The Royal Canadian Mounted Police - A Century of History 1873-1973

On May 3, 1873, Sir John A Macdonald, then prime minister of Canada, introduced a bill to the House of Commons to establish a Police Force in the North West Territories. The hastily assembled body of men, less than 300 inexperienced and ill equipped recruits, that was eventually sent to establish law and order in the turbulent northwest bears little outward resemblance to its modern-day successor, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 100 years of dramatic growth have taken the celebrated Scarlet Force from confrontations with whisky traders on the prairies to regulation of the Yukon gold rush and navigation of the North-West Passage, from the signing of Indian treaties and the Riel Rebellion to the investigation of organized crime and espionage...