Regina - September 8 - 10

Regina is the home of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Depot.  This is where all of the young women and young men that hope to be a member of the RCMP must spend 6 months in training.  We found out that the RCMP is more like our Federal Marshalls.  They live on the campus and train daily.  Kind of like going to a military academy.  We were lucky enough to get a guided tour from a former officer who gave us his firsthand knowledge of what happens in those six months.  It’s a huge campus – almost like a small city – totally self-sufficient.  We were not allowed in any of the buildings, except the chapel which is lovely.  The stained glass windows have all been donated by family members of officers lost in the line of duty.  We were asked not to take close up photographs of any of the cadets during the parade or when we saw them walking around on the grounds – for security purposes.  After watching them on parade – something they do every day we had a tour of the grounds which include several driving courses where they spend 65 hours of training, a huge indoor shooting range, lots of classrooms for training and a cemetery for fallen officers.  They train approximately 750 cadets in each training session and they have several going at one time.  Really impressive. 

Grounds of the RCMP Depot

Plane on the grounds.  When we asked how it got up there - our guide told us now one knows.

 Chapel

 On parade.  When a group of new cadets arrives they are asked who plays a musical instrument and if not enough people respond cadets are "volunteered" and they learn to play while in training.  Their music told us that this group had more than a few "volunteers"

 Their uniforms are different showing where they are in their training.

 Stained glass in chapel

 Mountie in his red serge on his black horse in the museum.  All of the horses have to be black and are trained in Ottawa.  Their riders have to have been an officer for a minimum of 3 years before they can be considered for the riding positions - that are only used for parades and formal occasions.

 This is what the old dorms used to look like.  Notice the board between the two beds - this was called a snore guard.  The cadets now each have a room, but with no door only a curtain for privacy.  Men and women are in the same dorms - but will be dismissed if any hanky panky goes on.

I had read in one of the many tourist brochures about a needle artist named Monika Kinner-Whalen from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan who does needle painting.  In fact one of her pieces was on the cover of the paper.  I found that she had work on display at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and of course I wanted to see her work in person.  Off we went to the gallery- only to find that she didn’t have anything on display in the “gallery”, but in the gift shop.  Only two pieces which were gorgeous and expensive – one was $850 and the other $475.  Needless to say – I bought a card instead and I kept the brochure.  For my stitching friends her web site is MySweetPrairie.ca