"BEING RESILIENT, BEING RELIABLE, AND BEING RESOURCEFUL:" VOICES OF CITIZEN-SOLDIERS OF THE ALGONQUIN , 1960S TO 1990S

Nicholas G. McGuire

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY

NIPISSING UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES NORTH BAY,

© February 2018

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Abstract

"'Being Resilient, Being Reliable, and Being Resourceful:'1 Voices of Citizen-Soldiers of , 1960s to 1990s" examines the experiences of former members of The Algonquin Regiment, a unit located within the confines of the vast and dispersed region of . Through these recollections, as well as archival documents and unit historical records, this research paper examines the experiences of the Regiment and its members during the Cold period, an era in which the Militia across went into institutional decline in numbers and community presence. It explores the Regiment at the macro, local and individual levels, demonstrating how the unit functioned as a social community of citizen-soldiers shaped by regional and martial identities.

1 (Ret'd) Andrew Aitchison, interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, January 5, 2017.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the professors who helped to shape this project and those who have guided and supported me over my time here at Nipissing University, both as an undergraduate and graduate history student. I would like to thank all the History professors for their feedback and constructive criticism during this sometimes, arduous process. I would like to acknowledge

Dr. Katrina Srigley for her guidance and assistance in the oral history methodology and practices and Dr. Hilary Earl for challenging me and pushing me to think outside the box. I am also grateful for the insights provided by Dr. Robin Gendron as I prepared the MRP for defense. I would especially like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Stephen Connor, mentor and friend whose guidance and passion for history made this MRP possible, and for pushing me to explore my units' history, an area of inquiry that suited me well. Also, I would like to acknowledge the support of my peers, friends, and family. Their support, feedback and encouragement helped me get through this past year and a half.

In particular, I would like to thank Sapper Jacob King, 2 Regiment, and

Bill Alexander for generously donating photos to the project.

I would especially like to say thank you to the participants of the project for generously taking time out of their lives to talk with me about their military service. They gave me invaluable insight into their personal histories, stories and thoughts that became the basis for this paper.

I would like to acknowledge The Algonquin Regiment itself and those who serve in the unit today, as the unit has supported this project from the beginning. In particular, this project could not have gotten off the ground without the help from Tim Feick who assisted me in my recruitment efforts, has always supported the research, and has offered insight and

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feedback. I would also like to thank Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Bryden for his support, encouragement and assistance in conducting archival research in . The unit has certainly faced distinct challenges since its founding. It has evolved and changed with time, but despite these challenges, it still persists to this day. I dedicate this project to all those who served in The

Algonquin Regiment, but especially those Algonquin's who made the ultimate sacrifice for

Canada and her peoples. NE-KAH-NE TAH!

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Table of Contents

Pages

Abstract iii

Acknowledgments iv

Table of Contents vi

List of Figures vii

List of Appendices ix

"That was the nastiest part of my job:"2 The Introduction 1

Historiography 5

Methodology 15

"Truly northern Ontario’s Regiment:" Identity and Community in The Algonquin Regiment 19

"Feast or Famine:"3 The Evolution of The Algonquin Regiment, 1950s to 1990s 40

"I went. I tried it. I liked it. I stayed:"4 Motivation to Serve in The Algonquin Regiment 65

Conclusion 83

Bibliography 115

2 Major (Ret'd) Mid Kitchen, interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, January 11, 2017. 3 Colonel (Ret'd) Paul Scagnetti, interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, March 11th 2017. 4 Andrew Aitchison, interview.

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List of Figures

Pages

Figure 1: History of The Algonquin Regiment and Northern Pioneers 86

Figure 2: The Algonquin Regiment Crest and description, 1930’s-Present 86

Figure 3: Senior officers of the 97th Regiment, Algonquin Rifles, 87 Camp Niagara, 1909

Figure 4: Regimental accouterments of the 97th Regiment of Rifles 88 and Algonquin Rifles

Figure 5: Regimental accoutrements of the 23rd Regiment, Northern Pioneers, 88 1903-1936

Figure 6: Algonquin Regiment personnel with FN Battle Rifle 89 on firing range, circa 1970s

Figure 7: The Algonquin Regiment Colours and Battle Honours 90

Figure 8: 1988 The Nugget article featuring James Savage, 91 CO from 1988-1991

Figure 9: Photo of Mess members, Ted King (2nd from right) 92 and Andrew Aitchison (Far Right), circa 1970s

Figure 10: New Year's Levee, 1967 93

Figure 11: Photo from The for article on New Year's Levee, 93 circa 1970s

Figure 12: The Algonquin Regiment (26th Armoured Regiment) manning Sherman, 94 circa 1954-1965

Figure 13: Algonquin soldiers posing atop a Sherman tank, 94 circa 1954-1965

Figure 14: Cpl Fern Taillefer in Egypt with the Canadian United Nations Egypt Force 2 95 (UNEF 2), October 1977 to April 1978.

Figure 15: Algonquin soldiers on patrol in Grayling Michigan, 95 circa 1970s

Figure 16: The Algonquin Regiment Armour Guidon with Colour Guard, 96 circa 1980's

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Figure 17: The North Bay Nugget article on The Algonquin Regiment concentrated 97 summer training, July 10 1972

Figure 18: Map of Ontario with possible locations for new sub-units, 98 from Unit Expansion Plan for The Algonquin Regiment, North Bay Ontario, 20 June 1987

Figure 19: News article on Algonquin soldiers deployed on peace-support operations, 99 Timmins Daily Press, January 3rd 1994

Figure 20: Erik Growen, The Algonquin Regiment, during military training, 99 circa 1985-1987

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List of Appendices

Pages

Appendix A: Short Interviewee Biographies 100

Appendix B: Information Letter and Consent for Participants 103

Appendix C: Biographical and Military Service Worksheet 107

Appendix D: Basic Interview Questions for former members 110

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Introduction: "That was the nastiest part of my job"5

I had the opportunity to interview Major Mid Kitchen about his experiences of military service and his role as the Deputy Commanding Officer (DCO) of The Algonquin Regiment in the 1960s. Before we talked, Mid Kitchen did not know what he had to offer. He served in The

Algonquin Regiment from 1964 to 1966, "hired for a specific purpose."6 As he described during our discussion, "it was purely an administrative task that I was faced with and I knew it when I came on. Somebody had to do it."7 The administrative task that Mid Kitchen referred to was the downsizing of over half of The Algonquin Regiment in Northern Ontario, which included the forced closure of three companies and various detached spread out among rural locations, and the forced retirement of many long serving soldiers, non-commissioned members and officers. This moment near the end of his military career is where Mid Kitchen played a prominent role in the unit's history.

My Major Research Project examines the experiences of former members of the

Algonquin Regiment, an militia unit dispersed throughout Northern Ontario.8 The

Algonquin Regiment's long history traces back to 1900 when, as the 97th Regiment of Rifles, it boasted companies in Sault-Ste-Marie, Sudbury, Thessalon, and Sturgeon Falls. Since then, while passing through several iterations, the unit maintained a presence in the north and contributed soldiers to every Canadian military conflict from the Great War to Afghanistan

5 Mid Kitchen, interview. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 The term Militia and Reserve is used interchangeably. The term 'militia' is a historic name was slowly replaced by the term 'Reserves' starting in the 1980s and it is officially known today as 'The Primary Army Reserves of the .'

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(Figure 1).9 Outside of its military function, Anglo-Canadian sociologist T.C. Willett defined the militia as a hybrid, an institution that has "both military and civilian ideologies and processes," and "the link between the regular Army and the civilian world."10 In small and dispersed northern towns like Haileybury, Kirkland Lake, Timmins and Kapuskasing, The Algonquin

Regiment, composed of part-time citizen-soldiers, linked the civilian community with the Army, simultaneously maintaining military, civic and social functions.11 As Mid Kitchen tells us, "all these towns which had these small units in them, were small towns, but they were well aware that they had a militia unit in it and many of their citizens participated."12

Memories of former members of the unit reveal the contours of such connections and reveal a trajectory of decline or 'slow bleed' throughout the . Reaching an apex following the Second World War, as memory of the conflict remained fresh and many war veterans continued as active members, within twenty years militia-community linkages began to loosen.13 Indeed, during the 1960s, across Canada, the militia fell into sharp decline due to the cumulative demoralizing effects of budget cuts, the unification of the military into the Canadian

9 The official linage of the Regiment begins with the founding of the 97th Regiment of Rifles, on 1 July 1900 through the amalgamation of the independent volunteer Companies in Sault Ste. Marie, Thessalon, Sturgeon Falls, and Sudbury, with last three companies present in the Quarterly Militia List corrected to 1st July 1900, Department of Militia and Defence, The Militia List (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1 July 1900). Re-designated as 97th Regiment, Algonquin Rifles on 1st June 1903, The Algonquin Rifles on 1 May 1920, and finally The Algonquin Regiment in February 1929. The Algonquin Regiment, The Algonquin Regiment: 115 Years of Service, 2015. G.L. Cassidy, Warpath: The Story of the Algonquin Regiment, 1939-1945, 2nd Ed. (Cobalt: Algonquin Regiment Association, 1990), 1-4, and Directorate of History and Heritage, Official Lineages, Volume 3, Part 2: Infantry , The Algonquin Regiment, http://www.cmp- cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-3/par2/ar-eng.asp 10 Terrence Willett, A Heritage at Risk: The as a Social Institution (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1987), 3, 11-12, 100. 11 Ibid. 12 Mid Kitchen, interview. 13 Ibid., Lorne G. Del Villano, interview with Martin Roznowski, March 5th 2011.

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Forces, and the new emphasis on civil defence rather than combat training.14 Over the course of the next thirty years, these factors, common nation-wide, slowly bled The Algonquin's of both personnel and community prominence.

Mid Kitchen had a difficult role to play in this episode, and his testimony speaks to the emotional impact of this event on him, his fellow soldiers and the community at large.

Reminiscing on his role in the reduction of the unit―travelling to these smaller formations in rural towns, informing officers and men they were forced to retire, signing papers to close down the sub-units―Mid Kitchen expressed sorrow: "That was the nastiest part of my job [...] somebody had to do what I was tasked with, and [it] certainly was not a pleasant activity."15 His last act in the Canadian Forces was to sign his own transfer to the Supplementary Reserve list in

1966, effectively ending his military career which started in 1943.

My Major Research Project begins at the end of Major Mid Kitchen's career. His reflections add a personal voice to a murky period of the Regiment's past. Based largely on the recollections of former members, my MRP analyzes the ways in which The Algonquin Regiment functioned as a civic and social community in the specific context of Northern Ontario. In short, my case study, relying primarily on interviews with former members and oral history methodology considers the evolving nature of citizen-soldier service and place in the community. To consider these questions, this MRP argues that The Algonquin Regiment changed over time at three distinct yet interconnected levels: the macro level―between the

14 Tamara Sherwin, "From Total War to Total Force: Civil-Military Relations and the Canadian Army Reserve (Militia)" (MA thesis, University of New Brunswick, 1997), 4. See, George Mackenzie Urquhart, "The Changing Role of the Canadian Militia, 1945-1975," (MA thesis, University of Victoria, 1977) and Jack L. Granatstein, Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace (: University Press, 2002). 15 Mid Kitchen, interview.

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interplay of national policies and the Regiment―at the local level where communal identity and social relationships were forged, and at the individual level.

The primary source base for this study are oral history interviews with former members of the Regiment who served from the 1950s up until the early twenty-first century. Some of these were conducted in person, while others were conducted over Skype or phone. Archival sources were also utilized for this paper, including unit historical reports, Canadian Militia Lists and

Canadian military documents from the Directorate of History and Heritage in Ottawa. Secondary sources focused on the Cold War Canadian Army and the twentieth century Militia as a military and social institution within Canada.

At the core of my MRP are four key questions: What were the experiences of The

Algonquin Regiment in North Bay and Timmins in the context of the Cold War? How, in an era of decline, did the Regiment operate, define itself and present itself? How was The Algonquin

Regiment shaped by the specific context of North Bay and Timmins? What were the civic and social roles of the regiment as defined and lived at the local levels?

Chapter one explores the communal identity of The Algonquin Regiment and how it was shaped by its Northern Ontario contexts and martial identities from its inception to the post-war period. Chapter two analyzes the evolution of the Regiment during the Cold War period, how the

Regiment was shaped by national defence policies, and the experiences of the unit into the post-

Cold War period. The final chapter analyzes the subjective motivations in serving during 'the long peace of the Cold War,' how the participants expressed their reasons in joining the Militia and, ultimately, why the participants left the unit.

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Historiography

My project on the Cold War Algonquin Regiment and the experiences of its soldiers sits at the most recent developments of military history. The MRP is not a study of battles or campaigns, but about a military institution and its soldiers in Canadian society in peacetime. This study on a single militia unit within the regional context of Northern Ontario will contribute to the meagre literature on the Cold War Canadian militia as well as engage with two important debates in Canadian military history, the decline of Canadian army within Canada and the warrior nation debate. This project is also informed by the scholarship on the citizen-soldier tradition in Canada.

My MRP is situated within wider historiographic discussion of the place of the Army within broader Canadian society and its apparent decline after the . In the literature, the golden age of Canada's army (1940-1953) was followed by a long, slow decline that accumulated in the 1993 Somalia affair. 16 The ensuing political and military crisis resulted in a low reputation of the military in Canada and created tough questions for the public, the military and Canadian military historians. As Peter Kasurak writes, "clearly, something had gone badly wrong, but what?"17 In , historians placed blame for the decline largely on the 1968

Unification and continuous apathy of governments towards defence, which cumulatively impacted the morale and effectiveness of the institution as a whole.

16 John A. English, Lament for an Army: The Decline of Canadian Military Professionalism (Toronto: Irwin, 1998), 50. Jack Granatstein, Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace; Peter Kasurak, "Concept of Professionalism in the Canadian Army, 1946-2000: Regimentalism, Reaction and Reform," in Armed Forces & Society 37(1) (2011), 95-118; Kasurak, A National Force: The Evolution of Canada's Army, 1950-2000 (: UBC Press, 2013); Bill Bentley and Bernd Horn, Forced to Change: Crisis and Reform in the (Toronto: Dundurn, 2015). 17 Peter Kasurak, A National Force, 2.

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This interpretation of the decline caused by the federal government was reflected by scholars in the late 1990s, including David Bercusson's analysis of the Somalia Affair, John A.

English's 1998 Lament of the Army, and Jack Granatstein's 2002 survey Canada's Army: Waging

War and Keeping the Peace, in which the latter described the army's decline as "Professionalism under Siege," which is reflective of this cause of decline.18 However, recent works by Peter

Kasurak depart from this interpretation arguing that "the army shirked" its responsibility by

"pursuing unreasonable plans and became increasingly insular."19 In this revisionist approach, the Army's own cultural structures and relationship with civilian leadership ultimately led to a decline in military professionalism, deterioration in relations with the government and regression in mainstream Canadian society.

While providing important insights at the institutional level of Canada's professional

(Regular) Army, less attention has been paid to the militia (Reserves) with the experiences of its membership ignored almost entirely. Granatstein notes that by the mid 1960s, the militia were becoming "increasingly irrelevant in an era when forces in being [full time professionals] were all that mattered to the army leadership."20 Kasurak shares similar sentiment in writing, "the basic structural weaknesses [of the militia] had been recognized in the 1950s," however, these problems were "never dealt with."21 Most of this discussion centers on the deficiencies of the militia, "of its poor state of readiness and training," and how the relationship with the became "vitriolic" by the end of the twentieth century.22 Most of the discussion on the

Canadian militia has either been on the militia's/reserve's military deficiencies or the ongoing

18 David Bercusson, Significant Incident: Canada's Army, the Airborne, and the Murder in Somalia (Toronto: McClelland and Steward, 1996), 241-242; Granatstein, Canada's Army, 359. 19 Kasurak, A National Force, 8. 20 Granatstein, Canada's Army, 350. 21 Peter Kasurak, A National Force, 288, 12. 22 Ibid., 5.

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discussion of determining the militia's/reserve's suitable military role in Canada's defence apparatus.23

One of the only serious scholarly works focused on the militia and its social role is T.C.

Willet's A Heritage at Risk: The Canadian Militia as a Social Institution published in 1987.

Willett lamented the militia's decline as a prominent feature of civic and social life and described the "unpalatable truth" that the militia was no longer a valued institution and had faded into the background.24 As Kurt Grant summed up, the "thirty-year period leading up to the end of the

1980s constituted some of the most troubling times in Canadian militia history, and it was a time during which the [militia] service only very narrowly escaped extinction."25 Clearly, theme of decline runs through the literature on both the regular Army and the militia throughout the Cold

War.

My MRP complicates Willett's analysis arguing that even as both the ideal and broad appeal of military service markedly declined, the citizen-soldier practice never died out as

Canadians continued to enlist on a part-time basis maintaining the dual role of citizen and soldier, forging national and regional identities.26 To that end, my study engages the voices of

23 See George Mackenzie Urquhart, "The Changing Role of the Canadian Militia, 1945-1975," (MA thesis, University of Victoria, 1977), T.C Willett, "The Reserve Forces of Canada," Armed Forces and Society Vol.16, No.1 (Fal 1989), 59-76, Kurt Grant, "A Role to Play: Examining the Militia Conundrum," Canadian Military Journal Vol.9, No.1 (2008), Peter M. Archambault, "ABCA Reserve : History and Future Roles," Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 7/2 (Winter 2004), Eric Tremblay and Howard Coombs, "Canadian Armed Forces Reserves- Quo Vadis?" Canadian Military Journal Vol.16, No.3 (Summer 2016), Peter Kasurak, A National Force: The Evolution of Canada's Army, 1950-2000 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013). 24 Willett, A Heritage at Risk, 2. 25 Kurt Grant, "A Role to Play: Examining the Militia Conundrum," Canadian Military Journal Vol.9, No.1 (2008), 48. 26 This interpretation builds on the works of Harry S. Lavar and Jerry Cooper who examined the ways in which maintained and forged national and regional identities in the United States. See Jerry Cooper and Glenn Smith, Citizens as Soldiers (Nebraska: University Press,

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Algonquin citizen-soldiers who, despite living and serving within the community, remain largely absent from both historical discussions of institutional decline or evolution of citizen-soldier experience in Canada. To consider these perspectives I adopt an oral history methodology that listens to the recollections of former members as a means to understand the evolution of the relationships between mainstream Canadian society and its military "at the sharp end," the local and regional levels.

The MRP is also engaged with a more recent debate in Canadian military history over the contentious martial aspect of Canadian national identity. There exists a belief amongst many

Canadians that Canadian history has "little to do" with "military history," or the idea that Canada is the "the Peaceable Kingdom" that has largely been unaffected by war.27 As military historian

W.A.B Douglas asked in the 1970s, "why do peace-loving, anti-military Canadians support fairly large regular, voluntary, peacetime forces?"28 This peaceable kingdom image was supported by

Canada's long standing contribution to peacekeeping operations around the world from the 1950s to the 1990s, which became embedded in Canada's national consciousness and a cornerstone of foreign policy during the Cold War.29

For some scholars, analysts and journalists, Canada's extensive and ongoing peace support engagement in Afghanistan signalled the abandonment of the peacekeeping identity in

2005) and Harry S. Laver Citizens More than Soldiers: The Kentucky Militia and Society in the Early Republic (Nebraska: University Press, 2007). 27 W.A.B. Douglas, "Marching to Different Drums: Canadian Military History," The Journal of Military History 56.2 (April 1992), 245; Sydney F. Wise, "Canada and War: 1600-2000,"in Canadian Military History since the 17th Century: Proceedings of the Canadian Military History Conference (Ottawa: National Defence, 2001), 21. 28 W.A.B. Douglas, "Why does Canada have armed forces?" International Journal Vol.30, No.2 Force and Power (Spring 1975), 259. 29 Colin McCullough, Creating Canada's Peacekeeping Past (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016), 3- 4, 205; Eric Wagner "The Peaceable Kingdom? The National Myth of Canadian Peacekeeping and the Cold War," Canadian Military Journal (Winter 2006-2007), 45-54.

