Canadian Forces base
A Canadian Forces Base or CFB is a military installation of the Canadian Armed Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces base, it must station one or more major units. Minor installations are named Canadian Forces Station or CFS. A Canadian Forces station could host a single minor unit. Many of these facilities are now decommissioned for administrative purposes and function as detachments of a larger Canadian Forces base nearby. Note: Primary lodger units at Canadian Forces Bases used by the Canadian Army are regiments of the Canadian Army. Alberta: CFB Edmonton CFB Suffield CFB WainwrightManitoba: CFB ShiloNew Brunswick: CFB GagetownOntario: CFB Kingston CFB Borden CFB PetawawaQuebec: CFB Montreal CFB Valcartier Note: Primary lodger units at Canadian Forces Bases used by the Royal Canadian Navy are individual commissioned ships of the RCN. CFB Esquimalt, British Columbia CFB Halifax, Nova Scotia CFS St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador Note: Primary lodger units at Canadian Forces Bases used by the Royal Canadian Air Force are wings of the RCAF.
Alberta: CFB Cold LakeBritish Columbia: CFB ComoxManitoba: CFB Winnipeg Newfoundland and Labrador: CFB Gander CFB Goose BayNova Scotia: CFB GreenwoodOntario: CFB Kingston CFB Borden CFB North Bay CFB Trenton Quebec: CFB BagotvilleSaskatchewan: CFB Moose JawThe RCAF supplies aircraft to Canadian Joint Operations Command, which operate from a chain of forward operating locations at various civilian airfields across northern Canada, capable of supporting RCAF operations. CF-18 Hornets, CP-140 Auroras and various transport and search and rescue aircraft periodically deploy to these FOLs for short training exercises, Arctic sovereignty patrols, aid to the civil power, or search and rescue operations. Department of National Defence Headquarters, Ontario NDHQ Carling, Ontario CFS Leitrim, Ontario CFS Alert, Nunavut Connaught Range and Primary Training Centre, Ontario CFNA HQ Whitehorse, Yukon CFNA HQ Yellowknife, Northwest Territories Alberta: CFB Calgary (portion of property hosts 41 Canadian Brigade Group Headquarters, 41 Combat Engineer Regiment and 41 Service Battalion.
CFB PenholdBritish Columbia: CFB Chilliwack, Manitoba: CFB Winnipeg CFB Portage La Prairie CFB RiversNew Brunswick: CFB Chatham CFB Moncton Nova Scotia: CFB Cornwallis CFB ShearwaterOntario: CFB Clinton CFB Centralia CFB Downsview CFB London CFB Picton CFB Rockcliffe CFB UplandsPrince Edward Island CFB SummersideQuebec: CFB St. Hubert CFB St. Jean Other: CFB Baden-Soellingen, Germany CFB Lahr, Germany Alberta: CFS BeaverlodgeBritish Columbia: CFS Aldergrove CFS Baldy Hughes CFS Holberg CFS Kamloops CFS Ladner CFS Masset Manitoba: CFS Beausejour CFS Churchill CFS Flin Flon CFS GypsumvilleNew Brunswick: CFS Coverdale CFS Renous CFS St. MargaretsNova Scotia: CFS Barrington CFS Debert CFS Mill Cove CFS Newport Corner CFS Shelburne CFS SydneyNewfoundland and Labrador: CFS Gander CFS Goose Bay Northwest Territories: CFS InuvikNunavut: CFS Frobisher BayOntario: CFS Armstrong CFS Carp CFS Cobourg CFS Falconbridge CFS Foymount CFS Gloucester CFS Lowther CFS Moosonee CFS Ramore CFS Sioux LookoutQuebec: CFS Chibougamau CFS Moisie CFS Mont Apica CFS Lac St. Denis CFS Senneterre RCAF Station ParentSaskatchewan: CFS Alsask CFS Dana CFS YorktonYukon: CFS WhitehorseOther: CFS Bermuda, BermudaThe Canadian Forces were reduced during the 1990s from a high of 90,000 personnel in the late 1980s to the present force levels.
