Here we are in 1973, marking the Centenary of the founding of the North-West Mounted Police / Royal Canadian Mounted Police, on May 23, 1873.
There had been many changes in that time, and one of the largest had come just one year after our last card had been issued, for in 1928 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had seen themselves come more under the control of the government than ever. However it turned out that this was a good thing, as it freed the supervisors and men to devote more time to the actual policing and less to the paperwork and regulations, which were contracted out to the council.
Many of the incidents of the intervening years are recorded here, though it is not in chronological order. It speaks of their encounters, and often battles, with the Native Americans, plus the Cypress Hills Massacre of 1873 - which was really the catalyst to increase recruitment to the new force - the policing of the goldfields at Klondyke as they expanded and grew more lawless, the "Long March West", the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the introduction of the St. Roch - a vessel that allowed them to patrol into the Arctic - and their gaining even more height than a horse could provide, with the introduction of aircraft and helicopters.
This set was specially produced by O-Pee-Chee to celebrate the centenary, and it was only available in Canada, which has led to its scarcity over here today. If it had been more universally circulated perhaps the text would have had space to expand, as it is restricted by its bi-linguality. Yet, it is a strange set, with many omissions.
It does not mention their reluctance to make the force multi-cultural, until the arrival, in 1969, of officer Hartley Gosline, fulfilling his childhood dream to be a "Mountie", despite many obstacles from other members of the squad and of the general public. He eventually left them in 1978. However, today we recognise his strength and fortitude, and many "Mounties" like him cite him as their role model, for, and thankfully, today we live in more enlightened times.
There is also nothing about the trouble they had with spying from the Soviet Union just after the Second World War - and not even the breaking off of a Special Branch, which that caused, shortly before this set arrived.
No word, either, of Labrador and Newfoundland joining Canada, in 1949.
And no mention of the force becoming part of Interpol in 1953 (though at that time it was called the rather clunkier "International Criminal Police Organization").
Now the cards were distributed in waxed packets of eight cards, plus bubble gum, and they cost ten cents each. Each card has a large head of the Mountie in the corner, whilst in the opposite corner it says "One of a series of 55". They all have yellow borders to the front, and they are a mixture of action cards which tell the story of the force, with a few portraits, all drawn, namely :
- Sitting Bull
- Chief Big Bear and Little Bear
- Commisioner George Arthur French
- Scout Jerry Potts
- William Butler
- Chief Poundmaker
- Crowfoot
- Superintendent Sam Steele
Or that was what I thought when I uploaded this on Wednesday morning......