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favour of a war fighting one. As a result, a heated, political, social, military debate ensued.30 Ian

McKay and Jamie Swift entered this debate, arguing that, in the post-9/11 world, characterized by increasing anxiety over international terrorism and the combat mission in Afghanistan,

Canadian national identity was undergoing a "toxic rebranding” by Conservatives, militarists and scholars who were attempting to militarize Canada's history and identity.31 These 'New

Warriors,' McKay and Swift warn, were attempting to "rebrand [Canada] as Warrior Nation," conscripting Canadian history to reshape Canada into a nation that "has nothing to do with peaceful accommodation and steady improvement in the public good. [...] Rather it was created by , defended by soldiers, and kept free by patriotic support of its military virtues.”32 McKay and Swift's argument challenged what they saw as a militarization of Canada during the recent war in Afghanistan and efforts of the Stephen Harper government to politicize Canada's military past in support of that mission, replacing the 'Peaceable Kingdom' with the new 'Warrior

30 Proponents of the Canadian peacekeeping image include A. Walter Dorn, "Canadian Peacekeeping: Proud Tradition, Strong Future?" Canadian Foreign Policy, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Fall 2005), 7-32; Dorn, "Canada evolves from peacekeeper to war-fighter," The Star, 21 December 2013,https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/12/21/canada_evolves_from_peacekee per_to_warfighter.html, accessed 26 February 2017; Peter C. Newman, “Canada: Peaceable Kingdom no More,” in Maclean’s Magazine Online Edition, 15 March 2006, http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/canada/article.jsp? content=20060320_ 123546_123546, accessed 24 February 2017, and Steven Staples, "Marching Orders: How Canada Abandoned Peacekeeping- and Why the UN Needs Us Now More Than Ever," (Ottawa: Council of Canadians, 2006). On the other hand, Sean M. Maloney, Canada and UN Peacekeeping: Cold War by Other Means, 1945-1970, (St.Catherines: Vanwell Publishing, 2002), and Eric Wagner, "The Peaceable Kingdom?" 45, complicate Canada's peacekeeping image and the altruistic motivations behind it during the Cold War. 31 Ian McKay and Jamie Swift, Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2012), xi. 32 Ibid.

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Nation.'33 The work asked hard questions about national identity and Canada's relationship to warfare.

Other scholars have responded to McKay and Swift. Borys stated that McKay and Swift emphasize Canada's peaceable kingdom myth, instead of analyzing the nuances of Canada's historic relationship with warfare.34 Historian Robert Teigrob countered McKay and Swift by emphasizing such complexities in Canada's relationship to military service. Teigrob argued that

English-Canada has regularly hesitated to voice opposition to military affairs, embraced images of peacekeeper and war-fighter at different times, and demonstrates that an unmilitary country has prided itself on producing the "world's finest soldiers" over generations.35 As Teigrob says,

"Canada is a conflicted nation indeed," in that "[Canadians] inhabit a space as faithful to the ideal of a 'peaceable kingdom' as can be found in the modern era, and yet many emphasize martial contributions as a―or even the―fundamental signifier of belonging."36 The complex relationship between Canadian society and military service has long been noted, as those in

English Canada have been less welcoming to challenge Canada's contribution to conflicts and memory of warfare.37

33 Ibid., 270. Also, see Noah Richler's What We Talk About When we Talk About War (Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions, 2012) as that book also explores what Richler saw as a shift in Canadian political discourse and identity during the conflict in Afghanistan. 34 As Canadian military historian David Borys wrote in his review of Warrior Nation, "A fundamental contradiction exists, however, in that the authors argue against one myth – that of the militarized version of our history – in favour of another myth – that of the 'peacekeeping' ideals espoused by the authors – when in fact neither are entirely historically accurate." David Borys, "Review of Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety, by Ian McKay and Jamie Swift," Canadian Military History (March 28,2013), accessed May 22 2017, http://canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/review-of-warrior-nation/. 35 Robert Teigrob, Living with War: Twentieth-Century Conflict in Canadian and American History and Memory (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 9. 36 Ibid., 9, 311. 37 Ibid., 7.

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The nuances of Canada's relationship to military service has been noted by past scholars.

The preeminent Canadian military historian George Stanley described Canada as, "a unmilitary community. Warlike her people have often been forced to be, military they have never been."38

Stanley first described the paradox of Canada as an 'unmilitary people' who had never shied away from war when necessary. Jonathon Vance argued in Death So Noble that the mythic ideas of the Great War were not solely the responsibility of the government or military institutions.

Instead, Vance stressed that it was "average Canadians [that] were responsible for" the collective memories, myths and identities associated with the Great War, and that "the propagation of the myth, [...] would never have caught on without active and enthusiastic support elsewhere in the

Canadian mosaic."39 Vance demonstrated that the formation of mythic narratives of the Great

War was a product of both governmental and local efforts serving specific purposes of grief, memorialisation and valorization of Canada's sacrifice during the First World War. Memory of the war "was appealing because it filled needs" of the Canadian public following 1918.40 This work speaks to how memory of the Great War was forged by continuous efforts of both the populace and the state, and not simply a state run exercise of militarization.

This project enters into this debate as it speaks to the complex nature of the relationship between the military and mainstream Canadian society over time. As seen in the works by Teigrob and Vance, Canadians have been less willing to critique their martial contributions in past wars. By analyzing the voices of citizen-soldiers at local levels, we can be aware of the nuances and complexities of military service and the relationship with

38George Stanley, Canada's Soldiers: The Military History of a Unmilitary People, 3rd edition (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1974), 23. 39 , Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning and the Great War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 7. 40 Ibid., 9.

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Canadian society during the Cold War. This project espouses that awareness, support and relevancy of the military has ebbed and flowed over time during times of peace and war.

This MRP is also informed by the discussion of the citizen-soldier concept in

Canada. The citizen-soldier, as a concept, is defined as a ideal citizen who performs both civic and military duties that are considered a condition of citizenship.41 The citizen-soldier concept has also been defined by James Wood, in the Canadian context, as "a belief in the inherent virtues of military training [...] and a conviction that good citizens should provide for their own defence."42 However, there has been no monolithic, single ideal of the citizen-soldier across time. As C.P. Stacey relates, universal service was mandatory in New

France as European settlements were dispersed and surrounded by various threats.43 More recently, citizen-soldiers do not intend to make a career of military service and differ from

Regular professionals. For citizen-soldiers, soldiering is a part-time profession and that a majority of one’s day is spent outside the military, in which citizens military service is an imposition on their lives. As James Wood writes in the context of American citizen-soldier tradition, "military service was a duty and responsibility of all citizens, and upon an exaggerated faith in the military capabilities of American manhood."44 The citizen-soldier bore the brunt of military work in the First and Second World War.

41 See R. Claire Snyder, Citizen-Soldiers and Manly Warriors: Military Service and Gender in the Civic Republic Tradition (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999). 42 James Wood, Militia Myths: Ideas of Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896-1921 (UBC Press, 2010), 10. 43 C.P. Stacey, Introduction to the Study of Military History for Canadian Students, 6th ed. (Ottawa: Directorate of Training, Canadian Forces Headquarters, 1973), 1. 44 James Wood, "Anglo-American Liberal Militarism and the Idea of the Citizen-Soldier," International Journal, Vol.62, No.2 (Spring, 2007), 410. In Canada, as in the United States and Canada, the military was regarded as dependent on mobilization of citizens in event of war.

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This ideal in Canada is shaped by the 'Militia Myth,' which Granatstein defined as, "the central myth in the history of Canadian arms is, and always has been, that colonists and citizens provide their own defence."45 Constructed by collective memories of the the militia myth helped shape the citizen-soldier concept in Canada well into the 20th century. As Wood further writes, the militia myth in Canada "held that citizens fighting in defence of their homes made the best soldiers."46 Though not specifically discussing the citizen-soldier concept, George

Stanley's characterization certainly reflected the ideas inherent in both the militia myth and citizen-soldier concept in Canada, in which the unmilitary people were called to service in times of war, "hav[ing] fought better" but "quickly discarded the skills of war for the farms and factories of peace."47 This ideal of citizen-soldier as characterized by Stanley is a continuation of the militia myth inherent in Canada's collective memory of war.48

By the 1980s, academics and journalists saw that the citizen-soldier ideal in Canadian society was dying or already dead due to changes in Canadian society and warfare. As journalist

Peter Newman has noted in his 1983 work, "the military in this country operate outside the mainstream" and that "patriotism is not a prerequisite of Canadian citizenship."49 Around the same time, T.C. Willett argued that with the advent of nuclear weapons, the "predominant citizens-in-uniform model" had become subordinate to professionals, with the militia becoming

"mere clones of the regulars."50

45 Granatstein, Canada's Army, 3. 46 Wood, Militia Myths, 5. 47 Stanley, Canada's Soldiers, 417. 48 For a discussion of collective memory and war see Jay Winter and Emmanuel Sivan, War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century and Jonathan Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning and the Great War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997). 49 Peter C. Newman, True North, Not Strong and Free: Defending the Peaceable Kingdom in the Nuclear Age (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1983), 29. 50 Willett, "The Reserve Forces of Canada," 59.

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Only more recently was the citizen-soldier concept examined closely by Canadian historians, but again focusing on late Victorian and Edwardian Canada. Both O'Brien and Moss examined the intersection of gender, military service and citizenship in Edwardian Canada.51 In

2010, James Woods' Militia Myths: Ideas of Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896-1921 became the first work of Canadian military history to closely examine the citizen-soldier as "an ideal and symbol by which Canadians ordered their understanding of armed conflict and their notions of a citizen's duty to serve."52 Wood demonstrated how the citizen-soldier ideal evolved due to the

Great War. As Wood explains, "in the postwar world, the untrained civilian who answered the call to arms in 1914 replaced the long-serving pre-war militaman as the archetypical Canadian citizen-soldier."53 This process was repeated between 1939 and 1945. There is no analysis of

Canadian citizen-soldier identity and experience in the post-1945 period outside the story of militia decline as seen in Heritage at Risk by T.C. Willett and others. Though the ideal of citizen- soldier may have died out or evolved in mainstream society, the practice never did as Canadians still enlisted into the militia, serving on a part-time basis, either for a short or long periods of their lives, balancing a dual role as both citizen and soldier.

Militia units such as The Algonquin Regiment managed to carry on and enroll a continuous of Canadians into its ranks from 1900 into the present day. But, the voice of citizen-soldiers themselves, of common soldiers and officers living and serving within the community are largely absent in these historical discussions of institutional decline or evolution of citizen-soldier experience in Canada. This calls for the need to adopt an oral history

51 Mike O'Brien, "Manhood and the Militia Myth: Masculinity, Class and Militarism in Ontario, 1902-1914." Labour/Le Travail 42 (Fall 1998): 115-141; Mark Moss, Manliness and Militarism: Educating Young Boys in Ontario for War (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2001). 52 James Wood, Militia Myths, 10. 53 Ibid., 274.

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methodology, as listening to and examining the memories of past soldiers who experienced militia service can help inform how the relationship between mainstream Canadian society and its military evolved at these local levels within a single region.

The ways that the military forges identity and concepts of citizenship and military service have not been analyzed through oral history methodology. All of the participants interviewed for this project were young when they enrolled in the military and their experiences in the militia shaped their lives, outlooks and identities.

Methodology

Oral history is well suited to discuss the historical experience of Algonquin Regiment citizen-soldiers who served in Cold War and post-Cold War Canada. While archival documents, reports and historical works on the Cold War militia exist, almost all examine it as an institution and defence organization. Combat regiments, like the Algonquin's, look to preserve what they have accomplished and challenges their soldiers faced while engaged in conflicts overseas.54 The story is rather different at home or during peace time, as militia units settle down into peace-time soldiering. Furthermore, little exists that allows for an understanding of either experiences of militia soldiers themselves or their place in wider community. Most importantly, memories and personal recollections move this project beyond an institutional history, providing a unique perspective on the lived experiences of citizen-soldiers in Northern Ontario.

Conducting oral history interviews does not mean that documentary evidence will be ignored. Government documents such as the militia lists and defence white papers, which outlines the federal governments defence policy, unsorted and unpublished regimental records, such as the unit annual historical reports, and local newspapers will also be utilized. The

54 Cassidy, Warpath, and John Macfie, Sons of the Pioneers: Memories of Veterans of the Algonquin Regiment (Parry Sound: The Hay Press, 2001).

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diversity of sources move this paper beyond a traditional institutional or regimental history.

Brought together with the oral histories, the documents will assist in establishing the historical context of past experiences and histories of the participants, extending discussions of memory and open discussion to consistency and inconsistency.

To date, I have interviewed ten former members of The Algonquin Regiment, both officers and non-commissioned members, who served for various lengths of time between the

1950s and 2010s. Their recollections offer individualized experiences and memories from multiple generations and positions, all tied together by loyalty to the unit they once served. Their period of service shaped the experiences, memories and testimonies. Indeed, whatever their age or personal background, most participants retained strong ties with their comrades, whether past or present.

These oral histories are a creation of the present, of a current Algonquin soldier interviewing other former Algonquin soldiers. These interviews are not just a historical sources

"to be mined for information," but are subjective living records between past and present.55

Factors such as age, gender, ethnic and cultural background play a role in recollection of memory and meaning. With this in mind, participants shared with me their personal experiences, stories and events that shaped their personal lives, careers, political outlook and beliefs. In essence, these stories present personal interpretations of their past and the world around them.

Being aware of this relationship between past and present allows me to understand how these men and women narrate and give meaning to their stories and experience in the present.56

55 Alistair Thompson, "Unreliable memories? The use and abuse of oral history," in Historical Controversies and Historians, ed. William Lamont (Taylor & Franicis, 1998), 27. 56 Ibid., 25-27. Also, see Jay Winter and Emmanuel Sivan, War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: University Press, 1999).

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In analyzing these interviews, I have focused on the ways participants expressed their memories. Particular attention is made to the emotions attached to positive and negative memories, noting body language, tone and volume of voice, or if they stress a particular memory multiple times. The ways that participants express their memories tell us more about the meaning attached to the events rather than the events themselves and how the interviewees have made sense of their past.57 In particular, stories of enlistment, as historian Alistair Thompson has pointed out, can be a "emotional minefield in the memory of many veterans."58 In adopting an oral history framework, he analyzed the memories of enlistment of two Great War veterans, on how and why the veterans joined the army, but also how they narrated their stories, what did these events mean for the participants at the time, and how have their meaning and significance changed over time.59 As Thompson wrote, these stories "reveals a struggle to make sense of a decision that may have been difficult at the time, that sometimes had disastrous consequences

[...] and that could be remembered with either pride or regret."60 This project will adopt a similar methodological approach in analyzing oral history recollections of former citizen-soldiers of The

Algonquin Regiment, on how and why these young Canadians joined the part-time Canadian army in peacetime.

Some of these interviews were conducted in person, while others were done over-the phone or Skype due to distance between the interviewer and interviewee, which shaped the context of the interview as well.61 I could not be fully aware of facial expressions or body

57 Alessandro Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History (New York: State University of New York Press, 1991), 50. 58 Thompson, "Unreliable Memories," 28. 59 Ibid., 27. 60 Ibid., 28. 61 Out of the ten interviews, two were over Skype, four were conducted over the phone and four were conducted in person at a pre-determined locations in North Bay, Timmins and Parry Sound.

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language of the interviewees while conducting over the phone interviews. Still, I have emphasized the most emotionally significant memories that hold personal meaning to participants.

The questions I asked the interviewees form the basis of my themes. These include motivation to enlist and serve, civil-military relations, social life and activities, memories of the

Cold War, military training, their experiences of service and citizen-soldier identity. I will look for consistency in answers, attempting to track continuity and change over time in the institution, military experience and citizen-soldier identity. Furthermore, some questions were specific to the position the participants held within the unit, based on whether they were a commissioned officer or a non-commissioned member (NCM).

My own status and membership within the unit also shaped the relationship with participants, how I analyze and contextualize the interviews. Before the interviews, I was already familiar with some of the participants, while others were complete strangers. However, sharing the identity of Algonquin soldier has helped in establishing a better relationship with participants, as the camaraderie can still exist between serving and former Algonquin's. I was able to relate more easily to the participant’s stories' of service and even share my own experiences, strengthening our relationship, establishing a greater level of trust and making participants more comfortable in sharing memories of their military experience.

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Chapter 1: "Truly northern Ontario’s Regiment:" Identity and Community in The

Algonquin Regiment

This chapter examines how the northern context shaped the collective social identity of

The Algonquin Regiment that forged and maintained regional and martial identities. The

Regimental identity helped to build the social bonds for participants, as they were united in shared experiences and common cause while serving in the Regiment. The northern context shaped the Regiment that consequently forged a collective identity, and that identity gave rise to a real fraternity of northern citizen-soldiers.

Analyzing the interviews of former members of The Algonquin Regiment, there is a sense that the Regiment served as a close knit social fraternity of citizen-soldiers. This was especially the case for those who served for long period of time in the unit. It was a marginal community of soldiers living and serving in Northern Ontario. As a military institution, the

Regiment was a bastion of martial values in the north. As a social institution, it served as both a link to the civilian community and a social space for personnel, forging a sense of familiarity, of family and "spirit of brotherhood."62

62 As described by Kerry M. Abel, "before a community can be built, it has to be imagined." Abel analyzed how ideas and experiences of the north played a vital role in forging communities in northeastern Ontario in the 20th century. In her work she argued that regional identity and common experiences helped to "define who they were." A similar concept has been applied to nationalism. Benedict Anderson defined the nation as a "imagined political community" in which members may never meet face to face, but "the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately, it is this fraternity that makes it possible." Anderson demonstrated how individuals are united in ideas of comradeship, community and belonging despite separated by distance. Similar ideas can be applied to regions, civilian communities and institutions. Kerry M. Abel, Changing Places: History, Community, and Identity in Northeastern Ontario (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006), 360-363. Also see Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 6-7.

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-The North

The Regiment has evolved over time, encompassing the history of both the 97th

Regiment, Algonquin Rifles, and 23rd Regiment, Northern Pioneers, reaching from Muskoka to

Cochrane Ontario, and as far west of Sault Ste Marie (Figure 1).63 During the 19th and 20th century, militia units across Canada were based on the local populations, meant to perpetuate the regional and ethnic character of their home community.64 They were, in essence, reflections of the host communities in which they are located, as they drew recruits from these communities to fill their ranks, from the non-commissioned member up to officers. As a citizen of Brockville

Ontario described the militia unit present within his home town, "[] was

Brockville, like Brockville was ."65 The Algonquin Regiment takes pride in their northern roots, maintaining the moniker as "the true Regiment of the north."66 The unit's northern identity is reflected in its present Regimental crest depicting a moose and its motto 'Ne-kah-ne- tah,' loosely translated in Ojibwa as 'We Lead, Others Follow' or 'We Lead, We Follow,' designed to honour the Indigenous Algonquin tribes of the northern Great Lakes and Ottawa

Valley, and, as Cassidy wrote, to perpetuate "their names in a new generation of warriors"

(Figure 2).67 Furthermore, the unit claimed that its soldiers "continue to come from the north's

63 For an institutional history of The Algonquin Regiment and Northern Pioneers see, The Algonquin Regiment, The Algonquin Regiment: 115 Years of Service, G.L. Cassidy, Warpath, 1- 4, and Directorate of History and Heritage, Official Lineages, Volume 3: Combat Arms Regiments, Part 2: Infantry Regiment, The Algonquin Regiment (Ottawa: Department of National Defence), http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-3/par2/ar-eng.asp. 64 Kasurak, A National Force, 151. 65 T.C. Willett, A Heritage at Risk, 2. 66 Captain (Ret'd) Ron Drouin, interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, 17 December 2016. This claim is made despite the presence of other combat arms units spread across the northern areas of such as the 2nd , Royal in Sudbury, The Lake Superior Scottish in Thunder Bay, and the 49th Field Artillery Regiment in Sault Ste. Marie. 67 The Algonquin Regiment, The Algonquin Regiment: 115 Years of Service, 1 and G.L. Cassidy, Warpath, 1.