Coinciding with personnel and equipment reductions was the politically controversial decision to close a number of bases and stations which were obsolete or created duplication. A small number of these "closed" facilities have continued operating as before. For example, the CF Leadership and Recruit School at St. Jean, Quebec, is now a lodger unit of CFB Montreal, the former CFS Masset is a detachment of CFS Leitrim. Other facilities are now used as training grounds for reserve/militia units. List of Royal Canadian Air Force stations List of Royal Canadian Navy stations
Royal Canadian Artillery Museum
The Royal Canadian Artillery Museum, Canada’s National Artillery Museum, is a museum dedicated to telling the complete story of the more than 200,000 Canadian Gunners who have served Canada in war and peace since 1855. The museum is Canada’s National Artillery Museum, a Manitoba Star Attraction and one of the largest military museums in Canada; the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery has been a part of the fabric of Canadian history since the earliest days of our nation. In 1962, the RCA Museum was established at Canadian Forces Base Shilo in order to preserve and interpret this proud heritage for future generations; the exhibition facility is 24,000 square feet, including more than 12,000 square feet of indoor exhibits encompassing five major galleries, with numerous interactive exhibits and videos. The National Artillery Gallery is the largest exhibit and features 28 artillery pieces and vehicles telling the story of the Canadian Gunner. Canadian military history is on display in the Canadian Forces Heritage Gallery.
The Weapons Vault right next door displays 100 pistols and rifles. The Glorious and Free gallery tells the story of Manitoba’s 12,000 years of military history; the Manitoba Hall of Honour pays tribute to the thirteen Manitobans who have received the Victoria Cross as well as honouring those Manitobans who have sacrificed their lives for Canada. The RCA Museum features an outdoor "Gun Park" with more than thirty artillery pieces and vehicles, it runs two temporary exhibits each year in the Gregg Gallery to ensure that there is always something new for returning visitors. Ample bus parking is available and there is a picnic area on-site. It’s air-conditioned and accessible for persons with disabilities. Guests are welcome to take pictures and guided tours can be booked in advance; the museum is located on Canadian Forces Base Shilo only 27 km east of Brandon, south of the Trans-Canada Highway
Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway is a transcontinental federal-provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada from the Pacific Ocean on the west to the Atlantic on the east. The main route spans 7,821 km across the country, one of the longest routes of its type in the world; the highway system is recognizable by its distinctive white-on-green maple leaf route markers, although there are small variations in the markers in some provinces. Throughout much of Canada, there are at least two routes designated as part of the Trans-Canada Highway. For example, in the western provinces, both the main Trans-Canada route and the Yellowhead Highway are part of the Trans-Canada system. Although the TCH, being a transcontinental route, does not enter any of Canada's three northern territories or run to the Canada–US border, the Trans-Canada Highway forms part of Canada's overall National Highway System, providing connections to the Northwest Territories and the border, although the NHS is unsigned.
Canada's national highway system is not under federal jurisdiction, as decisions about highway and freeway construction are under the jurisdiction of the individual provinces. Route numbering on the Trans-Canada Highway is handled by the provinces; the Western provinces have coordinated their highway numbers so that the main Trans-Canada route is designated Highway 1 and the Yellowhead route is designated Highway 16 throughout. East of Manitoba the highway numbers change at each provincial boundary, or within a province as the TCH piggybacks along separate provincial highways en route. In addition and Quebec use standard provincial highway shields to number the highway within their boundaries, but post numberless Trans-Canada Highway shields alongside them to identify it; as the Trans-Canada route was composed of sections from pre-existing provincial highways, it is unlikely that the Trans-Canada Highway will have a uniform designation across the whole country. The Trans-Canada Highway, uniformly designated as Highway 1 in the four western provinces, begins in Victoria, British Columbia at the intersection of Douglas Street and Dallas Road and passes northward along the east coast of Vancouver Island for 99 km to Nanaimo.
Short freeway segments of the TCH can be found near Victoria and Nanaimo, but the rest of the highway on Vancouver Island operates as a signalized low-to-limited-mobility arterial road that uniquely does not bypass any of its areas of urban sprawl Nanaimo and Duncan. The section of Highway 1 that crosses the Malahat northwest of Victoria has no stoplights yet, but is pinched by rugged terrain that prevents comprehensive widening to four lanes and sometimes forces closure for hours at a time after a traffic accident; the Departure Bay ferry is the only marine link on the Trans-Canada system that has no freeway or other high mobility highway access, instead routing TCH traffic through downtown Nanaimo streets to reach the ferry to Vancouver. The Vancouver Island TCH is one of four parts of the Trans-Canada system in which the highway runs north-south, the others being Highway 1 from Hope to Cache Creek, Ontario Highway 17 from White River to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario Highways 69 and 400 from Sudbury to Waubaushene, Autoroute 85/Route 185 from Autoroute 20 in Quebec to the New Brunswick border.
