Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; French: Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC), literally 'Royal Gendarmerie of Canada'; colloquially known as the Mounties, and internally as 'the Force') is both a federal and a national police force of Canada. The RCMP provides law enforcement at a federal level in Canada, and also on a contract basis to the three territories, eight of Canada's provinces (the RCMP does not provide provincial or municipal policing in either Ontario or Quebec), more than 190 municipalities, 184 aboriginal communities, and three international airports.

Overview

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was formed in 1920 by the merger of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP, founded in 1873) with the Dominion Police (founded 1868). The former was originally named the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), and was given the Royal prefix by King Edward VII in 1904. Much of the present day organization's symbolism has been inherited from its days as the NWMP and RNWMP, including the distinctive Red Serge uniform, paramilitary heritage, and mythos as a frontier force. The RCMP/GRC wording is specifically protected under the Trade-marks Act.

R.C.M.P. (TV series)

R.C.M.P. was a Canadian television drama series about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The series ran a single season (1959–60), consisting of 39 weekly half-hour episodes. It starred French-Canadian actor Gilles Pelletier as Corporal Jacques Gagnier and English-Canadian actor Don Francks as Constable Bill Mitchell.

The series was created by Canadian film-maker Frank "Budge" Crawley in collaboration with Crawley Films, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC in the United Kingdom and Australian Broadcasting Commission.

Unapologetically cold, grainy, and raw, the show was very realistic and stood up well against other crime dramas on TV of the day. Crawley created the series in an attempt to fulfill his dream of sharing "the Canadian way" with the rest of the world. While not a fan of American-style cinema, Crawley wished R.C.M.P. to sign with a U.S. television network. American networks at that time demanded full control over any shows they broadcast and R.C.M.P. ended up with only a paltry take in American syndication.