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miners, loggers, and hunters."68 Recruiting from towns such as North Bay, Cobalt, New

Liskeard, Timmins, Sudbury, Kapuskasking, and other small resource industry communities, it is unsurprising that the Algonquin's established and maintained an identity and historic relationship with Northern Ontario.

Local Northern identity was constructed over time, shaped by dependence of resource extraction industry, harsh environmental conditions, and sentiments of remoteness compared to urban areas in southern Ontario, where political and economic power resided. The mining and forestry industries were responsible for much of the urban development and Euro-Canadian settlement in the 19th and 20th century.69 The revenue from these industries fuelled railroads, roads, public institutions and communities, as the search for and exploitation of natural resources led to economic and population booms. Mining towns such as Cobalt, South Porcupine,

Timmins, Kirkland Lake, and Sudbury emerged, bringing in successive waves of Euro-Canadian settlers. As S.A. Pain described in romantic terms, "the lumbermen, farmers, teamsters were always feeling the call to move on up North and see if there was something still better up there."70 More recently, Abel described how settlers in the early 20th century saw the north as "a land that seemed to promise endless opportunity for Canadians."71 North Bay, the current location of A- of The Algonquin Regiment, emerged as a community due to the forces of the timber industry and expansion of the railways in the late 19th century. As a point linking

68 Canadian Army, "The Algonquin Regiment," accessed June 6th 2017, http://www.army- armee.forces.gc.ca/en/algonquin-regiment/index.page. 69 Matthew Bray, and Thomson, Ashley, eds. At the End of the Shift (Toronto: Dundurn, 1996), 1. Economic Survey of the Northeastern Ontario Region, 7. Also, see H.V. Nelles, The Politics of Development: Forests, Mines and Hydro-Electric Power in Ontario, 1849-1941, 2nd ed., (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005) for an in depth analysis on the impact of resource development on political process and political structures in Ontario. 70 S.A. Pain, The Way North: Men, Mines and Minerals (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1964) ,43. 71 Abel, Changing Places, 13.

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north and south, the community claimed the title of "gateway of the north," as North Bay was

"well placed to benefit from the development of mining, lumbering, and agriculture in the regions."72 The northeastern area of Ontario, the heartland of The Algonquin Regiment, was also characterized by increasing interaction between ethnic communities of French and English settlers.73

In midst of this economic and urban growth, Militia units were raised in the northern and

Muskoka regions. The 97th Regiment of Rifles, first commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel T.

Elliott, was raised in resource industry towns of Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Thessalon and

Sturgeon Falls on July 1st 1900 (Figure 3 and Figure 4).74 The 23rd Regiment, The Northern

Fusiliers, was established three years later, boasting eight companies in towns such as Parry

Sound, Kearnery, Sundridge, Callander and North Bay (Figure 1 and Figure 5).75 The two units shared a close proximity to each other, amalgamating in 1936, with The Algonquin Regiment

72 Francoise Noel, Family and Community Life in Northeastern Ontario (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009), 18-19. 73 Francoise Noel, Family and Community Life in Northeastern Ontario, 25. Chapter 5 74 The 97th Regiment of Rifles, headquartered in Sault Ste. Marie, first appears in the October 1900 Quarterly Militia List, Canada, Department of Militia and Defence, The Quarterly Militia List of The Dominion of Canada Corrected to 1st October, 1900 (Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1900) Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.). 75 Originating in Parry Sound on 1st September 1903, 23rd Regiment, "The Northern " first appears in the 1st October 1903 Militia List, with other companies in Kearney, Sundridge, Powassen, Callender, Loring, and two in North Bay. As stated by Adrian Hayes, the unit stood up to fill the geographical gap between the 35th Simcoe Foresters in Huntsville and the 97th Algonquin Rifles. Adrian Hayes, Parry Sound: Gateway to Northern Ontario (Toronto: Natural Heritage, 2005), 127. The 23rd Regiment would be re-designated as 23rd Regiment, "The Northern Pioneers" in 1904 and "Northern Pioneers" in 1920. Both the 97th and 23rd regiments paraded a company in North Bay from 1912 to early 1920's, with the 97th Algonquin Rifles North Bay Company absent in the December 1922 Militia List. Canada, Department of Militia and Defence, The Quarterly Militia List, 1st October 1903, 1st April 1904, 1st April 1912, 1st January 1919, and 31st December 1922. Ottawa: King's Printer, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Also, see Macfie, Sons of the Pioneers for more on the 23rd Regiment.

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perpetuating the Battle Honours of the Northern Pioneers.76 As the Regiment evolved over time, other companies were established in resource industry towns such as Cobalt, Timmins, Kirkland

Lake, South Porcupine, and Kapuskasing.

The dependence on resource industries in Northern Ontario led to development of the north, but also presented problems as the 20th century progressed. The region is considered a

"periphery" of Ontario, supplying raw natural resource materials to larger and more powerful business interests in Canada, southern elites and the world markets.77 Though the resource industries spurred on development, by the mid-20th century, the north's economy and population have gradually moved towards the south, and resulting in higher levels of unemployment and a failure to diversify.78

The significance of the resource industries had a role in shaping the meaning and place of northern Ontario. As Kerry Abel writes, 19th and early 20th century settlers appropriated cultural images of the North as a "place of strength, courage, manliness, and moral superiority."79 In this northern identity, the harsh conditions of the north had a positive effect on both the physicality and moral conditions of the northerner. The idea of wilderness and harsh environmental

76 The Northern Pioneers were disbanded on 14th December 1936. The day after, "B", "C" and "D" Companies of The Algonquin Regiment were amalgamated with 'The Northern Pioneers.' Following the amalgamation, The Algonquin Regiment perpetuated the First World War Battle Honours of the Northern Pioneers, that included the 122nd (Muskoka) and 162nd (Parry Sound) "Overseas" of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Directorate of History and Heritage, Official Lineages, Volume 3, Part 2: Infantry Regiments, The Algonquin Regiment, http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-3/par2/ar-eng.asp. 77 "The Political Wilderness; Northern Ontario has a long history of alienation. Now, a growing chorus is calling on the North to take control of its economic and political future," , October 6, 2007, accessed 31 May 2017, http://samssa.ca/political-wilderness-northern- ontario/. 78 Livio Di Matteo, J. C. Herbert Emery and Ryan English, "Is It Better to Live in a Basement, an Attic or to Get Your Own Place? Analyzing the Costs and Benefits of Institutional Change for Northwestern Ontario," Canadian Public Policy, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Jun., 2006), 175-176. 79 Abel, Changing Places, 374.

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conditions, "[produced] a society of hardy individuals superior to those of the places [settlers] had left behind. The open spaces were contrasted to the crowded and unhealthy life of the industrial city."80

Northern identity was compounded by sentiments of remoteness and isolation, compared to southern Ontario. There has been a continuous sentiment that Northern Ontario exists on a

'periphery.' As Hall and Donald write, "there is a common perception in Ontario that: 'everything that matters is located along the 401, except for Ottawa,'" with Northern Ontario described as

"Ontario's traditional resource periphery."81 Historical experiences led to a sense that many northerner voices were "lost in the cacophony of catering to vote rich southern Ontario" and are routinely ignored by the metropolitan center in Toronto.82

The peoples of Northern Ontario continually expressed sentiments of isolation, alienation and remoteness, alleged to be the result of economic, social and geographic differences between north and south.83 Unsurprisingly, such perceived differences between north and south played into northern identity, creation of 'the other' to the south and assisted in the construction of a

80 Abel, Changing Places, 369. 81 Heather Hall and Betsy Donald, Innovation and Creativity on the Periphery: Challenges and Opportunities in Northern Ontario (Toronto: Roman School of Management, University of Toronto, February 2009), 1. 82 , “The Political Wilderness: Northern Ontario”, 2015, accessed May 12, 2017, http://samssa.ca/political-wilderness-northern-ontario/. 83 Remoteness has several meanings as it can mean social, geographic or political remoteness from mainstream society. Writing in the 1970s, Gordon Brock summarized the longstanding sentiment of many in Northern Ontario when he wrote, "the feeling of isolation, neglect and colonialism has been suffered in this region since the huge area was acquired by the Ontario government." More recently, Livio Di Matteo, J.C. Herbert Emery and Ryan English described the persistence of these sentiments within the area: “The vast distances of many northern Ontario communities from southern Ontario, and a lack of political power within Ontario have contributed to longstanding feelings of alienation and neglect in the north resulting in periodic movement that have called for greater autonomy.” See Gordon Brock, The Province of Northern Ontario (Cobalt: Highway Book Shop, 1978), 3 and Livio Di Matteo, J. C. Herbert Emery and Ryan English, "Is It Better to Live in a Basement, an Attic or to Get Your Own Place? Analyzing the Costs and Benefits of Institutional Change for Northwestern Ontario," Canadian Public Policy, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Jun., 2006), 176.

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social and political identity of a northerner. 84 Importantly, such a northern identity also played a key role in the construction of martial and warrior identities.

-The North and The Algonquin's

Within this broad northern context, The Algonquin Regiment was a space where regional and martial identities were forged and maintained. The 97th and 23rd regiments came into existence in the opening years of the twentieth century, a period described as Canada's "moment of militarism," in which the Militia was a prominent feature of the social fabric of society and various units were tasked with constant elaborate social and ceremonial functions.85 These events served the interests of the regiments and spreading martial enthusiasm in the young country. The early 20th century period was a time when, as James Wood writes, one of the Militia's primary tasks was "maintaining enthusiasm rather than thoroughness of training."86 These events were used as tools of recruitment in order to entice young men to join the voluntary militia. Both young working-class men and middle-class officers could find social benefits in joining the local militias, as commanders of units and included prominent merchants, manufacturers and many represented the local ridings in the House of Commons.87 As one account from St. Thomas

Ontario described, "the club is thoroughly and essentially a military one."88 The Militia's prominence was the result of the constant social functions and active participation in the community, designed to invest martial enthusiasm in the Canadian public, which would be

84 Kerry M. Abel, Changing Places, 374. 85 Desmond Morton, "The Cadet Movement in the Moment of Canadian Militarism, 1909-1014," Journal of Canadian Studies 13, 2 (Summer 1978), 56-69. Also, see Moss, Manliness and Militarism: Educating Young Boys in Ontario for War (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2001). 86 Wood, Militia Myths, 38. 87 For example, Lieutenant Colonel John Belamy Miller, the second commanding officer of The Northern Pioneers, was the president of the Parry Sound Lumber Company. Adrian Hayes, Parry Sound: Gateway to Northern Ontario, 127, and John Macfie, Sons of the Pioneers, iii. 88 Quoted in Wood, Militia Myths, 33.

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necessary in times of war. Recruited from the northern communities and instilled with emerging northern identity, the citizen-soldiers were both northerners and militiamen. Unsurprisingly, when the 97th Algonquin Rifles were called out to quell riots by woodsmen in Sault Ste. Marie in 1903, soldiers responded by distributing food to the hungry "bush strikers," their loyalties divided, if not at odds, between identity as northerners and soldiers.89

The contribution of the north to the Great War (1914-1918) reflected the combining ideas of northerner and soldier. The modern iteration of The Algonquin Regiment perpetuated such units as the 159th Battalion, "composed entirely of Northern Ontario men,” and the later 228th

Battalion, also called the Northern Fusiliers, and the 256th Battalion.90 The 159th (1st

Algonquin's) in particular was raised in Temiskaming region of Northeastern Ontario by local businessmen E.F. Armstrong from Cobalt and many of its officers were employees of the local mines and mills. The Battalion would adopt the moose and bear as their mascots to reflect and perpetuate their northern identity when they sailed to Europe in 1916.91 Furthermore, most of the soldiers who made up the 159th were conditioned by harsher environmental conditions, remote communities and work in the resource extraction and railway industries. That is also why the proceeding northern 228th and 256th Battalions served in as the 6th and 10th Battalions,

Canadian Railway , while the 159th provided reinforcements for the .92

89 Cassidy, Warpath, 2, O'Brien, "Manhood and the Militia Myth,"136. 90 Abel, Changing Places, 311, 337, 380. In total, the Regiment provided Northern soldiers to the 15th Battalion, 20th Battalion, 159th Battalion (1st Algonquin's Overseas), 228th Battalion (Northern Fusiliers), and the 256th Battalion. Due to the 1936 amalgamation with the Northern Pioneers, the unit perpetuates the 122nd (Muskoka) and 162nd (Parry Sound) Battalions of the CEF. Overseas, the 122nd Battalion was absorbed by the Canadian Forestry Depot to provide reinforcements while the 162nd provided reinforcements to the Canadian Corps on the Western Front. 91 G.L. Cassidy, Warpath, 3. 92 "The Algonquin Regiment," Canadiansoldiers.com, accessed October 10 2017, https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/regiments/infantry/algonquinregiment.htm.

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After the Great War, northern communities claimed the glory for those 'northern Ontario boys' who fought in Europe. Shaped by their context and identity as northerners, the northern communities began to perpetuate a belief that soldiers from the north held qualities that distinguished themselves from urban Canadian units and southern regions of Canada. As school inspector J.B. MacDougall wrote in 1946:

Heroic deeds of the first Great War are still remembered when the forestry and construction battalions were recruited in the Canadian North. They transformed the entire system of deforestation and timber supply for trench and defence works. [...] The spirit and skill acquired in the remote recesses of the northern woods registered for the Empire in far-away France and Flanders against the embattled might of the enemy world. The North was the balance wheel of Canada in those critical days.93

Northern communities claimed the glory from its contribution to the war effort and perpetuated those ideas into the 20th century. During the inter-war period that the image of "hardy northerner saving civilization" gained an even broader appeal, both in Northern Ontario and at the national level.94 As Jonathan Vance argued, a powerful image of the Canadian soldier as,

pure and rugged backwoodsman who lived his life far from the stultifying influence of city and university [and] typified as a child of nature, someone who is intimately connected to the untamed wilderness. He is what we believe the essential Canadian should be.95

The ideal Canadian soldier was both a northerner and warrior, shaped by harsh conditions and relationship with the wilderness that made it easier to survive the harsh conditions of the battlefield. The north instilled manly values, skills, and courage. The rugged northern soldier ideal that had found appeal in post-Great War Canada was still perpetuated in the Regiment well into the post-1945 period.

93 J.B. MacDougall, Two Thousand Miles of Gold: From Val d'Or to Yellowknife (Toronto: McCelland & Stewart, 1946), 202. 94 Abel, Changing Places, 381. 95 Jonathan Vance, Death so Noble, 159-160.

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Such notions of northerner and soldier were exemplified and perpetuated in the collective identity of The Algonquin Regiment. Following the Second World War, -General

George L. Cassidy, the unit's unofficial historian, published Warpath: The Story of The

Algonquin Regiment, 1939-1945, a narrative history of the unit's wartime experience.96

Cemented as the Regimental history, many Algonquin veterans and soldiers were exposed to

Cassidy's Warpath from its publication in 1948 to the present.97 Cassidy sustained the ideal of the rugged northern solider when describing the makeup of the unit in 1940. As he wrote, the 1st

Battalion, The Algonquin Regiment, was made up of "farmers and bushmen," "trappers, guides, fishermen," and "miners" with a "generous sprinkling of lumberjacks" all from northern communities.98 In Cassidy's words, the Regiment was made up of "men born and raised to the outdoors and hardy life" in which he believed that "that this 'bushwise' adaptability was of great importance" to the unit when it entered the battlefields of Northwestern Europe.99

Northern identity―shaped by harsh conditions and remoteness from the metropole―was combined with martial values to perpetuate a collective identity for The Algonquin Regiment in the 20th century. The Algonquin Regiment instilled military values, skills and identity into its personnel, and served as a site of martial values. This was a process of socialization into military culture. Ron Drouin, Fern Taillefer, Stephane Guindon, and Erik Growen all attest to the ways military skills and values were instilled into them as recruits. This early military training included basic drill, weapon training on the FN FAL battle rifle, basic survival skills, navigation,

96 George Cassidy later served as Commanding Officer of the unit from 1951-1954 and as of 16 Militia Group, retiring from the Canadian Army in 1958. 97 This history of the Regiment went through three editions since its publication. 98 G.L. Cassidy, Warpath, 7. By 1940, Regimental headquarters was in North Bay with Rifle Companies in Haileybury, Parry Sound, North Bay, Kirkland Lake and Timmins. Canada, Department of National Defence, Defence Forces List, Canada (naval, military, and air forces), (Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1939). Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 99 Cassidy, Warpath, 7.

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tactical training, and institutionalization into the military protocol and culture (Figure 6).100

Drouin discussed how he was introduced to the basic military skills in Timmins, feeling a sense of accomplishment once he graduated basic training.101 Taillefer adapted to military skills and values with relative ease, saying that he "loved it."102 They were also instilled with a Regimental identity that was shaped by its Northern Ontario roots and contributions to past war efforts.

This identity was expressed through the recollections of interviewees. The interviewees revealed the contours of identity as Militia soldier serving in a Northern Ontario Regiment, describing the ways that ‘northerness’ combined with soldiering identity to create an imagined community of rugged northern soldiers. However, not all members of the Regiment can be described as 'Northern Ontario boys,' as many individuals and Militia soldiers immigrated to the

North and into the unit. In fact, immigration into the unit was a more common experience for commissioned officers.

Most of the former officers interviewed did not originate in Northern Ontario. Andrew

Aitchison, James Savage, Hugh Stickle and Paul Scagnetti, came to Northern Ontario in search of civilian career opportunities and served in the unit for great lengths of time.103 This group of interviewees constituted a merging transplanted officer class in the unit, with established middle- class public sector jobs in North Bay and Timmins. With their experiences of both southern and northern Ontario, the officers reflected on the perceived and constructed sentiments differences

100 Ron Drouin, interview; Erik Growen, phone interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, 14 March 2017; Stephane Guindon, interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, 19 February 2017; Fern Taillefer, interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, 03 March 2017. 101 Ron Drouin, interview. 102 Fern Taillefer, interview. 103 Andrew Aitchison, Hugh Stickle, and James Savage had previous military experience before joining The Algonquin Regiment. Hugh Stickle was posted to RCAF North Bay during his time in the , but later returned to work as a school teacher in the late 1960s and retired in the city of North Bay. Paul Scagnetti did not have any previous military experience before moving to Timmins and joined in 1981 at age of 25.

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between north and south. Kitchen's work experiences took him to Toronto and then onto North

Bay. Kitchen perceived that "the people from Northern Ontario are far more self-reliant from the ones in the city. [...] They make things happen when it is very difficult."104 Andrew Aitchison shared a similar sentiment when he described The Algonquin Regiment and its personnel. As he stated,

The Algonquin's have a reputation, you ask them to do something and they'll do it. If it's raining, doesn't matter. If it's cold, doesn't matter. We'll do it. And... I don't know about anybody else, if deliberately or consciously, or whoever would say that, but I think this Regiment has a reputation for being resilient, and reliable, and resourceful. And if a mission is given, a task is given, it's going to get done.105

Aitchison's description reflected notions of the ideal 'Northern soldier' and align with the continuation of the northerner shaped by harsh conditions, wilderness, and resiliency. It reflects a combination of ‘northerness’ and soldiering.