The Trans-Canada is otherwise designated as east-west from Nanaimo to St. John's. From Departure Bay, a 57 km ferry route connects the highway to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver. At this point, the Trans-Canada Highway becomes a high mobility freeway and passes through the Vancouver metropolitan area, crossing the Fraser River with the Port Mann Bridge, electronically tolled between December 8, 2012 and September 1, 2017. From the Port Mann Bridge, the TCH heads east through the Fraser Valley to Hope covering a total distance of 170 km from the Horseshoe Bay ferry. At Hope, the TCH exits the freeway and turns north for 186 km through the Fraser Canyon toward Cache Creek as a high mobility highway with only occasional mandatory stops east for 79 km where it re-enters a short freeway alignment through Kamloops. From there, it continues east as a two-lane expressway through Salmon Arm, Revelstoke, Rogers Pass and Kicking Horse Pass, to Field, British Columbia while passing by Yoho National Park.
Using the South Fraser Perimeter Road from Surrey to Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal, Vancouver Island or interior-bound traffic can bypass the busiest sections of Highway 1 in Metro Vancouver and the Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay Ferry. Victoria-bound traffic can use the same highway as a shortcut that bypasses the entire circuitous Vancouver Island route of the Trans-Canada with its numerous traffic lights and bottlenecks. Speed limits on the British Columbia mainland segment of the Trans-Canada range from 80 to 110 km/h. A combination of difficult terrain and growing urbanization limits posted speeds on the Vancouver Island section to 50 km/h in urban areas, 80 km/h across the Malahat and through suburban areas, a maximum of 90 km/h in rural areas. From Field, British Columbia, the highway continues 206 km east as Alberta Highway 1 to Lake Louise, Banff and Calgary where it becomes known as 16 Avenue N an expressway and a busy street with many signalized intersections; the northwest and northeast segments of
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King commonly known as Mackenzie King, was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth prime minister of Canada in 1921–1926, 1926–1930 and 1935–1948, he is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Second World War when he mobilized Canadian money and volunteers to support Britain while boosting the economy and maintaining morale on the home front. A Liberal with 21 years and 154 days in office, he was the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history. Trained in law and social work, he was keenly interested in the human condition, played a major role in laying the foundations of the Canadian welfare state. King acceded to the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1919. Taking the helm of a party bitterly torn apart during the First World War, he reconciled factions, unifying the Liberal Party and leading it to victory in the 1921 election, his party was out of office during the harshest days of the Great Depression in Canada, 1930–35.
He handled complex relations with the Prairie Provinces, while his top aides Ernest Lapointe and Louis St. Laurent skillfully met the demands of French Canadians. During the Second World War, he avoided the battles over conscription and ethnicity that had divided Canada so in the First World War. Though few major policy innovations took place during his premiership, he was able to synthesize and pass a number of measures that had reached a level of broad national support. Scholars attribute King's long tenure as party leader to his wide range of skills that were appropriate to Canada's needs, he understood the workings of labour. Keenly sensitive to the nuances of public policy, he was a workaholic with a shrewd and penetrating intelligence and a profound understanding of the complexities of Canadian society. A modernizing technocrat who regarded managerial mediation as essential to an industrial society, he wanted his Liberal Party to represent liberal corporatism to create social harmony. King worked to bring compromise and harmony to many competing and feuding elements, using politics and government action as his instrument.
He led his party for 29 years, established Canada's international reputation as a middle power committed to world order. King's biographers agree on the personal characteristics, he lacked the charisma of such contemporaries as Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, or Charles de Gaulle. He lacked a commanding oratorical skill. Cold and tactless in human relations, he had many political allies but few close personal friends, he never lacked a hostess whose charm could substitute for his chill. He kept secret his beliefs in spiritualism and use of mediums to stay in contact with departed associates and with his mother, allowed his intense spirituality to distort his understanding of Adolf Hitler throughout the late 1930s. A survey of scholars in 1997 by Maclean's magazine ranked King first among all Canada's prime ministers, ahead of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier; as historian Jack Granatstein notes, "the scholars expressed little admiration for King the man but offered unbounded admiration for his political skills and attention to Canadian unity."
On the other hand, political scientist Ian Stewart in 2007 found that Liberal activists have but a dim memory of him. King was born in Ontario, to John King and Isabel Grace Mackenzie, his maternal grandfather was William Lyon Mackenzie, first mayor of Toronto and leader of the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837. His father was a lawyer, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. King had three siblings, he attended Berlin High School. Tutors were hired to teach him more politics, math and French, his father was a lawyer with a struggling practice in a small city, never enjoyed financial security. His parents lived a life of shabby gentility, employing servants and tutors they could scarcely afford, although their financial situation improved somewhat following a move to Toronto around 1890, where King lived with them for several years in a duplex located on Beverley Street while studying at the University of Toronto. King became a lifelong practising Presbyterian with a dedication to applying Christian virtues to social issues in the style of the Social Gospel.
