As a political activist, Dale developed many long term, distant friendships.

I count myself as lucky to be one of them. I met Dale at one of Merv Gruneau's gun auctions in May 1995. At the time, I was handing out stacks of my own literature objecting to the then proposed Firearms Act. Over the last ten years we exchanged a lot of mail, phone calls and visits. I had always anticipated we would still be writing letters, still lobbying the government 25 years from now.

He was a prolific writer. In his writings he included family stories. He wrote about his daughter in Calgary and how they talked about the new Police helicopter. He wasn't too sure they viewed it in quite the same way. He hoped they remained friends anyway. He fretted about a scheduling conflict. One of his nephews was about to graduate and there was a political function the same night. He attended the graduation. He gleefully anticipated goose hunting with his nephews. Always hoping 'they' would be successful. He sent a picture of his niece in her new Edmonton Police Service uniform. He was very proud of his nieces and nephews. He frequently mentioned visits with his sister in Beaverlodge and the ongoing farming operation with Biff. His family was always first.

His second love was hunting. Here is his own story of this season's hunt..

Nov 13, 2004

"I'm not sure I mentioned the postscript to my deer story. After I saw the big deer in my brother's oat swaths from nearly a mile away I set up my goose blind on Sunday afternoon. Couldn't be there Monday but went out Tuesday evening. What I thought were whitetail, because of their location and because I saw a couple sparring, turned out to be mule deer. One came out of the bush about 100 yards away which I would estimate at 170.

"Highhorn" has raised the bar, especially so early in the season, and my brother is restricted to his whiners permit, so he's been out every night since, seen a lot of deer, but no big ones. There are a lot of forkhorn bucks which will get bigger, but not this year. He had a doe bed down 30 yards from the blind tonight, which made it a bit difficult to leave. Deer follow a pattern and the big one might be back but there seems to be a few serious hunters around here.

I sat on a hill tonight waiting for a deer to cross. Only saw one whitetail doe. And a truck drive into a neighbor's field and leave in a hurry when it saw me. Or my recognizable truck - I'm giving the trespassers every chance to avoid me by letting them know I'm out there but may switch vehicles the last part of the season. Someone drove in up north from Larson's Tuesday afternoon and even left the gate open - sort of like a dog pissing on a tire.

Then, at 6:30, nearly home, I thought I saw a deer in the ditch. I was curious so stopped, backed up, and swung my headlights into the field. There was a buck chasing a doe (seems to me the rut has started nearly two weeks early this year). When the lights hit them the doe dropped to the ground.

The buck just stood there. I opened the truck door and laser range findered them at 136 yards. I watched them for awhile, moved the truck a bit, the doe stood up, and they walked off, completely oblivious to me. They were hot. While the WT buck did not seem to have a large body, I think it's typical antlers might have been the largest I have seen in the wild (not really saying much) - definitely a wall-hanger - although it was hard to be sure - lots of height and width. Hope it survives all the road hunters.

Now that it's a legal cartridge, I found a box of SP ammo I likely loaded 10 years ago and sighted in the 7.62x39 today for my MD doe. Also Biff's gun which had loose scope mounts and was shooting high, explaining why he was breaking backs and missing coyotes for the last couple of years.

Am off tomorrow to Red Deer to a Conservative Party of Canada meeting so well intentioned people don't mess up the firearms policy.

December 1, 2004
CPC policy amendment meeting was interesting and I'm glad I went. Cliff Healy through his constituency introduced an amendment that "licencing and registration" be repealed. We have an opportunity to write "rationales" in the next while. Seems to me a different group of people were there than at the previous Reform, CA meetings.

Might write a description of "ground shrink" at length later. A couple impulsive shots saved me taxidermy costs - sorry. The anticipation on the MD was a LOT more than the reality (nice even "cute" 4x4 but only 142 typical score), and then I had at least three almost fish in a barrel opportunities to take real respectable ones. Got a small WT - that worked out as I planned (waited on a trail and made a long shot) except for size. No regrets on that but I did see the same deer I caught in the lights right in the middle of the field at 9:30 a week ago last Sunday. Lots of road hunting near there. I may have mentioned I bought another truck and then bought a small picker arm at the last Lindstrand auction. Arm works great for loading and dressing deer and avoids a lot of strain.

My brother spent a lot of time in the blind we'd set up. Last Friday I saw a real nice and brainless MD near there right at dark so suggested he be there early Saturday morning. I spotted nine deer around the blind from a hill over 1/2 mile away in the morning - too far to tell except for one with big body size. As my brother was heading out he found a frozen water line so spent his time on that. He went out fairly early in the afternoon. Saw moose, a coyote, and deer come out of the bush below him. Then a hunter, a bit out of the "hunting zone". If I spent more time hunting deer closer to where I live and less time playing "cops and robbers" I'd have more deer hunting success. I see the really nice ones around here.

Anyway, hunting season is over and I can move on to other things. Like taking advantage of this great weather to do a few outside things before the forecast cold snap hits this weekend. (There's been a forecast cold snap a week ahead for the last month but sometime it is actually going to happen.)" The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

Louis D. Brandeis

End of quote.

I can only imagine that God encountered a major crisis. On December 23rd, 2004 he needed help and he needed it now. He needed a scholar, a gentleman, a strategist, and a man of integrity to lead his troops. He needed Dale Blue.

When next I observe a shooting star cruising through the night sky I will think of Dale astride that star. He'll be grinning ear to ear, gun slung over one shoulder, fishing rod over the other. No politician and no stag will rest easy.

Happy hunting, Dale!
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