A handful of Mounties took to horseback and wagons to mark Canada’s 150th birthday with a historic re-enactment ride northeast of Edmonton.
On Friday, clad in modern serge and period uniforms, RCMP members reproduced the last leg of the 1999 re-enactment of the March West: the cross-country journey that first brought the then-North-West Mounted Police to Alberta.
“The re-enactment of the March West is our way of showcasing a pivotal moment in both Canadian and RCMP history,” said Sgt. Jack Poitras, media relations manager with Alberta RCMP.
The original March West took place in the mid-1870s, following a recommendation from Prime Minister Sir John A. McDonald to establish a police force for the Northwest Territories.
RCMP said the aim was to enforce Canadian sovereignty and protect settlers from whisky traders who preyed on vulnerable communities. In late 1873, a troop of 300 men departed Dufferin, Manitoba.
“We were coming out here to deal with the whiskey trade that had dealt all the way up to the Northwest Territories at the time. So the march did split at the time,” Poitras explained.
“One of the crews did come up this way, up to Fort Saskatchewan, while the rest of them went through Fort Whoop-Up at the time, which is now Lethbridge.”
On Friday morning, 10 Mounties on horsebacks and three wagons left Josephburg, following a prayer and smudge ceremony led by Elder Roy Louis. Over the course of five hours, the procession travelled 18 kilometres west to the heritage precinct of Fort Saskatchewan.
“And we weren’t carrying the cannons or the food supplies that they would have had, which would have slowed them down. The other issues that they had back then was the land here wasn’t developed, so the nutrition for horses was very low. Men ended up having to walk long parts of the way to give the horses a break,” Poitras explained.
“A lot of men, by the time they got here, had no soles left on their boots — and there were no stores to pick up supplies, so I can only imagine what that trek would have been like.”
Poitras said the ride is a reminder of how far Canada has come.
“I think is very important to show the history and how the country was developed. It wasn’t just the mounted police that came out that way — all the settlers had to make the same trek, whether it was a family at a time or a couple families together.
“So there was a lot of sacrifices and long journeys made to get here and develop what we now enjoy as Canada.”
Comments