Similar sentiments were expressed by those who grew up in Northern Ontario and served in the Regiment. As Erik Growen described, growing up in Northern Ontario favoured a "certain comfort level" with the wilderness, an advantage for infantry training in the forests of the north.106 As he described,

none of us were actually big city types, so running around in the 'back 40' in the woods when you were a kid was what you did. And that certainly didn't hurt us any when we went to go do our [infantry] thing in the woods107

Born and raised in Northern Ontario, Stephane Guindon claimed that the living in the region,

"gives you a persona of being a lot more rugged. Having that Northern Ontario sort of distinction. Sort of that lumberjack mentality."108 When I asked if they were any lumberjacks in

104 Mid Kitchen, interview. 105 Andrew Aitchison, interview. 106 Erik Growen, interview. 107 Ibid. 108 Stephane Guindon, interview.

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the unit during his time, Guindon responded with laughter, "sort of! There were a few that looked like it."109 Though perhaps not a militia unit of lumberjacks, the Regimental identity perpetuated a collective persona of rugged northern soldiers shaped by the harsh conditions of

Northern Ontario that, in turn, promoted a social fraternity among Algonquin's.

Instilling Regimental pride into new recruits perpetuated the northern soldier identity and many of the interviewees emphasized pride in the Regiment's history. As James Savage summed up, "any unit that's not proud of its history, has its own pride, is not worth keeping!"110 The

Regiment prided itself as a northern unit, having a "Northern Ontario sort of distinction," compounding the identities of northerner and soldier, a critical element of its collective identity.111 Asked whether the unit had pride in its identity as a northern unit, Stephan Guindon exclaimed, "does it have a choice!"112

In the interviews, the pride in the unit largely surrounded its contributions to the First and

Second World Wars (Figure 7). Taillefer discussed how learning about the unit's contribution to past wars made him proud to be a part of the unit that instilled a desire to "keep up that tradition.

Keep up that respect the people have for the Regiment."113 Guindon's story of recruitment exemplified how the collective identity perpetuated. With no firm knowledge of The Algonquin

Regiment prior his enlistment, he recalled how he quickly "took the history of the Regiment from that point and really started to bleed red, yellow and blue at that point. The Algonquin colours."114 Once enrolled and instilled with such ideas of martial and unit identities, soldiers

109 Ibid. 110 James Savage, interview. 111 This is something that cannot be said of other Militia units in Northern Ontario―the two other infantry regiments in Northern Ontario perpetuating Irish and Scottish cultural identifies and symbols. 112 Stephane Guindon, interview. 113 Fern Taillefer, interview. 114 Stephane Guindon, interview.

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expressed a sense of fraternal membership where ideas of Regiment, the north and martial values united the officers and non-commissioned members.

Though northern identity reinforced the unit’s martial values, the northern context also presented challenges for the Regiment. The Algonquin Regiment, rooted in a vast area since its inception, faced geographical as well as social-economic challenges, often characterized by interviewees as: "distance," "getting quipped, "space and time," "recruiting," "you're not southern

Ontario."115 More specifically, the unit acknowledged the role the resource extraction industry played in recruitment and perpetuation of the unit. For example, the Annual Historical Report described the impact on the unit in 1999:

economic downturn in the mining and forest industries continues to plague The Algonquin Regiment as more and more people seek employment opportunities outside of the north. As a result, recruiting has been down for past two years [...] However, this has been a cyclical problem in the north for years and it is expected to correct itself in the near future116

In Timmins, a single industry town, Drouin described that most youth desired to leave in order to seek post-secondary education and employment opportunities elsewhere.117 James Savage spoke of a similar reality. Reflecting on his time in the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment that is situated in south east Ontario, Savage characterized that southern Ontario as having a larger population concentration, and "more jobs and more economic opportunities [there] if you stay locally" prompting "people in Northern Ontario... to drift away" (Figure 8).118 However, similar

115 Aitchison, interview; Erik Growen, interview; Hugh Stickle, interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, 7 January 2017; Stephane Guindon, interview. 116 The Algonquin Regiment, Annual Historical Report, 1999. 5000 Algonquin Regiment, Volume 1 1989-1991 (3 of 3). Ottawa: Directorate of History and Heritage. 117 Ron Drouin, interview. Ron Drouin also stated that he was fortunate to have a permanent government job in Timmins that allowed him to stay within the Regiment as a part-time citizen-soldier 118 James Savage, interview. The Algonquin Regiment lost five junior officers in 1988 alone due to transfers to the Regular Force, University and economic opportunities outside of North Bay. P.J. Wilson, "Militia commander hopes economy will help boost local regiment," The Nugget, Saturday December 3rd 1988, Pages C1.

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to the Annual Historical Reports, interviewees described Regimental numbers as cyclical, fluctuating with the possibilities of overseas deployments and the economy.119

The Algonquin Regiment experienced periods of expansion and contraction throughout its history, largely impacted by the interplay between national and regional forces.

Traditionally, The Algonquin Regiment stretched out along the northward railway and proceeding Highway 11 corridor supported by remote sub-units in rural communities. As

Kitchen revealed, the dispersed nature of the Regiment in the 1950s and 1960s made it "hard to get the rest of the unit a sense of the Regiment they belong it." 120 Even Kitchen admitted that he would rarely see officers from the more northern detachments and had "very little to do with them beyond be aware of their existence."121 Through its history, the unit acknowledged that the dispersed makeup of the unit "presented problems at times" but this was "accepted as a normal part of training."122 Northern Ontario context shaped the unit as a military institution tasked with training part-time soldiers. There was very little the Regiment could do in order to overcome such geographic, demographic and socio-economic realities. Aitchison was straightforward in how the unit overcame this challenge: "You did what you have to do. I did it. The soldiers did it.

Everybody did it."123

Sharing widely held sentiments of many in the north, interviewees also characterized the unit as existing on the periphery, largely ignored by the metropole in Ottawa and Toronto.

Guindon for example perceived that The Algonquin Regiment suffered because of its location, stating:

119 Ron Drouin, interview; Andrew Aitchison, interview. 120 Mid Kitchen, interview. 121 Ibid. 122 Annual Historical Report, The Algonquin Regiment, 1984-1985. 123 Andrew Aitchison, interview.

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I do believe that southern Ontario regiments receive a lot more funding because they're in southern Ontario. I do believe, and I do say that Northern Ontario units, you, Sudbury, Timmins, I do think that because of where you are that you're missed, you're ignored, you're overlooked.124

Growen recalled encountering the newer equipment that southern units received well before The

Algonquin Regiment. As he recalled, "we were like 'What the hell is that?' [laughs] We were still using our metal, tubed backpacks, 'what's this you got on?'" As he explained, "logistically, I think, it was probably more challenging than you'd face in southern Ontario, where most units are relatively close together."125 Furthermore, senior officers perceived that information from regional and national headquarters took longer to reach the Regiment. Stickle recalled how opportunities for overseas deployment "were few and far between, especially for northern units" as the positions would "very conveniently take a long time" to reach the northern units as they were "already funnelled off to southern urban units."126 Interviewees on the whole, reflected on the unit's place in a marginal society on the periphery, isolated and ignored by the metropole.

However, while clearly problematic for many, such factors contributed and fostered a collective identity for The Algonquin Regiment, reflective of the geographic and regional character of its host region.

Northern sentiments of isolation and remoteness became compounded with changes in

Canadian society during the latter Cold War period. When interviewees reflected on their Militia experiences, they expressed the ideals of duty and commitment to Canada, standing ready to be called on in defence of the home communities and the country as one signifier of a citizen- soldier. Fern Taillefer expressed what it meant to be a citizen-soldier as "ready to go in and do

124 Stephane Guindon, interview. 125 Erik Growen, interview. 126 Hugh Stickle, interview.

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what needs to be done" when called upon.127 He also emphasized Canada's long standing tradition of volunteerism, perceiving the volunteer as "no better soldier can be found."128 James

Savage experienced similar sentiments revealing: "I didn't go anywhere, never fired a shot in anger at anyone, but dammit all, I stood to be counted and available if I was called upon."129

Such values of military service and citizenship were becoming increasingly incongruent with larger Canadian metropolitan society in the 1970s and 1980s. Indeed from the 1960s onward, North American society experienced profound challenges to values as liberal democracies transitioned from homogenous into more pluralistic societies, and witnessed the emergence of social movements that "critically addressed questions of war and peace, equal opportunities, and ecology."130 In this context, the citizen in uniform concept, characterized by voluntary commitment and a sense of duty as a citizen, became less relevant and even suspect.131

As Willett noted the "apparently negative and uninformed attitude of the students I taught in the early 1970s toward the military," was compounded by a reality that "educators generally did not understand the military, and most did not care to correct or even challenge predominantly negative attitudes."132 Similar views were expressed by Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who further reflected this attitude as he declared the military as "an alien nation of almost no importance."133 Dale R. Herspring best summarized the nature of Canadian civil-military

127 Fern Taillefer, interview. 128 Ibid. 129 James Savage, interview. 130 Tibor Szvircsev Tresch, "The Transformation of Switzerland's Militia Armed Forces and the Role of the Citizen in Uniform," Armed Forces & Society 37(2) (2011), 240. Also, see Matthew J. Morgan, “The Reconstruction of Culture, Citizenship, and Military Service,” Armed Forces & Society 29, 3 (Spring 2003): 373-91. 131 Tresch, "The Transformation of Switzerland's Militia Armed Forces and the Role of the Citizen in Uniform," Armed Forces & Society 37(2) (2011), 254. 132 Willett, A Heritage at Risk, 55, 2. 133 Granatstein, Who Killed the Canadian Military?, 115.

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relations in the 1970s and early 1980s noting: "the prime minister was not interested in the military, the budget was a shambles, and few Canadians, including the opposition, acted as if they cared about the fate of the CF."134 At the national level, the Canadian military was on the periphery and martial values seemingly incongruent with a changing Canadian society.

In this context, The Algonquin Regiment seemed to perpetuate martial values out of step with the broader society, a reality only further compounded by its northern roots and identity.

The martial values were compounded by present sentiments of isolation and remoteness in

Northern Ontario. The rugged northern soldier ideal that had found appeal in post-Great War

Canada was still perpetuated by the Regiment's identity well into the Cold War period, an identity expressed through the recollections of interviewees. The interviewees revealed the contours of identity as Militia soldier serving in Northern Ontario, describing the ways that

‘northerness’ combined with a soldiering identity to create an imagined community of rugged northern soldiers rooted in the north.

United by a collective identity as northern soldiers, the Regiment fostered strong communal bonds between members. The Algonquin Regiment situated in Northern Ontario faced distinct challenges in adapting to its context. However, the unit forged a dual identity as

Northerners and soldiers. The northern factors fostered a collective identity as well as assisted in shaping closer bonds within the unit on the periphery.135 Further, as Francoise Noel noted, in

134 Dale R. Herspring, Civil-Military Relations and Shared Responsibility: A Four Nation Study (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2013), 175. Also see Peter C. Newman, True North, Not Strong and Free: Defending the Peaceable Kingdom in the Nuclear Age (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1983), 29. 135 Ronald Lewin, a British military historian, described how "remoteness breeds togetherness" for military units. Though describing several military formations during the Second World War, Lewin saw how remoteness forged "a stability that allowed [military formations] to take root in their terrain" and gradually adapted to it. See Ronald Lewin, The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps: A Biography (Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military Classics, 2003), 18-19.

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exploring the family and community life of inter-war Northeastern Ontario, while geographic isolation was not essential for the emergence of a community, "members of the group, or at least some of its leaders within it, must perceive themselves as a community and this perception is most likely when there is a difference from other groups."136 A similar process happened within

The Algonquin Regiment, and a similar sentiment shared by interviewees.

The Regiment functioned as a social fraternity that perpetuated a distinct and unique collective identity, an identity perpetuated by many of its long serving members. This fraternity was composed of individuals that, as Savage described, "were riding two horses at the same time" since they were "full time citizen(s) and part-time soldier(s)."137 While these individuals conformed to military power relations, protocol and discipline, formal power relations relaxed when not in uniform or in 'the mess,' the traditional social club for the soldiers, officers and associate members (Figure 9). The social life of many participants was built around the mess, dinners, and social functions of the Regiment―such as the annual Christmas dinner and New

Years Levee―which featured a heavy drinking culture (Figure 10 and Figure 11).138

There was an enduring social aspect in the recollections of interviewees which fostered a close knit sense of identity and belonging in the unit, as the Regiment served as a social space for both officers, enlisted soldiers, their families and associate members. Kitchen recalled his time in the Toronto militia as, "we were all really friendly [...] we were 'yes sir' and salute on parade, but in between, we were really friendly, the guys were not formal when we got off parade. It was just a bunch of friends."139 When Kitchen moved to North Bay in 1959, this was still a small

136 Francoise Noel, Family and Community in Northeastern Ontario, 25. 137 James Savage, interview. 138 Ron Drouin, interview; Hugh Stickle, interview; Stephane Guindon, interview; James Savage, interview; Paul Scagnatti, interview. 139 Mid Kitchen, interview.

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community and many of his fellow Militia offices in the Engineers and Algonquin's were facing similar challenges as they "were all young married people raising families [...] helping each other out just as friends."140 Jean Blake, a member of the Canadian Women's Army Corp (CWAC) from 1959 to 1964, knew members of the Regiment socially well before she joined. As she described, "you knew them socially. You didn't realize that they were Army type deal. [...] We had quite a contingent, once you got in and knew it all."141 The Regiment was not just a collection of soldiers, but also their families and extending relationships.

In effect, members shared relationships and connections, that combined military and civilian processes, acting essentially as a family. Blake described how the wives of serving officers formed their own sharpshooting club called the North Bay Pioneer Rifle Club in the

1960s. This club was easily granted access to the Fort Chippewa ranges to practice their marksmanship skills and hold shooting competitions on Sundays.142 This club was supported by the Regiment due to the fact that it was made up of wives of officers and serving members such as Blake. Mid Kitchen recalled how his wife enjoyed the social nature of the Militia, creating friendships with officers and their wives in both the 8th Field Squadron and Algonquin

140 Mid Kitchen, interview. 141 Jean Blake, interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, 10 March 2017. Jean Blake was only female interviewed for this study. A more specific focus on gender and the Canadian Militia/Army Reserves in the twentieth century is beyond scope of this study. It does promise to be an avenue for future research on the place of gender and women in the idea of the citizen-soldier. Most of the scholarship on the CWAC focus on their organization and membership during the Second World War. For more information on the CWAC see Patricia Bowley and Kris Wright, "Canadian Enlisted Women: Gender Issues in the Canadian Armed Forces before and after 1945," Minerva: Women & War 15, no. 1 (March 1997): 9-25, C. D. Lamerson, "The Evolution of A Mixed-Gender Canadian Forces," Minerva II, no. 3 (Dec 31, 1989), 19-19, and the works by Ruth Roach Pierson, “'Jill Canuck:' C.W.A.C. Of All Trades, But No Pistol Packing Momma,” Historical Papers (1978): 106-133, and “They're Still Women After All”: The Second World War and Canadian Womanhood (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986). 142 Jean Blake, interview.

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Regiment.143 As Kitchen stated, "it was like having a bunch of friends, and I have a hard time to describe it otherwise."144 Lieutenant-Colonel James Savage recalled how Andrew Aitchison taught his own daughters in high-school while living in North Bay.145 And Fern Taillefer emphasized how these relationships endured into the present, still retaining close friendships with former Algonquin soldiers he served with in the 1970s.146 Stickle described the Regiment as "an old style family unit," claiming that:

You knew just about everybody. If you didn't go on a parade night and visit all the messes to see all of them [...] something was wrong. ... I think it was much closer as a family type thing than it is now147

Interviewees shared many personal stories that showcased the social aspects of the Militia beyond strictly military functions and illustrate bonds and camaraderie between the soldiers and officers of the Regiment, from both North Bay and Timmins. This imagined communal identity of rugged Northern soldiers, shaped by its northern context and Canadian martial identities, gave way to a real social community of officers and soldiers, and their families, living and serving in

Northern communities.

143 Mid Kitchen, interview. 144Ibid. 145 James Savage, interview. 146 Fern Taillefer, interview. 147 Hugh Stickle, interview.

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Chapter 2: "Feast or Famine:"148 The Evolution of The Algonquin Regiment, 1950s to 1990s

The Algonquin Regiment ended the Second World War on German soil having assisted in the liberation of France, and Holland at the cost of 372 soldiers.149 The Regiment returned to Canada in 1946 and its elements dispersed across Northern Ontario, resuming its role as a militia unit with companies in North Bay, Haileybury, Kirkland Lake, Timmins and

Kapusasking. As George L. Cassidy wrote: "The North's own battalion was home for keeps!"150

By the early 1950's, emerging Cold War dynamics propelled the Canadian government, now committed to collective defence in NATO and the UN, to prepare for war once again.151 Chinese intervention in Korea and NATO pressure to place Canadian troops in Europe pushed the government to build up its military forces.152 In this context, Algonquin's served in both NATO and United Nations forces fighting in Korea.153

148 Colonel (Ret'd) Paul Scagnetti, interview by Nicholas G. McGuire, March 11th 2017. 149 Total causalities, including wounded and missing, up to January 1946 were 65 officers and 1235 other ranks. The 1st Battalion, The Algonquin Regiment (C.A.S.F) was mobilized on May 24th 1940 and initially drew many of its recruits from Northern Ontario communities. Fighting in the 10th Infantry , Fourth Canadian Armored , extensive causalities over the course of the fighting in Northwestern Europe meant that the Battalion became, by the end of the war, a cross section of Canadian society, receiving reinforcements from all across Canada. See Cassidy, Warpath, 337. 150 Ibid., 336. 151 Stacey, Introduction to the Study of Military History for Canadian Students, 40-42. See Peter Kasurak, A National Force: The Evolution of Canada's Army 1950-2000 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013). 152 Ibid. Canadian Military Gateway (CMG), Online Reference Books, Volume 3: 1872-2000, Ottawa: Department of National Defence, accessed April 2017, http://www.cmhg.gc.ca/cmh/page-540-eng.asp. 153 On 4 May 1951, in support of the Korean War effort, The Algonquin Regiment mobilized two temporary Active Force companies, designated "E" and "F." On 12 Nov. 1951, E Company was reduced to nil strength upon its personnel being absorbed into the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion for service in and on 15 May 1952, "F" Company was reduced to nil strength upon its personnel being absorbed into the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division for service in Korea. The Algonquin Regiment, The Algonquin Regiment: 115 Years of Service.

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In 1954, a board of officers chaired by Howard Kennedy issued its recommendations for the first post-war transformation of the Reserve forces, in order to meet the new demands of the Cold War. The board stated that the primary purpose of the Reserve Army was to, "provide the nucleus of a partially trained and equipped force which may be quickly mobilized and brought up to strength in case of emergency."154 To that end, many rural militia units were either disbanded, converted or amalgamated within the year.155 In this context, the

Army converted The Algonquin Regiment from to an armoured unit, equipped with

Sherman tanks, re-designated “The Algonquin Regiment (26th Armoured Regiment) RCAC"

(Figure 12 and Figure 13).156 However, the need for mass mobilization, the primary role of the militia in Canada, was coming to an end in an era of possible nuclear war.

Apart of Canada's defence apparatus, The Algonquin Regiment was subject to national defence policies and priorities during the Cold War period. As successive governments were gripping with the realities of nuclear war, peacekeeping, and changing international realities, defence priorities evolved and so did the Militia forces. This chapter explores the ways in which

154 Quoted in Isabel Campbell, Unlikely Diplomats: The Canadian Brigade in Germany, 1951- 1964 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013), 128. Further recommendations included reducing the number of infantry and artillery units and increasing the number of armoured units to counter Soviet armour capabilities. 155 "Reserve Army will be Streamlined," The Windsor Daily Star, 22 June 1954. One such example in south west Ontario was the amalgamation of the Essex Scottish and Kent Regiment near Windsor Ontario; these two units were joined to become the Essex and Kent on 1 Sept. 1954. Another example included the South Alberta Light Horse (29th Armoured Regiment), which was formed through an amalgamation of several Anti-tank and Anti-Aircraft units in southern Alberta. See Donald E. Graves, Century of Service: The History of the South Alberta Light Horse (Robin Brass Studios, 2005). 156 This transition included equipping the unit with post-World War Two era Sherman tanks. On 19th of May 1958, the Regiment was renamed "The Algonquin Regiment (Royal Canadian Armoured Corps)." The Algonquin Regiment, The Algonquin Regiment: 115 Years of Service (North Bay, 2015), Lorne G. Del Villano, My Cold War Recollections, interview by Martin Roznowski, March 5th 2011. By the end of the Korean War, the Militia in Canada was equal in size to the Regular Army, with mass mobilization still its primary task. Kasurak, A National Force, 41.

