The North West Mounted Police (renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920) would be the first distinctly Canadian institution. And within three decades of Confederation, the horsemen in their scarlet tunics symbolized Canada both within and outside the country. How did a mounted police force, along with beavers and maple leaves, become one of Canada’s first national symbols? The story of the North West Mounted Police’s first decade was pockmarked with problems, as historians have pointed out. There would be a commentary (often from Richard Dimbleby) that included the information that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had supplied the Queen with her glossy black horse.

Source: National Post October 13, 2016 17:37 UTC