# Are the Mounties Still Mounted? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576 "2009-08-25T00:28:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/41 "2009-08-30T04:14:49Z")
> [@mattomic](#): > > Oh, those Canadian troops! In other news, Mounties can wear [turbans](http://www.nriinternet.com/CANADA/POLICE/Manjit_Singh/index.htm) instead of Stetson hats. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/42 "2009-08-30T04:33:45Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > In other news, Mounties can wear [turbans](http://www.nriinternet.com/CANADA/POLICE/Manjit_Singh/index.htm) instead of Stetson hats. The Canadian military is equally tolerant. Given the warrior-culture history of the Sikh, I’ve no objection, though I’ve yet to work with one in my little corner of the Army reserve. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/43 "2009-08-30T15:13:29Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > We learned in History class back in the Good Old Days, that the British parliament did not want to build large strong competition out of the colonies. They therefore produced a list of jurisdictions such as international waterways, defence, criminal code, etc. that were federal and everything else was provincial. [QUOTE=Hypnagogic Jerk] As I understand it, it’s the opposite: there are a list of competences that are provincial, but the rest is federal. [/QUOTE] You both might want to check out [sections 91 and 92](http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/const/3.html#anchorbo-ga:s_91), and other sections in the 90s in the Canadian Constitution–which powers are federal and which are provincial are explicitly spelled out. It’s true that unless a power or responsibility is stated as provincial, it will be federal whether it is stated as such or not; and this has tended to happen when advances in technology etc. mean that both the provinces and the feds lay claim to a responsibility (for example, settling the question of who is responsible for governing aviation and cable TV, neither of which existed in 1867). But given ss. 91 and 92 (and the others), it is obvious that in the 1860s when the document was originally drafted, the drafters tried to specify, then divide up, all the powers they could think of. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/44 "2009-08-30T16:52:10Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > The Canadian military is equally tolerant. Given the warrior-culture history of the Sikh, I’ve no objection, though I’ve yet to work with one in my little corner of the Army reserve. Here’s an [Canadian Air Force officer in a sky-blue turban](http://worldsikhnews.com/20%20August%202008/Tatla%20is%20first%20turbaned%20Sikh%20regular%20officer%20in%20Canadian%20Air%20Force.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/45 "2009-08-31T05:44:44Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > We learned in History class back in the Good Old Days, that the British parliament did not want to build large strong competition out of the colonies. They therefore produced a list of jurisdictions such as international waterways, defence, criminal code, etc. that were federal and everything else was provincial. I think you should ask for a refund. The British North America Act wasn’t drafted by the British - it was drafted by the Fathers of Confederation, at three different conferences - Charlotteown, Quebec, and London. The [Quebec Resolutions](http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/023001-245-e.html), which were drafted without any input from the British, became the basis for the BNA Act, now the _Constitution Act, 1867_. If you compare resolutions 29 and 43 to sections [91](http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/const/3.html#codese:91) and [92](http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/const/3.html#codese:92) of the BNA Act, you’ll see that the basic outline of the division of powers was decided at the Quebec Conference, by the Fathers of Confederation. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/46 "2009-08-31T19:25:09Z")
Does the RCMP still fight mustachioed villains who wear capes and top hats? ---
**Author:** ![Nutster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nutster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutster)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/47 "2009-09-03T14:49:20Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Does the RCMP still fight mustachioed villains who wear capes and top hats? Replace the capes with leather jackets and the top hats with helmets (fashions change, you know?) and we now call them Hell’s Angels. And, yup, the RCMP still go after them for various nefarious deeds. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/48 "2009-09-03T18:18:19Z")
> [@mattomic](#): > > Chiming in to echo what’s already been said - RCMP’s pretty much non-mounted at this point, except for ceremonial duties, but there’s a definite mounted presence in major cities - I’ve seen some fearsome-looking horses in downtown Toronto doing general police work, but you notice them most during events for crowd control - they were out in full force for the recent Tamil protests. > > The mountie talk reminded me of Obama’s recent visit to Ottawa. I thought that the mountie was a fairly universal and well-recognized symbol (thank Disney for that one!) but here’s a nugget from a wrap of the American coverage of the visit: > > Oh, those Canadian troops! Well, strictly speaking, regular members of the RCMP are considered “Class C Reserves,” so they might, in a world of stretching, be considered “troops.” The scarlet jacket by the way, is the direct descendant of the original North-West Mounted Police uniform of 1873, which was basically the then-current British Army mounted infantry getup–including a dear little pillbox cap, since discarded for the more practical and macho wide-brim stetson. The RCMP and its predecessors have acted as active military forces a number of times: in the 1885 North-West Rebellion (oh, sorry, “Resistance”), “B” Squadron of the RNWMP went to Sibera as a mounted troop in 1919, the Canadian 1st Infantry Division used the RCMP as its provost force (military police), and my own father, who joined the RCMP in 1951, received full infantry training with his intake cadre at Camp Borden–small arms, bren, vickers, mortars, the whole bit–as it was intended to send them to Korea as provost for the Canadian contingent there. Never happened, as it turned out. On a side note, my father sometimes pulled duty at Ottawa airport in the early 1950s while a freshly-minted constable; the order of dress at the time was brown serge tunic, peaked hat, baggy riding pants and high brown boots. Several times he was asked by arriving tourists (mostly US folks) where they could see a mountie, and refused to believe he was one, since he was dressed in brown, not red. He did do one hell of a Nelson Eddy impersonation, though. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/49 "2009-09-03T20:02:29Z")
> [@Nutster](#): > > …And, yup, the RCMP still go after them for various nefarious deeds. Do Canadians refer to the RCMP, as an organization, in the plural or the singular? “The RCMP still go” or “The RCMP still goes”? FYI, a brief history: [http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/rcmp/](http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/rcmp/) Its precursor’s first uniform: [http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/hist/hnud-nhut/nwmp-pcno-uni-eng.htm](http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/hist/hnud-nhut/nwmp-pcno-uni-eng.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/50 "2009-09-03T21:31:05Z")
“The RCMP” is always singular, just as “the police” is. Individual officers might be referred to as “the RCMP” as well, as in, “I had my cruise set at 125 and got pulled over, but I said I was late for a funeral and the RCMP let me off with a warning.” It’s more common that individual officers be called Mounties though, singular or plural depending on how many there are. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/51 "2009-09-04T01:58:46Z")
Huh. In the U.S., “the police” is IME always plural, as in “The police are going to close that street tonight.” Contrast with “The policeman is going too fast.” ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/52 "2009-09-08T16:49:14Z")
Yes, but you’d probably refer to a particular department as singular. Compare “the NYPD is closing down the street” with “the RCMP is closing down the street.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/53 "2009-09-08T18:09:13Z")
Yes, but that’s not what **Gorsnak** said. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/54 "2009-09-08T18:51:00Z")
Yeah, I think there might have been some confusion there–police is always plural. The example wasn’t even that good–RCMP could easily have been replaced with either “s/he” or “they.” ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576/55 "2009-09-09T00:24:46Z")
Yeah, I have no idea why I said that. It’s just wrong. 😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-mounties-still-mounted/507576.md?page=2)