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such priorities brought changes and challenges at the local Regimental level through the memories of former Algonquin citizen-soldiers. In step with changing defence priorities, between the 1960's and 1990's, The Algonquin Regiment evolved due to the interplay of the

'long peace' of the Cold War and government defence policies. The voices of the participants emphasized the challenges the unit faced in carrying out its military and civic/social functions at local levels, where the greatest concern was not the USSR but the impacts of government policies.

The Militia provided the backbone of Canadian home defence in the 19th and early 20th century.157 The militia's historic role was to form a base for mobilization in the case of war as it would serve as the bulk of an expending Canadian army in war.158 Such was the case in 1939 as militia units, filled with new recruits, mobilized for overseas service. The Algonquin Regiment mobilized in 1940, and eventually came into action across Northwestern Europe in 1944.

The Militia, however, underwent a series of organizational transformations from the

1950s to the late 1960s, shaped primarily by the possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union and attendant government spending priorities. By 1952, military leaders in NATO were recommending that NATO armies stop relying on long periods of mobilization, as was the case

157 Prior to the Second World War, the Canadian Army was known as "The Militia of Canada," composed of the part-time Non- (NPAM), the citizen-soldiers, and the Permanent Active Militia, the latter as Canada's regular army of professional soldiers. Urquhart, The Changing Role of the Canadian Militia, 1945-1975, 174. 158 As Wood writes, "the Militia, theoretically, provided the trained nucleus for immediate expansion in war."James Wood, Militia Myths, 37, 42. Canada follows the NATO definition of mobilization as follows: "The act of preparing for war or other emergencies through assembling and organizing national resources; the process by which the armed forces or part of them are brought to a state of readiness for war or other national emergency. This includes assembling and organizing personnel, supplies and material for active military service." Canada, Department of National Defence. "Minister’s Monitoring Committee on Change in the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces," Interim Report - 1999, 103.

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in the Second World War, and concentrate on ready forces.159 In a future nuclear war there would be insufficient time to mobilize, train, equip, and deploy Militia forces. Across NATO there was an increasing emphasis for 'ready forces' or 'forces-in-being,' meaning regular professional forces immediately available for war.160 Canadian military planners adopted a similar outlook as nuclear war was believed to be "very brief and highly technical," making the

Militia largely obsolete.161 Defence Minister Ralph Campney implemented the forces-in-being strategy in March of 1955, stating that government policy provided that:

priority must be given to the provision of forces in being capable of effectively contributing to success in the initial phase. Other forces are required to contribute to subsequent operations, but in view of the important of the initial phase ...the build-up of these forces must be given a lower priority.162

For the first time, the Regular Force began to outnumber the militia and "the focus had shifted from the reserves to the regulars."163 This also included better education, training and an increase in technical skills for Regular Force personnel, as they would have the priority and greater portion of the army's budget.164 By the end of the 1950s then, the "militia would become subordinate in every sense to the regular army."165 The recommendations from the Kennedy

Board and Cold War realities began to fundamentally alter the place of the Militia in Canada's defence apparatus.

159 Isabel Campbell, Unlikely Diplomats: The Canadian Brigade in Germany, 1951-1964 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013), 128. 160 The Role of the Reserves. 161 CMG, Online Reference Books, Volume 3: 1872-2000; The Canadian Armed Forces, The Role of the Reserves (Ottawa: Political and Social Affairs Division, 1999); English, A Lament for a Army, 51-54. 162 Quoted in Campbell, Unlikely Diplomats, 128-129. 163 English, A Lament for a Army, 51-54. 164 See Andrew Godefroy, In Peace Prepared: Innovation and Adaptation in Canada's Cold War Army (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2014) for an in depth analysis in how the Canadian Army adapted to the new realities of nuclear warfare. 165 Quoted in Isabel Campbell, Unlikely Diplomats, 128.

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In this context, another shift began under the Diefenbaker government (1957-1963), altering the Militia's primary task to civil defence in the event of nuclear war.166 Turning from training for war to surviving its aftermath, militia units prepared for rescue and survival operations. This new direction, derisively described as 'knots and lashes,' demoralized members of the Militia, particularly veterans of World War Two and Korea. As Mid Kitchen remembered,

"many of us felt what we were being trained to do was simply ridiculous and would never happened. [It] diminished our enthusiasm and morale went down."167 By the early 1960s, militia units seemingly "reached the saturation point in knot-tying, lashing, bandages and somewhat dry lectures."168 Unsurprisingly, the slow bleed of militia members became increasingly acute.

The 1960s was a period of dramatic change for the Canadian Forces and The Algonquin

Regiment. With the 1964 Suttie Commission and White Paper on Defence, peacekeeping became the top priority under the government of Lester B. Pearson.169 Subsequently, national survival training fell to the wayside and the militia's "traditional concept of a substantial mobilization" came to an official end.170 The Militia's new task was to augment the Regular Force Army, in essence, filling gaps in the ranks for peacekeeping operations.

166 Kasurak, A National Force, 46. 167 Mid Kitchen, interview. 168 Quoted in Kasurak, A National Force, 47. 169 The Suttie Commission was officially known as "The Commission on the Reorganization of the Canadian Army Militia," met in late 1964 and early 1965, chaired by E.R. Suttie. The Commission was charged with recommending the best way the Militia Army could meet its four roles in Canada: supporting the Regular Army, provision of a training force, conduct of internal security operations and fulfilling National Survival responsibilities. "Suttie Commission," Canadiansoldiers.com, http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/organization /suttiecommission.htm. Also, see Urquhart, The Changing Role of the Canadian Militia, 1945- 1975. 170 Urquhart, The Changing Role of the Canadian Militia, 116. Canada, White Paper on Defence (Ottawa, 1964).

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This was compounded with the Unification, when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged and reconstructed to form one institution known as the Canadian Armed

Forces. Essentially, Unification was a means to save money and equip Canada with a unified integration of all service functions. As the 1964 White Paper stated, unification would "produce a more effective and co-ordinated posture for Canada, but should also result in considerable savings."171 As Kitchen described it, the government was "trying to maintain the fighting forces, but unify the support structures behind them."172 However, unification was coupled with government mandated downsizing and reorganization of the Canadian Militia across Canada.173

Due to the forces of the Suttie Commission and Unification, many Militia units across

Canada were reorganized, amalgamated and downsized. 174 In 1965, The Algonquin Regiment reverted back to a light infantry role, ordered to return its Sherman tanks, and faced an uncertain future in Northern Ontario as the downsizing of the unit was already underway, with many

171 Canada, White Paper on Defence (Ottawa, 1964), in Douglas Bland, Canada’s National Defence Volume 1 Defence Policy (Kingston, Queen’s University, School of Policy Studies, 1997), 92. For scholarly works on the roots of Unification see Major-General Daniel Gosselin, “The Storm over Unification of the Armed Forces: A Crisis of Civil-Military Relations,” in Howard Coombs, ed., The Insubordinate and the Noncompliant: Case Studies of Canadian Mutiny and Disobedience, 1920 to Present (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2007), 309-43, and R. B. Byers, “Canadian Civil-Military Relations and Reorganization of the Armed Forces: Whither Civilian Control?” in Hector J. Massey, ed., The Canadian Military: A Profile (Toronto: Copp Clark Publishing, 1972), 197-228. Also, see Jack Granatstein, Who Killed the Canadian Military? (Toronto: Harper Collins Canada, 2004). 172 Mid Kitchen, interview. 173 For detailed analysis of Unification consequences on the Canadian military see Douglas Bland, The Administration of Defence Policy in Canada: 1947 to 1985 (Kingston: Ronald P. Frye & Company, 1987), and Chiefs of Defence: Government and the Unified Command of the Canadian Armed Forces (Toronto: The Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, 1995), and Major-General Daniel Gosselin, "Hellyer's Ghosts: Unification of the Canadian Forces is 40 Years old - Part One," Canadian Military Journal vol.9/No.2 (2009), 6-15. 174 The Hasting and Prince Edward Regiment lost several sub-locations as a result of Unification. James Savage, interview.

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Second World War personnel dismissed between 1964 and 1966.175 Taken together, by 1970,

"the army 'footprint'...began to disappear."176 The Department of National Defense demobilized long serving Algonquin companies in Kapuskasing, Kirkland Lake and Haileybury thus ending the military presence in these communities beyond Legion Branches and Cadets.177

Unsurprisingly, while part of a nation-wide process, downsizing damaged relationships between the Army and host communities in Northern Ontario. As Willett put it, "when it was done, most of the rural regiments that had been a feature of the Canadian social structure for over a century was no more."178 Further, the effects of downsizing, budget cuts and unification, had another unforeseen effects as the Militia experienced a crisis in morale that drove even more members from the ranks. As Lieutenant-Colonel (Ret'd) Andrew Aitchison described it,

If you go forward from that, not all that many years, we went through a unification and reduction in service, that caused an awful lot of hits to morale and the strengths of reserve units did decline, both in absolute numbers [of units] and units not disbanded saw their numbers reduced. So yes, there was a crisis of morale back then.179

Unification and downsizing was a serious challenge for the Canadian Forces and the Militia across Canada to overcome in the proceeding decade.

In 1971, the government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau published Defence in the 70s, the first white paper since 1964 which outlined the role of the Militia Army. The White Paper called

175 Mid Kitchen, interview. 176 Granatstein, Canada's Army, 351. 177 "A" Company at Kapuskasing was relocated to North Bay in 1970, "B" Company at Virginiatown was relocated to Timmins in 1965, "C" Company in Haileybury was disbanded in 1970, "D" Company (after relocation from Timmins in 1965) in Kirkland Lake was disbanded in 1970, and "Support Company" in North Bay was disbanded in 1970. This left two sub-units "A" Company in North Bay (Regimental Headquarters) and "B" Company Timmins. David A. Morris, The Canadian Militia: From 1855-An Historical Summary (The Boston Mills Press, 1983). 178 Willett, A Heritage at Risk, 80. 179 Andrew Aitchison, interview.

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attention to the military deficiencies of the Militia by stating that "only the Regulars have the adequate time to train for the more sophisticated activities."180 This sentiment was consistent with the NATO emphasis on ready forces that first emerged in the 1950s. The Militia Army was simply tasked "to support the Regular Force," with the promise that "the Reserves will be provided with the equipment they need to train adequately for their assigned tasks."181 Starting with the then new White Paper, many Canadians soldiers, in both the Regular and Militia army, felt that "the roles, aims, and tasks of the Canadian Forces [were not] 'spelt out' to them in a realistic and meaningful way."182 In this context, the Militia was mandated to recruit, train and support the Regular Army when called upon.

For the 1970s and 1980s, opportunities to augment the Regular Force on peacekeeping tours and operations were few and far between. Stickle recalled how isolated The Algonquin

Regiment was from the Cold War geopolitics stating that, "once you get down to the reserves, you are so far removed."183 Drouin expressed a similar sentiment, recalling that, since the

Regular Force numbers were "healthy," getting the chance to go on a tour "was like a lottery, you almost had to put your name in and if you were picked. So, that's how rare it was."184 Taillefer, who first enlisted in the unit in 1974, was one of those few Algonquin's who volunteered and served overseas with Canadian United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Egypt (Figure 14).

Taillefer recalled the lack of pre-deployment training and preparedness before he went over to

180 Department of National Defense, White Paper on Defence: Defence in the 70s (Ottawa: Information Canada, 1971), 45-46. 181 Defence in the 70s, 46. 182 Kasurak, A National Force, 152. 183 Hugh Stickle, interview. 184 Ron Drouin, interview. Scagnetti recalled that, during the 1980s, there were 15 positions available for Militia soldiers to be deployed to Cyprus, "and so across the whole country, you would compete for one guy to go off to Cyprus." Scagnetti recalled that one young Algonquin soldier, Mike Tourangeau, was lucky enough to be deployed twice. Paul Scagnetti, interview.

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Egypt, only receiving general military training such as rifle ranges, fitness test and map and compass refresher. Assigned to guard Camp Elgala in Egypt from October 1977 to April 1978, he learned his job as a Regimental Policeman on the ground. Recalling his lack of pre- deployment training, Taillefer asked, "why not train you to the job you are going to be doing?"185

He further brought his testimony into the present, discussing the differences between the rigorous training required for soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and his peacekeeping tour in Egypt. "Back then," he said, the necessary training for deployment "wasn't there."186 Though he returned to

The Algonquin Regiment in 1978, Taillefer always remembered the lack of training and preparedness he received before he deployed to Egypt.

-A Regiment in Decline: 1960s, 1970s and 1980s

During this period, in North Bay and Timmins, The Algonquin Regiment waged a constant struggle to carry out its military duties to recruit, retain and train soldiers, suffering from a lack of funding and using old, outdated equipment.187 Most of the training centered on conventional warfare, including defensive and offensive operations, patrolling, winter warfare and some training in Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare (NBCW) (Figure 15).188 As

Commanding Officer (CO) from 1975 to 1978, Stickle emphasized the challenges in training part-time soldiers in which the unit had to get "the training done that you had to get done, with

185 Fern Taillefer, interview. 186 Ron Drouin had a similar response when I asked him about military training during the Cold War: "Actually, that's one of the different things [...] It's just like you are going to be going to Afghanistan for a tour, or Bosnia for a Peacekeeping mission. You're in for 3 or 4 months training with the Regular Force prior to going over as a Reservist. You know our training, we didn't get specialized training to go to Cyprus or go to Golan Heights or anywhere else. It wasn't enough Reserve force soldiers called on in that time period because like I said earlier, Regular Force soldiers were plentiful." 187 Fern Taillefer, interview; Erik Growen, interview. 188 Ron Drouin, interview.

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the money that was available."189 He further described that the 1970s was "a time of major cutbacks. Always fighting the budget. Every year the message would come down, the training you would have to do and less money you would have."190 The lack of proper funding and outdated equipment had impact on training at the lowest level. Taillefer, a junior member of the

Regiment during the 1970s, recalled that "the money wasn't there and I don't think the government really took us [the militia] seriously." He expressed a great deal of frustration: "if they wanted us to do our job, give us the equipment to do the job, give us the money to do the training."191 Drouin recalled similar memories, describing how the constant lack of ammunition forced Militia soldiers to shout "bullets! bullets!,” pretending to fire their weapons.192

Recruitment and retention proved another continuous problem for the unit during the

1970s and 1980s. When Taillefer first joined the unit in 1974, he remembered large numbers of young recruits brought into the Regiment through the Student Summer Employment Assistance

Program (SSEAP).193 Drouin recalled the two Algonquin companies having some ninety soldiers on exercises in his early career.194 However, problems with recruitment and retention was being increasingly acute into the late 1970s and 1980s. In describing his experiences as CO, Stickle recalled how "one of the CO's main job was to keep on recruiting, like forever trying to come up with ideas on how to get new recruits to come in and run a course."195 Several former CO's interviewed held similar sentiments and the decline of the Militia during the latter Cold War era.

Savage, who joined The Algonquin Regiment in the 1970s, described the Militia "always on the

189 Hugh Stickle, interview. 190 Ibid. 191 Fern Taillefer, interview. 192 Ron Drouin, interview. 193 Fern Taillefer, interview. 194 Ron Drouin, interview. 195 Hugh Stickle, interview.

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downslide, always on the skids" and that it was a "constant struggle to keep Regiment running."196 Drouin, who spent his military career in Timmins, also spoke of the recruiting problems in his home town. As he described, "there was a big turnover" rate since many youth would not want to stay in Timmins, as they would want to go away for college or university, and it would require the unit to constantly replenish its ranks.197 However, Drouin also recalled how the unit was ordered by their superiors in Central Militia Area to turn away potential recruits. As he described, "I've seen us have thirty names that came in to sign up for a summer course with the unit. And the budget was so bad that we were told to pick 10. That was bad. We lost twenty people and they are never going to come back."198 Defence budgets and policies had substantial impacts at the local levels.

The significance of the Militia was also in decline in home communities, a reality that became increasingly acute in the 1980s. Guindon, a high-school student and teenager in the

1980s, discussed the ambivalence and negative reactions he encountered in North Bay while in uniform. He recalled questions from fellow students at Algonquin High-School while in uniform for Remembrance Day remarking: "People just didn't know who I belonged to. I would be asked if I was in cubs or asked if I was in cadets. They had no idea."199 He also recalled 'dirty looks' he received from North Bay citizens. Remembering such episodes, he felt slighted: "We were never thanked. We were never patted on the back. We were never acknowledged for being in the military. [...] Back then I never received a positive reaction."200 Erik Growen was sixteen years

196 James Savage, interview. 197 Ron Drouin, interview. 198 Ron Drouin, interview. 199 Stephane Guindon, interview. 200 Ibid.

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old when he joined the unit in 1985, staying until 1987. He recalled that the unit was an insular institution, in which "the numbers were small [and] it had no real presence outside of itself."201

The Timmins company had a similar experience, and indeed, the city had no military presence outside The Algonquin Regiment. With little martial traditions to draw on, the unit relied on the 'sex appeal' of Sherman tanks to increase awareness of the Regiment in the 1950s and 1960s (Figure 13).202 The interviewees who served in Timmins described how awareness of the unit went into decline after it returned to its infantry roots in 1965. Colonel Scagnetti was frank in his view on the social relationship with the city of Timmins: "I wouldn't even say it was on the decline. It had already been declined and died, at least for me in Timmins. I know of other reserve units that were very social. It's nice to have a very big officer core and NCO core that you could draw on, right?"203 By the mid 1980s, The Algonquin Regiment was struggling to remain afloat and retain its place within North Bay and Timmins.

The leaders within the Regiment were well aware of these problems by the late 1980s, and took actions to counter this decline. The upper echelons of The Algonquin Regiment had become aware that the unit had "become rather insular in nature."204 In November 1989 Senior

Ranks Mess newsletter described that "a large number of Associate members have not been seen for a while."205 These documents describe how the unit's social presence was in decline. At the same time, the Regimental Senate took steps to retain the relations between the unit and the city

201 Erik Growen, interview. 202 Ron Drouin, interview. 203 Scagnetti, interview. 204 Lieutenant-Colonel W.M. Kennedy, The Algonquin Regiment, "A Brief Prepared for the Regimental Senate of The Algonquin Regiment," (26 October 1987). Regimental Senates were bodies of former commanding officers and Regimental Sergeant Majors intended to guide and safeguard their perspective units, traditions and line of successions. 205 Martin Leo Troy Garrison Officer's Mess, Moose and Owl, no.20 (21 November 1989).

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of North Bay.206 A report issued to the Senate called for a "revitalization of the senate to include representation by leaders or former serving officers outside of North Bay and Timmins."207 The

Regimental Senate took action to retain linkages and, perhaps, expand them, particularly in

North Bay. The donation of the Armour Guidon to North Bay City Hall was an example of the unit's attempt to retain links with the community (Figure 16).208 Still, such attempts did not forestall decline in numbers or presence.

