Here we have Craig Forrest, playing for Ipswich Town, but he was born in Coquitlam, British Columbia. He was also a late starter, only standing in as a goalkeeper when another player, his friend, could not attend a match at short notice. He enjoyed the action so much that he decided to play on. Despite his age, for he was already twelve when he first met a football on a field of play, he quickly gained spots on the British Columbia under-sixteen and then under-eighteen teams, during which time he was signed by Ipswich Town for their youth team. Actually they did not have a place for him when they signed him, so he was loaned out to Colchester United.
I have not yet found a card of him there, but we would be looking for 1987-1988 as his "rookie" card, and he stayed with Colchester United for two years before he relocated to Ipswich Town. He would then help Ipswich Town to top the Second Division and gain promotion to the Premier League for the 1992-1993 season. The important fact there is that he was the first Canadian to play in the Premier League.
Despite this, he was loaned to Chelsea in 1996-1997, and signed for West Ham United in 1997. And all through his time in England he was also playing for his national team of Canada. Then, in 2001, he was diagnosed with cancer and had no option but to retire and seek treatment. This was successful, but he decided not to return to the field as a player, but to become a commentator instead.
The link to him and our subject for this week was that British Columbia was not actually patrolled by the North West Mounted Police, they had their own force. However it is certain that in pursuit of their quarry a mountie could possibly have gone across into its borders just a little, especially in the early days, or perhaps, even, been called in as back up, to a larger situation than the local police could handle.
As to why the forces were separate, well this was rather a strange situation, as the original act, passed by Parliament on May 23, 1873, allowed for police to roam the North West Territories; but then, as each of the provinces stepped up and tied themselves to Canada, they were made to agree to police their own borders, rather than tying them to the mounted force already in existence.