have very few agencies on the spot. Will it be up to rural parents to start agencies?

3. In town or country, how will they get to their agencies? Will parents (who are working) drive them? Will they use school busses?  If so, we will have to raise the school bus costs substantially to cover the extra busses and drivers which will drive some students home, some to volunteer work,and pick up the volnteer group for the return home. We'll also have to hire some brilliant schedulers.

Still, give the Conservatives credit. They've been thinking. Not much. But thinking. It puts them ahead of the Liberals whose idea of education is making kids listen to O Canada, and spending big money on "scientific testing" which doesn't actually test anything.

Maybe we could have a coalition  government. Think of the possibilities - thousands of New Brunswick teenagers spending hours a day in busses listening to faint and scratchy versions of O Canada.

Almost makes ya cry, don't it?