He never favoured socialism. King earned five university degrees, he obtained three degrees from the University of Toronto: B. A. 1895, LL. B. 1896 and M. A. 1897. B. in 1896 from Osgoode Hall Law School. While studying in Toronto he met a wide circle of friends, he was an early member and officer of the Kappa Alpha Society, which included a number of these individuals. It encouraged debate on political ideas, he met Arthur Meighen, a future political rival. King was concerned with issues of social welfare and was influenced by the settlement house movement pioneered by Toynbee Hall in London, England, he played a central role in fomenting a students' strike at the university in 1895. He was in close touch, behind the scenes, with Vice-Chancellor William Mulock, for whom the strike provided a chance to embarrass his rivals Chancellor Edward Blake and President Jam
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the federal and national police force of Canada. The RCMP provides law enforcement at the federal level, it provides provincial policing in eight of Canada's provinces and local policing on contract basis in the three territories and more than 150 municipalities, 600 aboriginal communities, three international airports. The RCMP does not provide municipal policing in Ontario or Quebec; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was formed in 1920 by the merger of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, founded in 1873, the Dominion Police founded in 1868. The former was named the North West Mounted Police, 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, mythos as a frontier force; the RCMP-GRC wording is protected under the Trade-marks Act. Despite the name, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is no longer an actual mounted police force, with horses only being used at ceremonial events.
The predecessor NWMP and RNWMP had relied on horses for transport for most of their history, though the RNWMP was switching to automobiles at the time of the merger. As Canada's national police force, the RCMP is responsible for enforcing federal laws throughout Canada while general law and order including the enforcement of the criminal code and applicable provincial legislation is constitutionally the responsibility of the provinces and territories. Larger cities may form their own municipal police departments; the two most populous provinces and Quebec, maintain provincial forces: the Ontario Provincial Police and Sûreté du Québec. The other eight provinces contract policing responsibilities to the RCMP; the RCMP provides front-line policing in those provinces under the direction of the provincial governments. When Newfoundland joined the confederation in 1949, the RCMP entered the province and absorbed the Newfoundland Ranger Force, which patrolled most of Newfoundland's rural areas; the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary patrols urban areas of the province.
In the territories, the RCMP is the sole territorial police force. Many municipalities throughout Canada contract to the RCMP. Thus, the RCMP polices at the federal and municipal level. In several areas of Canada, it is the only police force; the RCMP is responsible for an unusually large breadth of duties. Under their federal mandate, the RCMP police including Ontario and Quebec. Federal operations include: enforcing federal laws including commercial crime, drug trafficking, border integrity, organized crime, other related matters. Under provincial and municipal contracts the RCMP provides front-line policing in all areas outside of Ontario and Quebec that do not have an established local police force. There are detachments located in small villages in the far north, remote First Nations reserves, rural towns, but larger cities such as Surrey, British Columbia. There, support units investigate for their own detachments, smaller municipal police forces. Investigations include major crimes, forensic identification, collision forensics, police dogs, emergency response teams, explosives disposal, undercover operations.
Under its National Police Services branch the RCMP supports all police forces in Canada via the Canadian Police Information Centre, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, Forensic Science and Identification Services, Canadian Firearms Program, the Canadian Police College. The RCMP Security Service was a specialized political intelligence and counterintelligence branch with national security responsibilities, replaced by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in 1984, following revelations of illegal covert operations relating to the Quebec separatist movement. CSIS is its own entity. Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald first began planning a permanent force to patrol the North-West Territories after the Dominion of Canada purchased the territory from the Hudson's Bay Company. Reports from army officers surveying the territory led to the recommendation that a mounted force of between 100 to 150 mounted riflemen could maintain law and order; the Prime Minister first announced the force as the "North West Mounted Rifles".
