The Wild History Of The Canadian Mounties

Even if you've never set foot in the Great White North, as it's sometimes called, you're sure to have a picture in your head of what makes Canada, well, Canada – vast expanses of pristine wilderness, cool multicultural cities, poutine, maple leaves, and, of course, Mounties in their red jackets and massive Stetson hats. But beyond being iconic representations of Canada, what the heck are the Mounties, anyway, and what do they do all day?

Seeking to defend all Canadians from the 1800s on — the Mounties were originally founded to help protect First Nations people from exploitation and employed their first female special constable in 1900 before welcoming regular policewomen in 1974 — the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigate crimes, do high-level forensics work, and defend Canada's internal security.

The history of these intrepid defenders of Canadian peace and justice is anything but boring — from their wild and wooly origins in the lawless Western territories to their modern pursuit of terrorists, the Mounties surely live up to their motto of "Maintiens le Droit" ("Uphold the Right") every day ... and yes, they almost always get their man!

The relatively unsettled, wild regions of Canada's Northwest were prime territory for scurrilous American hooch bandits in the late 1800s. Driven by heavy taxes on whiskey, many moved their operations north of the border, causing trouble for their law-abiding Canadian neighbors and First Nations people alike, as historian Stephen Moore recounts.

After Canada acquired what was known as Rupert's Land, a massive tract formerly controlled by the Hudson's Bay Trading Company, more settlers moved into what had previously been an area sporadically populated by white fur traders and native communities, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Peaceful coexistence was replaced by a series of increasingly tense and bloody conflicts, often spurred by bootleggers operating within First Nations borders and exploiting the locals, as The British Empire recounts. One of the North-West Mounted Police's initial duties was to track down and stop the whiskey trade in the region.

According to Glass with a Twist, the Mounties' anti-alcohol duties only intensified when US Prohibition sent both average drinkers and bootleggers north of the border to manufacture, sell, transport, and drink up whatever they could. In 1924, at the height of Prohibition in the United States, more than two thirds of the whiskey found in the US was brought over from Canada. As Smithsonian Magazine notes, the alcohol trade at the time was a complex mass of legal, quasi-legal, and totally lawless production, transport, and smuggling — and the Mounties were in charge of sorting out the legit businesspeople from the criminals.

Those signature bright red Mountie coats didn't happen by accident — they're a calculated choice made very early in the Mounties' history.

The color is a targeted nod to Canada's British alliances and the Revolutionary War Redcoats. When the Mounties were policing the North-West Territories (the new name for Rupert's Land), several surveys noted that the locals — including mixed-race populations called metis and First Nations peoples — associated law and order with British soldiers, and British soldiers were associated with red coats and dark trousers, as The Canadian Encyclopedia details. So the red coats and deep navy trousers were quickly adopted as the force's uniform.

Plus, the scarlet shade was a way to mark them apart from US military and police forces, who typically wear navy blue. As Tourism Regina points out, the coats even have their own name: the Red Serge.

While the red jackets have never changed hue, other parts of the uniform have been updated over the past century and a half. The British Empire relates that the original Mountie uniform in the North-West Territories added a brown belt, bandolier, black boots, and white helmet to the red jacket, along with whatever dark trousers the Mountie had available. Today, while the jacket and brown belt remain, the boots are brown and the helmet has been replaced by a matching brown Stetson cowboy hat.

Starting in World War I, the Mounties were responsible for espionage and counter-espionage, as The Canadian Encyclopedia points out. They attempted to maintain peace within Canada while many of its young men were serving on the European battlefront and then went back to shutting down bootleggers upon the end of hostilities. They picked up their spying duties again during World War II, and this time, they continued into the Cold War era.

Things took a turn for the Big Brother in the 1960s, when the Quebecois separatist movement started gaining momentum. Instead of looking for Russian interference in Canadian affairs, as The Canadian Encyclopedia relates, the Mounties were sent on undercover missions to try to shut down domestic unrest. Plus, in parallel to the emergence of McCarthyism and the Communist hunts in the United States, Canada also tried to infiltrate Communist and socialist groups within its borders, sending Mounties undercover for years, as one spy detailed to the CBC in a 1963 interview.

Even today, after the 1984 formation of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, the Mounties still engage in some clandestine operations. The Canadian Intelligence Resource Centre Archives highlights that the RCMP takes the lead in investigating espionage and terrorism within Canada, in addition to providing intelligence gathering and analysis for other law enforcement agencies and operations.

Although the Mounties originally started with whatever horses they could get their hands on, often broncos, they've had specialized breeding programs since 1875, with today's efforts founded in 1943, as International Museum of the Horse details.

Since 1938, all Royal Canadian Mounted Police horses have had to be black, all due to the whim of one guy. Assistant RCMP Commissioner S.T. Wood admired the household guard of King George VI on a trip to England, particularly how nice the bright red jackets looked atop black horses. When he became full commissioner, he decided that every single horse had to be black to make sure that the Mounties were aesthetically worthy of their royal title, according to Horse Canada.

Mountie horses have to meet very strict size and appearance criteria. They're all black, save for the occasional white marking, between 16 and 17.2 hands tall (5'4" to 5'10" at the shoulder), and have a particular flowing gait. The horses are a cross between thoroughbreds and Hanoverians, as Horse Canada points out, and they're all bred on one farm in Pakenham, Ontario.

Horses are so key to the Mounties that they get their own bios on the RCMP website.

The Mounties are so iconic that their likeness is trademarked — and you have to pay a licensing fee to use their image, as The New York Times points out. And according to Tourism Regina, until 2000, those deals were actually negotiated and managed by the Walt Disney Company.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Mounties' headquarters got fed up with inappropriate uses of their likeness in the early 1990s, when it seemed like a flood of weird Mountie homages were cropping up — everyone from pro wrestlers to adult film stars were wearing the Red Serge and Stetson. Conscious of brand opportunities from the very beginning — remember, the red jackets were all down to brand awareness among First Nations people back in the 1800s! — the RCMP wasn't about to allow their brand to get diluted by off-label use.

In came Disney and a multi-year management deal. By 2000, though, the Mounties felt they'd had enough practice to take back control of their image, as the CBC relates. The deal wasn't renewed, and today, the Mounties manage their own marketing, brand, and licensing, giving all the proceeds to community development programs, as Tourism Regina highlights.