In the late 1980s, T.C. Willett concluded that "it is surprising that the Militia has survived at all."209 Outside of the anti-Vietnam War and anti-American sentiment in the country, Willett's explanation for decline was that the Militia had no "role that is credible to the public, which, consequently, has lost interest in it."210 Interviewees too emphasized that the military had lost relevance in Canadian society that bordered on apathy. Beginning his military life in the Second

206 The Regimental Senate was a organizational body within a unit composed of previous commanding officers, Regimental Sergeant Majors and honorary appointments meant to provide leadership, assistance, and direction in matters of business that affect members of the Regimental Family outside the Canadian Forces chain of command. The Toronto Scottish, "The Role of the Regimental Senate," http://tsrpd.com/regiment/senate.html. 207 Lieutenant Colonel W.M. Kennedy, Regimental Senate of The Algonquin Regiment, "Expansion of the Senate-For Discussion," A Brief Prepared for the Regimental Senate of The Algonquin Regiment (26 October 1987), 3. 208 Stephane Guindon, interview; The Algonquin Regiment, "The Presentation of New Colours," Annual Historical Report, 1 April 1984 to 31 March 1985 (11 April 1985). The Guidon still resides in North Bay City Hall. 209 Willett, A Heritage at Risk, 204. 210 Willett, A Heritage at Risk, 204. Further, he argued that broad social and political changes in the country―a emerging civic nationalism that embraced peacekeeping, the dominance of New Left ideology in universities and lack of political will―during the 1960s and 1970s resulted in Canadian society largely ambivalent, ignorant and even hostile to its Canadian Forces. See Willett, A Heritage at Risk, 193, 205-209. For a debate on continuity and change in Canada's emerging national identity of the 1960s and 1970s see José Igartua, The Other Quiet Revolution: National Identities in English Canada, 1945-71 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006) and C.P. Champion, The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism (Montreal: McGil-Queens University Press, 2010). While Igartua argued that the emerging Canadian nationalism of the 1960's was a rejection of Canada's British past, Champion sees the outward signs of 1960's Canadian nationalism as embedded within a British world view.

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World War, Kitchen described an erosion in both awareness and relevancy of the military in

Canadian society stating: "My only comment," he said, "really is awareness of the military diminished as time passed from World War Two. It diminished. [...] And all the wars that were going on, and even our peacekeeping forces, were far-far away and not at the forefront of what civilians thought."211 Stickle drove point home many times: "At the end of World War Two, when the Regiment got off the train in the snowstorm and marched back to the barracks, they were the kings. They just saved the country." However, he said, "every year, the further you get away from conflict [...] the military has less relevance for the average civilian, so they could care less."212 Both Stickle and Aitchison emphasized that this was not unique to The Algonquin's as the Regular Force suffered a similar fate. "The Regular Force," Aitchison expressed, "is nonexistent until there needed."213 When war becomes memory, the military slowly becomes a memory too. Scagnetti described this as "benign neglect," in that "everyone wants them to be there. No one wants them to leave the community. But they want you to be ready to fight a war tomorrow," he paused, "without any resources to train up for it."214 Growen attested to a

"disconnect" between civilian society and its military in peace time.215 Overall, participants explained the militia's decline as a culminating effect of the 'long peace' of the Cold War compounded by a lack of government support rather than broad shifts in society. In effect, as war became increasingly a thing of the past, the relevancy of the military (and the Militia) grew increasingly narrow in the eyes of many, from the government downwards into the population.

211 Mid Kitchen, interview. 212 Hugh Stickle, interview. 213 Andrew Aitchison, interview. 214 Paul Scagnetti, interview. 215 Erik Growen, interview.

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The testimonies of the participants, drawn from experiences at the local level, describe perceptions of a decline of the Militia's military capabilities and social presence due to the factors of government policies and long periods of peace from the late 1960s into the 1980s. This memory of neglect reflects similar arguments in the established historiography, which argued that the impetus for decline of the Canadian Army was due to successive Canadian governments unwilling to properly allocate funds and resources for the Army.216 However, the decline of The

Algonquin Regiment was the result of the accumulative effects of the 'long peace of the Cold

War,' which impacted Canada's defence policies and spending. Seen from the perspectives of

Militia members at local levels, the main concern was government policies, lack of equipment and lack of funding which heavily impacted the ability to recruit and properly train soldiers to the levels required for national defence and operations abroad. Only with new conflicts, did this change.

-Cold War, Crisis and Revitalization

By the 1980s, Cold War dynamics had shifted. The early 1980s saw increased international tension and military build up in both the United States and the Soviet Union.217 In

1987, Brian Mulroney's Conservative government published a new White Paper on

Defence―the first since 1971. The publication entitled Challenge and Commitment outlined

216 See Peter C. Newman, True North, Not Strong and Free: Defending the Peaceable Kingdom in the Nuclear Age (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1983), John A. English, Lament for an Army: The Decline of Canadian Military Professionalism (Toronto: Irwin, 1998), and Jack Granatstein, Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace (Toronto: University Press, 2002). 217 See Sean Maloney, "Better Late than Never," Transforming the Nation: Canada and Brian Mulroney, edited by Raymond B. Blake (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007).

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Canada's renewed investment in national defence and revitalized commitment to NATO.218 The new policy also pledged to increase military funding, capabilities and the Reserve Army (Figure

8).

The White Paper described a neglected Militia that, "had little capacity to contribute usefully to the country's defence," and admitted that the Reserves were subjected to budget stagnation.219 The new policy promised a renewal of the Militia/Reserves, including further integration with the Regular Force, greater funding, better equipment, and pledge to increase its numbers. As the report made clear, "if we are to rely to a greater degree on the Reserves to augment the Regular Force, the size of the Reserves will have to be significantly increased and their training and equipment substantially improved."220 This 'total force concept,' looked to lower the distinction between Regulars and Militia and promote better integration for overseas deployments.221 In order to carry out the Total Force, the Reserve Army received greater funding, improved training and plans to increase the "size and prominence" of the militia "to support the 'big army'" designed by the Mulroney government.222

The implementation of 'Total Force' saw the increased professionalization of the Militia to meet Regular Force standards of expertise, including The Algonquin Regiment. The

218 Sean Maloney, "Better Late than Never," Transforming the Nation: Canada and Brian Mulroney, edited by Raymond B. Blake (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007), 138, 140. 219 Canada, Department of National Defence, Challenge and Commitment: A Defence Policy for Canada (Ottawa: Ministry of Supply and Services, 1987), 65. 220 Canada, Department of National Defence, Challenge and Commitment: A Defence Policy for Canada (Ottawa: Ministry of Supply and Services, 1987), 65. 221 The Trudeau government introduced the total force concept in 1971. The implementation of 'Total Force' promoted increased professionalization of the Militia to meet Regular Force standards, including The Algonquin Regiment. The professionalization of the Militia originally began in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the Militia was subjected to a increase of "realistic" military training. Peter Kasurak, A National Force: The Evolution of Canada's Army, 1950-2000 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013), 200. 222 Peter Kasurak, A National Force, 204-205, 209.

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professionalization of the Militia originally began in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the

Militia was subjected to an increase of "realistic" military training.223 As Lieutenant-Colonel J.

E. Levis told the North Bay Nugget in 1972 (Figure 17), "all the officers feel this was the most realistic training session that the militia has ever gone through since the Second World War." 224

However, due to budget cuts and government ambivalence, this experience was limited until the

1987 White Paper and the implementation of Total Force in the late Cold War period.

By the late 1980s, the implementation of Total Force put pressure on The Algonquin

Regiment to meet Regular Force standards. The soldiers and officers were subjected to more rigorous training and received new weapon systems.225 As the 1989 Annual Historical Report described, "our commitment being larger and larger as we approach the implementation of the

'Total Force Concept Annual.'"226 Despite their status as part-time soldiers, the Algonquin's were expected to meet the same standards as Regular Force counterparts. Aitchison described this standardization process:

There was an effort made to bring us closer and closer in training standards, somebody could look at the sergeant in the infantry and it wouldn't matter if it was Regular or Reserve, you would have the same training, the same abilities, the same capabilities. That was the goal. And the Reserve training was made much more rigorous to make that goal real.227

The Total Force concept put increased pressure and time commitments on citizen-soldiers to meet Regular Force standards in training. The professionalization of the Militia led to further erosion of the social aspects of The Algonquin Regiment.

223 "Realism of military scheme impresses Algonquin troops." The North Bay Nugget, July 10, 1972, 10. 224 Ibid. 225 The Algonquin Regiment, Annual Historical Report, 1989. 5000 Algonquin Regiment, Volume 1 1989-1991 (3 of 3). Ottawa: Directorate of History and Heritage. 226Ibid. 227 Andrew Aitchison, interview.

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As the Senior Officer Ranks Mess newsletter suggested, the increased commitment and rigorous training resulted in "low level of Mess activity" and warned that "there is no real hope of reviving mixed functions on a large scale without ACTIVE participation of some non-Militia members."228 The Militia officers no longer had time for various social events that the Regiment attempted to host. The unit's role as a social club continued to erode as officers and senior ranks faced the more rigorous standards laid out by the Total Force concept.

Some of the participants also emphasized this shift in the militia. As Stickle put it, "the militia of my time has gone."229 He further described the transformation of the Militia during the

1980s and into the 1990s: "it went from a citizen-soldier ready to do your thing, with basic training, to a reserve of the Regular Force [and] used as a reserve. [...] It is a long training course... you get to know a lot more about the job than we used to have to know in the old militia."230 Scagnetti was adamant that The Algonquin Regiment was not a social club, and that aspect of the Militia had died long ago: "Are you here to learn how to be a soldier, or are you here to drink beer?" he asked, stating that you can choose one or the other.231 By the end of the

Cold War, technical and practical training had became more thorough and standards for militia members were increased to meet the Regular Force needs.

Alongside the Total Force concept, the Department of National Defence also implemented plans for a larger, better equipped and expanding army.232 For his part, Lieutenant

Colonel Kennedy (CO from 1985 - 1988) laid out the plans to expand the Regiment's footprint in

228 Martin Leo Troy Garrison Officer's Mess, Moose and Owl, no.20 (21 November 1989). 229 Hugh Stickle, interview. 230 Ibid. 231 Paul Scagnetti, interview. 232 See Peter Kasurak, "The Plan for a 'Big Army,'" A National Force: The Evolution of Canada's Army, 1950-2000 (UBC Press, 2013), 171-216 for further discussion of Canada's plans to expand the Canadian army during the 1980s.

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accordance with the expansion plans for the Army. Completed by 20 June 1987, the plan described Northern Ontario's demographic and geographical challenges, such as the dominance of the forestry and mining industry and the dispersed region with smaller communities. This required a "multi-location establishment" to "make and keep the unit viable and operationally effective."233 In attempting to re-establish the Regiment in its historical locations such as

Kapuskasking and Hailebury, the plan acknowledged that the unit required a "high level of community support and endorsement for its effectiveness in recruiting and retaining members

[and] that the plan will depend, to a significant extent, on popular support."234 Kennedy and the unit leadership decided to stand-up a new sub-unit in Cobalt, with future plans of expansion into

Northeastern and Central Ontario (Figure 18). Apart of this expansion plan, the unit began recruiting efforts in the 'Tri-town area' and started to look for manpower in Kapuskasking in

1988 (Figure 8).235 The Cobalt contingent, stood up in the years after Kennedy's departure as

CO, was the first new sub-unit the Regiment since the downsizing in the 1960s. Cobalt was chosen for its location as a mid-point between North Bay and Timmins, the "suitable training areas" and the "strong community support for expansion."236 By February 1989, recruits from the

'Tri-Town' area were enrolled and the plans for the new company was in the "preliminary

233 Lieutenant Colonel Kennedy, The Algonquin Regiment, Unit Expansion Plan for The Algonquin Regiment, North Bay Ontario, 20 June 1987, 1. 234 The Algonquin Regiment, Unit Expansion Plan for The Algonquin Regiment, North Bay Ontario, 20 June 1987, 3. The plan, as follows, was to establish sub-units in Tri-Towns/Kirkland Lake (Phase 1), followed by Kapuskasking (Phase 2) and then Burks Falls-Huntsville (Phase 3). 235 The area traditionally known as the "tri-town's" encompass Cobalt, Haileybury and New Liskeard. J.P. Wilson, "Militia commander hopes economy will help him boost local regiment," The Nugget, Pages C1. 236 Ibid.

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stages," a process completed by 1992.237 By year's end, the unit held several training exercises in the area and held its annual Christmas dinner in Cobalt rather than North Bay or Timmins.238

The plans and establishment of the Cobalt unit reflected a desire to reclaim the local identity and the presence lost with Unification of the 1960s and complicates, if not overturns,

Willett's analysis of decline. The pledges by the Mulroney government to increase the size of the

Reserve's and Army made expansion possible and while the social nature of the Militia eroded in

North Bay and Timmins, the unit's footprint expanded with attempts to increase presence of the unit in other communities. Though the Cobalt company would later be shut down as a result of renewed cutbacks in the mid-1990s, the successful efforts to possess a new sub-unit demonstrated how the unit actively tried to re-forge links with the communities of Northern

Ontario, its traditional heartland.239

As The Algonquin Regiment attempted to expand back into its traditional heartland, the

Cold War was coming to an end. The Regimental Senate discussed concerns over a drop in recruitment as tensions between east and west began to subside.240 However, for the Canadian

Army and the Militia, the international crisis following the end of the Cold War brought further challenges and opportunities. The experiences of the unit were subject to larger national and international events.

In the international crises of the 1990s Canadian soldiers, unknowingly the time, transitioned from peace-keepers to peace-makers in missions that ranged from Somalia to

237 Darlene Wroe, "Regiment had goal of Tri-Town reserve," Temiskaming Speaker, Wed. February 15th 1989. 238 The Algonquin Regiment. Annual Historical Report, 1992. 239 By 1996, the presence of the Cobalt sub-unit disappears from the Annual Historical Reports. The Annual Historical Reports for the years 1994, 1995 are unavailable. 240 The Algonquin Regiment, Minutes of a Meeting of the Regimental Senate Held at the M.L. Troy Armoury (North Bay, ON: 16 December 1989).

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Rwanda, to the former Yugoslavia. As Regular Army quickly became, "stretched beyond endurance," the government turned to their reserve to augment forces deployed overseas.241 For the Militia, these commitments provided new opportunities for overseas deployment, not as a unit but rather as individual soldiers. As the 1992 Historical Report described, "because of the growing United Nations commitment by the federal Government, the Regular Force is unable to provide all the required personnel. In support of this important commitment, The Algonquin

Regiment sent five personnel to Cyprus."242 In this context, Algonquin soldiers deployed to

Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus and other UN missions as augmenters to the Regular Army (Figure

19).243 During this time, the ranks of Reservists began to grow and, as Major-General Frederic

Mariage, the highest ranking Reserve officer, told the Timmins Daily Press in 1993, "the

Reserves are larger, and better equipped than ever before."244

As deployment opportunities increased, the government conducted extensive special reviews and commissions between 1992 and 1995. In 1995, the Minister of National Defence established the Special Commission of the Restructuring of the Reserves (SCRR), complete with

241 J.L. Granatstein and Lieutenant-General (Ret'd) Charles Belzile, The Special Commission on the Restructuring of the Reserves, 1995: Ten Years Later (Calgary: Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute, 2005), 5; Canadian Armed Forces, The Role of the Reserves; Kurt Grant, "A Role to Play: Examining the Militia Conundrum," Canadian Military Journal Vol.9, No.1 (2008), 47-56. 242 The Algonquin Regiment, Annual Historical Report, 1992. 5000 Algonquin Regiment, Volume 2 1992-1999 (1 of 3). Ottawa: Directorate of History and Heritage. 243 The Algonquin Regiment, Annual Historical Report, 1992. Staff, "Three Timmins soldiers off for tour in Bosnia," Timmins Daily Press, January 3rd 1994. The 2nd Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry (2 PPCLI) Battle group that deployed to Croatia in 1993, had the highest concentration of Reserve soldiers on operation since the Korean War. Furthermore, Paul Scagnetti discussed the creation of a late-1990's Composite Reserve Infantry Company (CRIC), a full Infantry Company manned by Reserve soldiers that deployed to the Balkans. This force required a year and a half work up training for a six month tour, in which Scagnetti recalled that they "did fine... stuff in Bosnia was winding down." Scagnetti, interview. See, BGen (retired) G.E. Sharpe, The Sand Beneath Our Feet: The Changing Mandate in the Croatian Inquiry (Ottawa: J and L Consultants—Board of Inquiry—Potential Exposure to Canadian Forces Personnel to Contaminated Environment—Croatia 1993-1995, dated August 1999). 244 Chris Hornsey, "Timmins reserves pass muster with commander," The Daily Press, March 5th 1993. The Algonquin Regiment, Annual Historical Report,1993. 5000 Algonquin Regiment, Volume 2 1992- 1999 (1 of 3). Ottawa: Directorate of History and Heritage.

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recommendations on revitalizing the Militia. Essentially, the Militia's role of augmenting the

Regular Force Army was maintained, but the historic roles of mobilization and links with the community were revitalized. The militia, by then called the Primary Reserves, was given three distinct roles: "to serve as the basis for augmenting the Regular Force [...] as the basis for full- scale mobilization [and] as the link between the military and the community at large."245 The

SCRR described the militia as "the de facto ambassadors of the CF to the public because of their dispersed locations. [...] Through the Reserve Force, the CF can participate in and garner the support of local communities and maintain a presence throughout the country."246 The

Militia/Army Reserve received the government mandate to maintain civic and social linkages with the community, one of the Militia's oldest responsibilities.247 It was only with new conflicts and a greater reliance of Reserve soldiers did the government attempt to revitalize the

Militia/Reserves in Canada.

The revitalization of the Reserve Army was an outgrowth of shifting defence priorities and a changing international landscape. The end of the Cold War brought cutbacks to the

Regular Forces, and a greater reliance of citizen-soldiers. This continued into Canada's recent mission in Afghanistan.

The interviewees reflected on the impact of the peace-making mission's and the importance of the Afghanistan mission in revitalizing the Reserves and the Canadian Army. With

245 Canada, "Special Commission on the Restructuring of the Reserves," Report (Ottawa: Canada Communication Group - Publishing, Public Works and Government Services, 1995), 18. 246 The Canadian Armed Forces, and Corinne McDonald, The Canadian Armed Forces: The Role of The Reserves (Ottawa: Political and Social Affairs Division, 29 November 1999), PRB 99-11E, http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/prb9911-e.htm (accessed April 15th 2017). 247 During the mid to late 1990s, one of the expressions of this mandate was high school co-op programs, in which students would get high school credits necessary to graduate through enrolling into The Algonquin Regiment and completing a basic recruit course. Ron Grech, "Co- op reserve unit holds graduation ceremony," Timmins Daily Press, June 12th 1998.

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Algonquin's deployed overseas, interviewees drew attention to how awareness and support of the unit expanded. Aitchison, near the end of his long career in 1993, recalled that "the community in general became more aware of the Reserves of the fact that, the guy who went down to the

Armoury on Tuesday and Thursday, was gone for six months, was probably because he was over in an active theatre."248 Interviewees described how awareness of the unit and the military increased with the involvement in the Afghanistan mission.249 Informed by Canada's recent contribution to Afghanistan, Guindon began to see how the relationship between the military and society improved. As an Army Cadet officer in Winnipeg , he recalled how, "I travel in uniform today and I'm walked up to and my hand is given a hard shake and I'm thanked."250

These recent episodes in his life heavily contradicted the negative reactions Guindon experienced while serving in the 1980s, when the Canadian Militia was neglected and had little opportunity to ply its trade overseas. Drouin also discussed the changing perception's and government support for the Militia due to the recent mission in Afghanistan. He recalled the new equipment the

Regiment received due to Afghanistan, as well as popular support. He described how the combat mission "[tied] us closer together" and the "public appreciates you more" witnessing Canadian soldiers actively engaged in combat operations.251 He stressed that this public appreciation was not due to government policies or a "rebranding" from Conservatives, but from the bottom up.252

He willingly stated that, though public perceptions improved, it was "for a not so good reason

248 Andrew Aitchison, interview. 249 This phenomenon came up during the discussions with Hugh Stickle, Stephane Guindon, Fern Taillefer, Aitchison, Ron Drouin. Also note that 20% of the Algonquin Regiment's strength saw service in Afghanistan. In 2015, the unit received the Afghanistan . 250 Stephane Guindon, interview. 251 Ron Drouin, interview. 252 McKay and Swift, Warrior Nation, xi. Ron Drouin, interview.