However, officials in the United States raised concerns that an armed force along the border was a prelude to a military buildup. Macdonald renamed the force the North-West Mounted Police when formed in 1873; the force added "royal" to its name in 1904. It merged with the Dominion Police, the main police force for all points east of Manitoba, in 1920 and was renamed the "Royal Canadian Mounted Police"; the new organization was charged with federal law enforcement in all the provinces and territories, established its modern role as protector of Canadian national security, as well as assuming responsibility for national counterintelligence. As part of its national security and intelligence functions, the
Brandon, Manitoba
Brandon is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River 214 km west of the provincial capital, 120 km east of the Saskatchewan border. Brandon covers an area of 77.41 km2 and has a population of 48,859, while its census metropolitan area has a population of 58,003. It is the primary hub of trade and commerce for the Westman region as well as parts of southeastern Saskatchewan and northern North Dakota, an area with a combined population of over 180,000 people; the City of Brandon was incorporated in 1882, having a history rooted in the Assiniboine River fur trade as well as its role as a major junction on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Known as The Wheat City, Brandon's economy is predominantly associated with agriculture. Brandon is an important part of the higher education network in Manitoba, with several notable facilities located in the city including Brandon University, Assiniboine Community College, the Manitoba Emergency Services College.
Canadian Forces Base Shilo maintains close ties with the city. Brandon's Keystone Centre, one of the largest consolidated entertainment, recreation and agriculture complexes in Canada, is the home of the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair. Prior to the influx of people from Eastern Canada, the area around Brandon was used by the Sioux people, the Bungays, the Yellow Quills, the Bird Tails. In the 1870s and early 1880s, the Plains Bison were nearly wiped out by over-hunting. With the destruction of their staff of life, the buffalo, the nomadic Sioux people began to agree to settle in reservations such as the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, or left the area entirely. French Canadians passed through the area on river boats on their way to the Hudson Bay Post, Fort Ellice located near present-day St. Lazare, Manitoba; the city of Brandon gets its name from the Blue Hills south of the city, which got their name from a Hudson's Bay trading post known as Brandon House, which got its name from a hill on an island in James Bay where Captain James had anchored his ship in 1631.
During the 1870s it was believed by most that the transcontinental railway would take a northwesterly direction from Portage la Prairie. Many thought that the route would most go through either Minnedosa or Rapid City, Manitoba because they were both located at natural river crossings. Rapid City was the front runner for the site of the new railway and had prepared for the impending building boom accordingly, but in 1881, the builders of the railway decided to take a more westerly route from Winnipeg, towards Grand Valley. Grand Valley was located on the northern side of the Assiniboine, opposite the side of the river where present-day Brandon sits. Grand Valley was settled by two brothers John and Dougal McVicar, their families. With the expectation of the new railroad and prospectors now rushed to an area they had avoided. Around 1879 a few settlers led by Reverend George Roddick had begun to build their new homes about 10 miles south of Grand Valley, at the foot of the Brandon Hills. Meanwhile, in Grand Valley with the promise of the railway, the town began to boom.
Regular voyages were made by steam sternwheelers to the city, each bringing more settlers. In the spring of 1881, General Thomas L. Rosser, Chief Engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in Grand Valley, it was Rosser's job to choose the townsites for the railway. Rosser approached Dougald McVicar of Grand Valley and offered him $25,000 for the railway in Grand Valley. McVicar countered with $50,000 to which Rosser replied that "I'll be damned if a town of any kind is built here". So instead Rosser crossed the Assiniboine river and built the site of the railway on the high sandy south of the River, two miles west of Grand Valley. So the site was moved to a site just west of today's current First Street bridge in Brandon. A shanty had been built there by a man named J. D. Adamson, it was on this quarter section Adamson claimed that Rosser chose as the townsite for the CPR Railway and named Brandon. After the location of the railway was once again changed, there was still hope that Grand Valley could become a rival neighbour to Brandon.
But late in June 1881 it became clear. A flood hit in late June, as the city was built on a low-lying part of the river and dramatically; because Grand Valley was built on a low flood plain, Brandon was built on the heights on the other side, it became apparent that Brandon was the best place for a city in the area. Rosser had chosen Brandon as the townsite in May 1881, within a year settlers had flocked to Brandon in such numbers that it was incorporated as a city. Brandon never has only existed as a city. An Internment camp was set up at the Exhibition Building in Brandon from September 1914 to July 1916. Post World War II, Brandon experience a minor disaster when an explosion at the Manitoba Power Commission's steam plant caused the 40 metre brick chimney to collapse, killing two workers in the process. In contemporary times, Brandon City Council elected its first female mayor when Shari Decter Hirst defeated incumbent Dave Burgess in the 2010 municipal election. Brandon is located on the banks of the Assiniboine river.
It resides in the aspen parkland ecoregion of the prairies. The terrain is flat and rolling surrounding Brand