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either. You got to balance that out. It got better but because of the War in Afghanistan."253 When

Canada became embroiled in conflict overseas, the Canadian Forces garnered attention and greater support again. This support was paralleled with the deployment of citizen-soldiers overseas.

The last thirty years of the Cold War was largely a period of neglect. The Algonquin

Regiment suffered from a series of blows due to the government mandated downsizing and reorganizations in the 1960's. This mandated decline was the result of several interrelated factors intertwined with the 'long-peace of the Cold War,' Canada's defence priorities and government cuts to military spending. The Militia across Canada was given the vague, and unspecific task of recruiting and training soldiers in order to support the Regular Army, and only when called upon.

However, in step with increasing international tensions of the late-Cold War and post-Cold War period, the Canadian government revitalized the Militia, promising better funding and new equipment. In this moment, the Algonquin Regiment began to reclaim its lost holdings in

Northern Ontario, went through increased professionalization to meet Regular Force standards, and saw increase in recruits due to the increased opportunities of overseas deployments.

Furthermore, it was only in the 1990s when the Militia/Army Reserve was re-tasked to retain linkages with the civilian community, a mission that had eroded away during the 1960s.

This chapter has examined how former Algonquin citizen-soldiers recalled this period of decline and revitalization, as the unit was in a constant struggle to recruit and train citizen- soldiers in the 1970s and 1980s despite lacking adequate funds, outdated equipment and declining presence in the community. The participants expressed their frustrations with government defence policies and a lack of preparedness in the event of war, but several also

253 Ron Drouin, interview.

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admitted that decline was a symptom's of Canadian attitudes towards the military in peacetime.

However, even in this period of decline, young Canadian men and women living in Northern

Ontario still enlisted within the ranks of The Algonquin Regiment, keeping the unit and its traditions alive in a period of abstract decline.

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Chapter 3: "I went. I tried it. I liked it. I stayed:"254 Motivation to Serve in The Algonquin

Regiment

In the late interwar period, the media began paying attention to the neglected Militia of the 1930s. Joseph Lister Rutledge, reporting in Maclean's magazine on the annual militia camp in August 1939, could not understand why Canadian men would take time away from their families and civilian work, to carry out military service in their spare time for low pay.255

Rutledge was perplexed by this volunteerism and enthusiasm for military affairs. As Ian Miller pointed out, "money could not explain their behaviour" while Canadian "cultural values offered no justification either."256 Lister gained a greater appreciation for part-time soldiers after spending time with them in 1939. He wrote,

any enthusiasm that can make fifty thousand men, of all classes, give up the major part of their spare time, and some of their liberties, and work amazingly hard at no financial gain to themselves, must have a germ of greatness in it.257

The Canadian militia was and still remains a voluntary organization. Militia members enlisted, participated and then left on their own accords for a multitude of personal reasons. James Wood described the militia as "an organization in which individuals were free to achieve whatever level of competency and expertise their time and interests allowed."258 This is one of the reasons as to why the various Militia Regiments maintained a presence within their communities, as parades, social activities, and civic functions served as recruiting tool for many units in a largely unmilitary society.259

254 Andrew Aitchison, interview. 255 Joseph Lister Rutledge, "This Soldier Business," Maclean's (15 August 1939), 17, 22, 24. 256 Ian Miller, "Toronto's Response to the Outbreak of War, 1939," Canadian Military History Vol.11, No. 1 (2002), 5. 257 Joseph Lister Rutledge, "This Soldier Business," Maclean's (15 August 1939), 17, 22, 24. 258 James Wood, Militia Myths, 37. 259 Ibid., 32.

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This chapter explores the motivation to serve in the Canadian Militia during the 'long- peace of the Cold War.' The latter Cold War period was further compounded by broad shifts in

Canadian society from the 1960s onwards. These include a broad shift to liberalization, transnational counterculture and the New Left, and the emergence of energize minorities fighting for emancipating and civil rights in Canada.260 In this period, North Americans were increasingly aware of inequalities in class, race and gender, while at this same time, anti-military sentiment increased as the anti-Vietnam War movement crossed the border, forming a notion that Canada was a kinder, "peaceable kingdom" than the "warrior nation" of the United States.261

The 1960s and 1970s witnessed a profound transformation and turmoil for the Canadian

Army. The Militia felt the shocks of Unification and went into decline in terms of both numbers and presence. Under Defence Minister , the Militia was tasked to augment and support the Regular Force, an ambiguous mission complicated by downsizing.262 Between 1964 and 1966, Militia units were slashed and some converted to other roles, with overall numbers dropped from 46, 763 to 30,000 by 1965.263 The Algonquin Regiment witnessed this upheaval firsthand, as over half of the unit was dismantled in the mid-1960s, the remaining forces converted from armour back to light infantry, with many Second World War veterans, like Major

Mid Kitchen, forced to retire.264 In short, the transformations of the 1960s not only effected the composition and role of The Algonquin's but fundamentally altered its institutional memory.

260 J.M. Bumstead, A History of the Canadian Peoples, 3rd Edition (Oxford: University Press, 2007), 406-408; Robert Gottlieb, Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement (Washington D.C: Island Press, 1993), 98. 261 Paret, "The New Military History," Parameters (Autumn 1991), 12-13, 16; Sydney F. Wise, "Canada and War: 1600-2000,"in Canadian Military History since the 17th Century: Proceedings of the Canadian Military History Conference (Ottawa: National Defence, 2001), 21. 262 Urquhart, The Changing Role of the Canadian Militia, 116. 263 Ibid., 116, 135. 264 Mid Kitchen, interview.

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Certainly, upheaval and social change did not stop some young Canadians from volunteering and serving in The Algonquin Regiment. Yet, given this context, why would any individual from North Bay or Timmins join a declining institution such as The Algonquin

Regiment? What motivated Canadians to enlist in the Canadian military during peace time? How did the interviewees describe their enlistment experiences? Why did people stay in the unit? And why did people decide to leave both the unit and Northern Ontario? The interviewees described their personal motivations to enlist, stay and depart The Algonquin Regiment. Their recollections described ways in which social, educational and economic status in civilian life paralleled their military one as part-time soldiers. While senior officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) maintained a long term relationship with the unit, professional and personal prospects of many younger members surpassed the unit throughout the Cold War period.

-Why they joined? Motivation to Serve during Peacetime

For soldiers, whether active or not, enlistment can hold significant meaning, a moment in their lives where they made a commitment to an institution responsible for defending the nation.

Stories of enlistment illustrate the ways that interviewees made sense of their decision and how external forces shaped and influenced their decisions to enlist into the military as well as leave the institution.

Motivations to enlist ranged from straightforward reasons to more detailed recollections with interviewees emphasizing financial reasons, family contexts or the media as particular influences on their decision to enlist. Almost all interviewees joined as a teenager, and therefore required parental consent from their parents. The significance of the family context and influence of parents held a prominent place in stories of enlistment. Early exposure to military service in

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childhood and the significance of the military within the family was a constant factor in the recollections of interviewees.

The literature on how and why Canadians joined the military focused on the First and

Second World Wars, when all available resources were mobilized to engage the enemy.265 In terms of primary reasons to enlist, George Cassar noted, “no single reason drove Canadians to the recruiting stations.”266 During both World Wars, military service epitomized fulfilling of one's duty. Social pressure reinforced such notions and manifested in different ways, from government propaganda to grassroots movements, encouraging and coercing Canadians to volunteer.267 Kitchen described his enlistment and what motivated him, and, he claimed, many others to enlist during wartime: "I would like to give you a long story about patriotism and what not, but that was straightly not true. It was simply the thing to do."268 He continued: "At my age and at that time, everybody, or almost everybody, when they turned 18, joined the military."269

Kitchen's reflections, however, do little to help ascertain the motivations to enlist during peace time, when the country was not engaged in fighting a conventional conflict.

265 Janice J. Terry, James P. Holoka, Jim Holoka, George H. Cassar, Richard D. Goff, Cengage Advantage Books: World History (Cengage Learning, 2011), 717. Literature on Canadian's motivation to serve during the Great War see, George Cassar, Hell in Flanders: Canadians at the (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2010), Tim Cook, At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1914-1916 (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2007) and “'He Was Determined to Go:' Underage Soldiers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force,” Histoire Sociale/Social History 41 (2008): 41-74, Terry Copp, “Military Effort, 1914-1918,” in Canada and the Great War: Essays in Honour of Robert Craig Brown, ed. David Mackenzie (Toronto: University Press), 35-61. For the Second World War literature see Jeffery A. Keshen, Saints, Sinners and Soldiers: Canada's Second World War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004), Ian Miller, "Toronto's Response to the Outbreak of War, 1939," Canadian Military History 11,1 (2002), 9-11, and Terry Copp, The Brigade: The Fifth Infantry Brigade, 1939-1945 (Stoney Creek, ON: Fortress Publications, 1992). 266 Cassar, Hell in Flanders, 23. 267 Jeffery A. Keshen, Saints, Sinners and Soldiers, 23. It was also very much present in schools, particularly secondary schools, see John Allison, "Technical School in Toronto: Growing up in the Trades during the Second World War," Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'éducation 28, no.1 (2016): 53-72. 268 Mid Kitchen, interview. 269Ibid.

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Lacking social pressure, interviewees discussed their motivations to enlist during the

‘long peace’ of the Cold War. Some interviewees gave straightforward responses. Savage enlisted in the Hasting and Prince Edward Regiment in 1957 because he "had interest in it," "a lot of my friends joined," it seemed a natural progression from his "cadet experience," and that

"it was something to do" when he was sixteen years old living in southern Ontario.270 Jean Blake joined the CWAC in 1959 when she was eighteen years of age. As she recalled, her two friends in the unit approached her first, asking her to join because they needed clerical help in the

Quarter Master (QM) Stores. As she recalled, "of course I didn't realize I had to join the Army!

[she laughed] That's how I got into it." 271 For Aitchison, sixteen when he joined in 1963, the prospect of driving a Sherman tank drew him to The Windsor Regiment, describing his experiences as an "adventure" and "something fun to do."272 At 25 years old and in a unfamiliar

Northern Ontario town of Timmins, Scagnetti joined the Militia stating that "it was something I had an interest in... I thought I'd try it for a couple of years and see what it was like. Never got out!"273 Drouin simply stated: "my father told me to get a summer job!"274 With a cousin already in the Regiment, enlistment fulfilled his father's wishes and he had little problem in adjusting to military life. For these young soldiers, notions of civic duty, patriotism or nationalism were not prominent motivators to enlist. Only later in life did they reflect on citizenship, and its connection to military service.

The interviewees described the indirect influences in their decisions to join the Cold War militia, such as cadet socialization, family units and other social influences during peace time.

270 James Savage, interview. 271 Jean Blake, interview. 272 Andrew Aitchison, interview. 273Scagnetti credited Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Smerek (CO from 1978-1981) for introducing him to the Regiment when they both worked at Timmins Vocational school in the early 1980's, in which Smerek took Scagnetti "under his wing and three months later [he] was signing up." Paul Scagnetti, interview. 274 Ron Drouin, interview.

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For several, the Militia proved a natural progression from the Cadet Corps. Aitchison enjoyed the lifestyle of Army Cadets and saw Militia service as "a way to carry on."275 Drouin emphasized that he had a "life full of uniforms. Mostly uniforms, cadet uniforms, Scout uniforms, army uniforms."276 Prior to his service with The Algonquin Regiment, he was in the Army and Sea

Cadets as well as the Scouts, and followed in the footsteps of his older cousin. Fern Taillefer, akin to Drouin, joined the local Army Cadet unit, moving on to The Algonquin Regiment when he was sixteen. While in cadets, Taillefer recalled interactions with Algonquin militia soldiers and his reaction on seeing them in uniform. "I want to be one of those!" he exclaimed.277 For interviewees such as Stickle, Savage, Aitchison, Drouin, and Taillefer, an early exposure to military culture and lifestyle proved a common factor in their motivations to enlist in the Militia.

The interviewees such as Savage, Aitchison and Stickle discussed the active presence of

Cadets through their schools and introduced them to military lifestyle and culture.278 The Cadets have been regarded as a space for the socialization in martial ideals. At the same time, it could also be described as a place where "boys could be made into better citizens" and that the military aims never overshadowed the "perceived social utility of the training," with the cadets as a vehicle for social improvement.279 During the 1950s and into the 1960s, the cadet movement was a part of the education system of Ontario, with the government providing a subsidy for every

275 Andrew Aitchison, interview. 276 Ron Drouin, interview. 277 Fern Taillefer, interview. Fern could also recall witnessing soldiers conducting tactical manoeuvres at a young age while visiting Petawawa. 278 Andrew Aitchison, interview; James Savage, interview; Hugh Stickle, interview. As Mark Moss argued, during the Edwardian period, the cadets exposed Ontario youth to militarism that led to war euphoria and motiv]ated young men to volunteer for military service in 1914. See Allison, "Technical School in Toronto: Growing up in the Trades during the Second World War," Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'éducation 28, no.1 (2016): 53-72, and Mark Moss, Manliness and Militarism: Educating Young Boys in Ontario for War (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2001), 3. 279 Wood, Militia Myth's, 163, 8-9.

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Cadet enrolled.280 The place of the military in school system dramatically changed during the

1960s due to both broad changes in society and growing anti-military sentiment.

The influence of family proved a significant motivator with particular attention to the role of the father. In general, the majority of interviewees had fathers and close male relatives with past military experience. Kitchen recalled how his father did not approve of his enlistment in

1943 due to his experiences on the Western Front during the Great War.281 Aitchison's father served in the Air Force during the Second World War, while Savage's father was a career soldier serving in both the Second World War and Korea. In particular, Savage described the role his father played in influencing his decision to enlist as a teenager. Though Savage did not want to

"make a career out of the Army," his father ensured that his son "turn[ed] out for parade" since he had "seen so many guys just evaporate just after they got in."282 Due to this warning, Savage committed his time to the Militia in his youth.

The role of the father was prominent in Erik Growen's story. The son of an Air Force pilot, who had a long term posting at CFB North Bay, he lived in North Bay Ontario from the age of two to eighteen, joining the unit at sixteen in 1985, when the unit's presence in the community, as a civic-social institution, was in decline. Furthermore, despite living on the Air

Force base, Growen had little interaction with The Algonquin Regiment, his first exposure was through high-school friends who were also a part of the unit. As he recalled, during the 1970s and 1980s, "the Army guys did not mix with the Air guys," and, "being heavily immersed in the

Air Force, I never even heard of the Regiment until eventually... until almost the time I joined it."283

280 James Savage, interview. 281 Mid Kitchen, interview. 282 James Savage, interview. 283 Erik Growen, interview.

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When reflecting on his decision to enlist, Growen laughed and offered a quick list of explanations: "I needed a job, friends were already in it―so I knew at least a couple people in―and," he paused, "kinda to piss off my father." He described his enlistment story with humour, emphasizing his father's reaction in joining the Army: "He was not horribly impressed to find out that, y'know, 'Oh ya I'm going to be a ground pounder!'"284 While his father had pushed him towards Air Cadets and perhaps a career in the Air Force, in a moment of youthful rebellion, Growen joined the Army as a infantryman. Like several of the former Algonquin's interviewed, Growen was exposed to the military at an early age. However, he was determined to not follow in his father's footsteps. His father loved flying, while he had no interest in. Whatever his disappointment, Major Peter Growen relented and allowed his sixteen year old son to join

The Algonquin Regiment (Figure 20).

A majority of interviewees had family connections to the military in some way or another. This connection would have exposed the participants to the idea of military service at an early age. Jean Blake's story of enlistment stands in stark contrast to this commonality. She had no military connection and did not feel a strong call to enlist if it was not to help out her friends in the QM Stores. As she described,

Like I don't think I would have walked up there on a Tuesday night and knocked on the door and said, 'Well, I want to join.' I don't think that [...] unless maybe you were from a military family. But you see I wasn't really in a military family because my father was a fire fighter and there was no military connection. That may have a lot to do with people who join as somewhere there is a military connection.

Blake's testimony speaks to the role of family context in the stories of enlistment, despite not having that 'military connection' in her youth. Blake alleged that living in a military family could have played a significant part in why people felt called to enlist, either in the Regular or

284 Erik Growen, interview.

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Militia/Reserve Army. This commonality was present in many of these recollections and why and how they came to join The Algonquin Regiment or the Militia.

The interviewees reflected on their episodes of enlistment in various ways, attempting to make sense of their past and motivations in joining the military. Reflecting on his enlistment,

Guindon told a "silly little story."285 As he described to me,

I'm French, French background, went to French high school all my life, was raised French, and I went to Algonquin High School. So, as a young kid growing up, I thought I'd had the option to joining two Regiments, and when I went into the office to sign up, I was given the choice to join a Regiment called the 26 or The Algonquin Regiment. So, I said "I'll take the Algonquin Regiment." It seemed logical to me knowing nothing about the two. My parents hadn't forewarned me about anything. My brother and sister who were in [the militia] hadn't given me any knowledge or prior information going in. So, I went with my gut and I knew which was the name of my High school.[laughed]286

Given the option in joining either unit at sixteen years of age, Guindon went with the unit which shared the name of his high-school. Despite having some connection military through his father and siblings, he was not particularly aware of what he was committing to and made the decision based on what he knew, the word Algonquin. For Guindon, joining the militia seemed an inevitable, natural thing to do. Like many interviewees, his father's past military experience serving in Korea and his maternal uncle's service during the Second World War with the

Algonquin's led to a greater significance of the military in his family. Furthermore, his older brothers were already in the Militia. As Guindon remembered, there was the "excitement of the uniform" growing up and military service was openly discussed around the dinner table.287 The family's military history played a vital role in the way Guindon described his motivation to enlist.

285 Stephane Guindon, interview. 286Ibid. 287 Ibid.

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Many of the interviews discussed the early exposure to military culture and values, either through Cadets or family history. Taillefer's testimony of enlistment was unique as popular media held a significant place in his motivation. Inspired by television shows such as Combat!, and police dramas such as Dragnet and Adam-12, Taillefer aspired to become a police officer and become a soldier.288 Reflecting on his youthful naivety, he recalled: "I said I wanted to be a soldier that lives in the ground. Digs a trench right! I didn't know they were called infantry at the time."289 Taillefer was set to enlist in the military from an early age and received no protest from his parents. As he stated, "That's what I wanted to do."290 Influenced by television soldiers and the Army Cadets, in 1974, at sixteen, he joined the Militia.

Whether in peace or war time, no single reason drove enlistment. Yet, while personal reasons for enlistment proved myriad, there was a common case of influences. The family context and the role of the father was particularly prominent while early exposure to military either through media or interaction with military culture was central to most interviewees.

Unsurprisingly, an early exposure to the military, many emphasized the ease with adjusting to military life and how they easily embraced the Regimental community in their youth. Taillefer fondly remembered his first days, stating that he "loved it!" and felt as if the military was "made for me."291 For Drouin, the militia started out as a summer job in his adolescence. As he described: "I never looked back. By the end of the summer I just loved it. It was a good fit."292 He described his Militia career as a summer job. A summer job that lasted 43

288 Combat! originally aired on ABC from 1962 until 1967, and ran in syndication in Canada from the 1970s onwards. The program dramatized the experiences of American combat soldiers fighting the Germans in France during the Second World War. 289 Fern Taillefer, interview. 290 Ibid. 291 Ibid. 292 Ron Drouin, interview.

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years when Drouin retired as a Captain in 2015.293 Guindon stressed how he quickly he embraced the unit identity and its history, especially after learning from his mother that his uncles had served in the unit during the Second World War, a fact she did not tell him this until after he was in the Regiment.294 The interviewees learned of the unit's history and identity once inside the institution, a process of instilling military values, Regimental loyalty and identity into them early in their military careers. Most of these enlistment stories are positive ones.

Growen contrasted the others' positive recollections. Reflecting on his initial impression of Militia service, he recalled outdated equipment, small numbers, "horrible" food and the

"regimentation of things."295 Though he did eventually adapt to military regimentation, frustrations with the Militia and the Regiment remained prominent. He recalled, "probably my biggest frustration in the unit as a whole, or my experience as a whole was always the inability of people to articulate exactly why we are doing things in the first place. And, instead, instantly screaming you down for being insubordinate."296 Growen's testimony recalls the lack of clear and articulated goals for the Militia. His recollection speak to the narrative of decline of the

Militia in North Bay. By 1987, Growen decided to leave the Canadian Army at the same time he left Northern Ontario and moved to Ottawa. His militia experience ended in attempt to join

Infantry units in Ottawa, recalling how they wanted him to restart his training despite having the

Infantry Section Commander Course (ISCC). This episode soured any desire to remain in the

Militia.297 Instead, Growen embarked on university education and a full-time civilian career as a teacher in southern Ontario.

293 Ron Drouin, interview. 294 Stephane Guindon, interview. 295 Erik Growen, interview. 296 Ibid. 297 Ibid.

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-Why they Stayed and Why they left

The search for economic and educational opportunities was both a advantage and disadvantage for recruiting and retaining part-time soldiers. The Northern Ontario context influenced the experience of the unit and its soldiers in many ways. Many in the north continually remained mobile, looking for work, education and career prospects both in and outside of the north. Interviewees such as Stickle, Aitchison, Savage and Scagnetti migrated northward in order to pursue civilian careers, bringing their families with them. They settled in the north and had stable careers in public sector jobs. Moving to the northern communities, these men were introduced to and joined The Algonquin Regiment, with many climbing up the ranks to become commanding officers of the unit.298

The permanence of the officer's interviewed was linked to civilian social and economic class. Aitchison, an officer and teacher at West Ferris high-school, never encountered negative reactions in his military career. Wearing his uniform to his school on Remembrance Day, he recalled raising the unit's profile with both his students and fellow teachers.299 Yet such reaction may be explained by the authority he held in civilian life and vice versa. This was contrasted with the memories of junior members of the Regiment such as Guindon, who recalled having negative reactions from civilians while in uniform.300 The civilian social status of officers mirrored their place in the military hierarchy, as they held stable public sector jobs and, at the same time, were rising through the officer ranks.

298 Hugh Stickle served as CO from 1975 to 1978, Andrew Aitchison served twice as CO from 1981 to 1985 and then again from 1991 to 1993, James Savage served as CO from 1987 to 1991, and Paul Scagnetti served as CO from 1997 to 2003. 299 Aitchison, interview. 300 Stephane Guindon, interview.

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Having stable civilian careers in public sector jobs, these men could commit their time towards Militia training, a commitment that required a balancing act. In step with the citizen- soldier ideal, military service was imposed on the lives of civilian professionals. As Stickle expressed, "the best the Militia could ever be is third in your priorities of life."301 Aitchison recalled, as he moved up the ranks, more time commitment was necessary. Becoming the commanding officer resulted in "a hugely increased role of the militia in [his] life," as he was required to attend monthly trips to the Timmins sub-unit and meeting's with Northern Ontario

Militia District (NOMD) command as part of the job.302 Savage's commitment to The Regiment was sustained with the support of his civilian workplace accommodating his militia career. As he stated in 1988, "this (commanding the unit) is taking up a lot of my time, and I'm grateful to the people I work with. They help give me the time I need by changing shifts" (Figure 8).303 Similar sentiments were expressed by other interviewees.

Ron Drouin described his militia experience as exceptional in comparison to the average non-commissioned Militia soldier. Over his years within The Algonquin Regiment, he understood that career and educational prospects were limited in Northern Ontario and many left the northern communities such as Timmins.304 Like the officers, Drouin had a full-time career working as a letter carrier in Timmins. As he described it, he had a collective agreement with his civilian employer which enabled him to conduct military training, and allowed him to stay long

301 Hugh Stickle, interview. 302 Andrew Aitchison, interview. Northern Ontario Militia District existed as a Militia/Reserve formation made up of Northern Ontario units from 1968 to 1991, which transitioned to Land Force Areas from 1991-1997 and then Brigade Groups from 1997 onwards. The Algonquin Regiment is now a part of 33 Canadian Brigade Group, headquarters situated in Ottawa, Ontario. Canadiansoldiers.com, Domestic Military Organization, 1900-1999, https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/organization/districts.htm. 303 James Savage, interview. J.P. Wilson, "Militia commander hopes eocnomy will help him boost local regiment," The Nugget, Saturday, December 3, 1988, Page C1. 304 Ron Drouin, interview.

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enough to become the Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) for nine years and 'commission from the ranks' (CFR) to Captain afterwards. Drouin was 'hooked' by The Algonquin Regiment in his youth and did not officially release until he aged out. As he expressed, "I told myself years, and years ago, I ain't leaving here until they drag me out the door kicking and screaming."305 Drouin was 'hooked' from his first years in the unit, and had the stable civilian career and family support that enabled him to stay in the Regiment until he was forced to retire.

Several of the higher ranking officers interviewees believed that, if the unit could 'hook' young people into the military lifestyle, there was an increased chance they would remain with the unit. Stickle believed that most young people joined the Militia as a job opportunity, but, if the unit "set the hook right, you might have them forever."306 Aitchison shared a similar sentiment in saying: "I still do believe that once people get a taste of the lifestyle [...] the hook will be set and they will stay."307 Such was the experience of Drouin, who stayed with The

Algonquin Regiment for his entire military and civilian career. However, these sentiments reflected the experiences of long serving citizen-soldiers. As Aitchison described it, "I went. I tried it. I liked it. I stayed."308 Long serving officers or soldiers like Drouin had careers and supportive families that facilitated their length of time within the unit. Drouin freely admitted that his experience was exceptional, as he had two successful, long-time careers.309 This was not the case for many who enlisted as a youth.

While long term service proved the norm for the professionally established lead officers, high attrition rates was the norm for the average teenager and average soldier. In the late 1960s, the Department of National Defence emphasised the enlistment of youth for the Militia, between

305 Ibid. 306 Hugh Stickle, interview. 307 Andrew Aitchison, interview. 308 Ibid. 309 Ron Drouin, interview.

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the ages of sixteen and early twenties, as the ideal recruit.310 The Algonquin Regiment partnered with the Federal youth employment programs such as the SSEAP to hook such young recruits.311

Taillefer remembered the relatively large numbers of young teenagers, male and female, in the summer program when he enrolled in 1974. The hope was that most recruits would continue to serve in the unit after they completed their training.312 The unit relied on these youth employment programs during the 1970s and 1980s to fill its ranks.313 Growen pointed out that most of his peers were sixteen or seventeen years of age and "the odd person, of course these would be your , Master Corporals, [and] they were the 'old guys' at like eighteen!

[laughs] [...] So, the turnover was pretty high."314 However, he also stated that in North Bay, "it was pretty much students and teachers that had the time available" to undertake militia service.315

Due to the high attrition rates of younger members, at the institutional level, there was a continuous struggle to recruit and retain personnel in the unit from the late 1970s and 1980s.

Recruitment was heavily emphasized in the recollections of the past commanding officers.316

The unit's social and civic activities were tactics designed to increase awareness of the unit and attract individuals towards militia service.317 To this end, civic parades and 'open houses' were designed to assist recruitment efforts, further reinforced by recruitment teams sent to high

310 Urquhart, The Changing Role of the Canadian Militia, 121-122. 311 See Jennifer Marguerite Keck, "Making Work: Federal Job Creation Policy in the 1970s" (PhD. thesis, University of Toronto). 312 Fern Taillefer, interview. 313 The Annual Historical Reports during the 1970s and 1980s mention youth employment programs several times. For instance, the Annual Historical Report for the 1984 to 1985 Annex D describes the Summer Youth Employment Program for the 1984 year, conducted in Sualt Ste Marie graduated thirty- four riflemen to The Algonquin Regiment. The Algonquin Regiment, Annual Historical Report, The Algonquin Regiment, 1984-1985, 5000 Volume 1 1948-1984, 1 of 3 (Ottawa: Directorate of History and Heritage), Annex D. 314 Erik Growen, interview. 315 Ibid. 316 For example, Aitchison emphasized recruitment as one of the main priorities as CO, was to maintain 120 soldiers in the unit. Andrew Aitchison, interview. 317 James Wood, Militia Myths, 32; O'Brien, "Manhood and the Militia Myth," 133.

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schools and universities, recruiting and weapon displays at malls, and through the local newspapers.318 Despite these attempts, by the late 1980s, the unit was struggling to recruit and retain personnel. As Savage remembered, the Cold War Canadian militia was not a "growth operation by any means." He explained, "we reached a point just before the in 1990/91

[...] where we almost lost critical mass [and] we would hardly be sustainable any longer."319

Growen was even more blunt: "Making it through the 80's," he reflected, "was a feat unto itself."320

Interviewees such as Blake, Taillefer, Guindon and Growen volunteered for Militia service in their youth. Though they could recall fond memories and experiences from that time, their civilian lives, aspirations and career opportunities trumped The Algonquin Regiment. Most of the younger recruits still in high school when they joined the Regiment, migrated out of

Northern Ontario to pursue various careers prospects outside of North Bay or Timmins.321 As

Savage expressed in a 1988 interview with The Nugget, "part of the problem is the nature of the beast. A lot of our people are students in high-school. When they graduate, they go to university out of town, or they move away to get a job" (Figure 8).322 This was the experience of most interviewees who joined the Regiment in their youth. Jean Blake relocated to Toronto in 1965 because, as she described, the city held better job opportunities, better career progression, and a

"better wage."323 She had no desire to become continue with her Militia service because, in her words, "I don't think I would ever have done [Militia service] had it not been for my friends

318 Andrew Aitchison, interview; Ron Drouin, interview; Fern Taillefer, interview. 319 James Savage, interview. 320 Erik Growen, interview. 321 Ron Drouin, interview. 322 P.J. Wilson, "Militia commander hopes economy will help him boost local regiment," The Nugget, Sunday December 3rd 1988, Page C1. 323 Jean Blake, interview.

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needing help."324 Taillefer recalled that he wished to remain in North Bay with the unit, however, his desire to become a police officer outweighed the Regiment, as he transferred to the Regular

Force Military Police in 1980.325 Guindon, Taillefer, Blake and Growen left Northern Ontario to follow personal and career opportunities.326 Young soldiers would enter and leave the unit as they "moved along in life."327As James Savage relates, the unit leadership was disappointed "that they left us when we could have used them the most."328 The younger recruits were full-time citizens, and only part-time soldiers, and their personal lives led them away from the Regiment.

Civilian lives and career prospects had greater priority in the lives of many citizen-soldiers.

Notions of patriotism or citizenship were not significant motivators for those that enlisted in The Algonquin Regiment during the Cold War. Unlike the world wars, there was little societal pressure to enlist. Participants joined and served in the Militia in spite of a lack or place of significance given to citizen-soldier ideal in an era where nuclear weapons made the Militia nearly obsolete. Instead, often personal motivates proved to be the determining factor to enlist.

As we have seen, family histories, experience in cadets, prospects of employment and youthful enthusiasm are far more prominent motivations. Furthermore, the civilian status of the interviewees was replicated in the Militia. The senior members of the Regiment committed more time due to economic and social stability in their civilian professional lives, with most having stable careers in public sector jobs. A majority of the young recruits who lacked stable economic and social status in civilian lives ultimately left the region and, consequently, the Regiment.

324 Ibid. 325 Fern Taillefer, interview. 326 Stephane Guindon, interview; Erik Growen, interview; Jean Blake, interview. 327 James Savage, interview. 328Ibid.

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For interviewees like Taillefer, Guindon, Blake and Growen, the Regiment is closely associated with their youth and the unit impacted them in many ways, carrying their experiences and memories into their later lives. Even though they all left the unit, many of the interviewees still retain links to the dispersed Regimental family. This patterned replicated itself for decades, as new members enrolled, served and left. Fittingly so, as Colonel Strome Galloway wrote:

In many ways a Regiment is like a tree. It has roots, it has branches. And the men [and women] who belong to it are like so many leaves. They come and go with the season. Yet, the tree lives on to see new branches grafted to the main stem. [For] those who say, 'You may leave the Army, but you never leave the Regiment'329

All of the interviewees, despite present geographical location, length of service or background, all share a connection to The Algonquin Regiment for which they served.

Canadian military historians have not examined why and how Canadians joined the military during peacetime, and instead focusing on the total wars of Canada's 20th century.

While unsurprising, this emphasis largely ignores the experiences of Canadian Cold War soldiers who felt called to military service. This chapter adds to the meagre scholarship on motivation to serve in the military, even on a part-time basis. Though young men and women enlisted into The

Algonquin Regiment due to family contexts and circumstances, social and professional factors proved pivotal to their continued service in the unit. The experience of former citizen-soldiers speaks to the ways that social and economic status mirrored their place in the military hierarchy.

The Regiment served as a transitional period in the lives of younger soldiers between adolescence and adulthood, bringing their experiences of Militia service with them into their later professional careers and lives.

329 Strome Galloway, A Regiment at War: The Story of The Royal Canadian Regiment (London, ON: The Royal Canadian Regiment, 1979), 11-12.

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Conclusion

The Cold War was a period of decline for the Canadian Militia. Lacking clearly defined goals and neglected by the Canadian government, it declined in both numbers and prominence in

Canadian society. For The Algonquin Regiment, this was a time of decline was well. From the downsizings in the mid-1960s to the 1980s, the Regiment's numbers and presence in the community went into a decline. The unit faced a struggle to perpetuate itself into the late 1980s, continually trying to recruit individuals, conduct training with decreasing funds, and keep its footprint in Northern Ontario. However, the Regiment survived the Cold War period and, with the remainder of the Militia/Reserve Army, underwent a revitalization period due to a greater reliance on Reserve soldiers and increased opportunities for overseas service.

The interviewees recalled their periods of service and the significance of The Algonquin

Regiment in their lives. Through these voices, stories of resiliency and persistent come through.

Despite being hampered by lack of funds, lack of equipment and a declining presence in the community, these men and women made great personal sacrifices for this Regiment. This was a close-knit community where regional and martial identities were continually forged and maintained, where the biggest concerns was not the Soviet Union, but lack of funding and manpower due to government policies.

Most of the discussion of the Militia/Reserve Army in Canada considers its functional capabilities as a military organization apart of Canada's defence apparatus. Its role as a social and civic institution in the mid and late 20th century has received less attention in Canadian scholarship. The interviewees described the ways that the unit functioned as a social and civic institution at the institutional, fraternal and individual contexts. The Regiment served as a social and civic institution through the 1970s and even into the 1980s despite lacking any mandate from

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the Department of National defence. This was also compounded by the dispersed nature of the unit throughout its history. The Regiment in North Bay continued as a social club for the 'high- society' of North Bay, a reality not reflected in Timmins. At the fraternal level, the unit perpetuated a collective Regimental identity that was shaped by Northern Ontario context and formed by the north's contributions to previous wars. This institutional identity constituted a combination of northern and martial identities as 'rugged' northern soldiers.

The unit attempted to instill recruits with this identity, with both success and failure.

Many young recruits would join and leave the unit within a few years as their life prospects took them away from the Regiment and Northern Ontario. Those that served for longer periods of time conformed to the unit identity. At the individual level, the participants found their way into

The Algonquin Regiment due to personal contexts and motivations, shaped by early exposure to the idea of military service at an early age. They remembered the conditions of the unit to varying degrees, though many still held fond memories of their time within the Regiment and the fraternity that was formed within it. Departing the unit, the interviewees carried with them regional and martial identities and mindsets, still perpetuating ideas of military service and citizenship that had become incongruent with mainstream Canadian society of the late 20th century. These were the ways that the unit functioned as a civic or social institution during the

Cold War period. Though maintaining links with the community when called upon, it also served to instill and perpetuate martial identities and the idea of the northern citizen-soldier.

At the heart of this research is the relationship between Canada's military and its civilian community. This was done through a case study of The Algonquin Regiment and its place in

Northern Ontario during the latter Cold War period. In both recollections of the interviewees and in Canadian literature, Canada has traditionally been considered a non-militaristic society where

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popular support for the military is diminished during peacetime. This has labelled Canada as a

'peaceable kingdom' in comparison to the United States. However, Militia units across the country serve as bastions of martial values and identities in a indifferent society whose relationship with warfare and military service has been a complicated one. The Algonquin

Regiment is a part of Northern Ontario history, and its members have lived and served within this community in various ways for the past century. Bringing their story to a wider audience who know little about military service is a step to bridging a gap between Canadian society and its Armed Forces.

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Figures

Figure 1. A institutional lineage of The Algonquin Regiment, from its predecessor Militia companies to its inception as the 26th Armoured Regiment, Royal Canadian Armoured Corp, 1st October 1954. The modern iteration of The Algonquin Regiment includes the lineage and history of the 23rd Regiment, Northern Fusiliers/Northern Pioneers (1903-1936) following the amalgamation with The Algonquin Regiment on 15 December 1936. Photo taken by the author.

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"The maple leaves and the word "CANADA" represent service to Canada, and the Crown, service to the Sovereign. The bull moose is a symbol of the region in which the regiment was raised. "THE ALGONQUIN REGIMENT" is the regimental title and "NE-KAH-NE-TAH" is the motto of the regiment" [loosely translated into (Let us lead) or (We Lead, We Follow)].330

Figure 2. The Algonquin Regiment crest and description from 1930s to present.

Figure 3. Officers and senior ranks of the 97th Regiment, Algonquin Rifles, taken at Camp Niagara in 1909. Photo courtesy of Bill Alexander.

330 Directorate of History and Heritage, Official Lineages, Volume 3, Part 2: Infantry Regiments, The Algonquin Regiment, http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-3/par2/ar-eng.asp

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Figure 4. Regimental accoutrements of the 97th Regiment of Rifles (1900-1903) (top) and then the 97th Regiment, Algonquin Rifles (1903-1920) (below) worn on leather cross-belts historically used by rifle regiments. The ones on the right were worn by officers and the ones of the left were worn by other ranks. Photo courtesy of Bill Alexander.

Figure 5. Regimental accoutrements of "The Northern Pioneers" (1903-1936). The Algonquin Regiment adopted the Pioneer wolf-head and canoe collar dogs in 1942 to perpetuate the Northern Pioneer's and Algonquin soldiers wear them on their dress uniform to this day.331

331 Macfie, Sons of the Pioneers, ix. Photo from The Museum on Tower Hill, Remembrance, accessed 27 October 2018, http://museumontowerhill.com/page.php?unid=51.

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Figure 6. Algonquin Regiment personnel on a firing range, utilizing the Canadian variant of the Belgium FN Light Automatic Rifle, C2A1, circa 1970s. Photo courtesy of Bill Alexander.

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The First World War

YPRES, 1915, '17; FESTUBERT, 1915; ARRAS, 1917; HILL 70; SOMME, 1918; St. Quentin; Bapaume, 1918; ; Epéhy; St. Quentin Canal; Beaurevoir; Cambrai, 1918; FRANCE AND FLANDERS 1915, 1917-18.

The Second World War

FALAISE; Falaise Road; The Laison; Chambois; The Seine, 1944; Moerkerke; THE SCHELDT; Breskens Pocket; The Lower Maas; THE RHINELAND; The Hochwald; Veen; Küsten Canal; Bad Zwischenahn; NORTH-WEST EUROPE, 1944-1945.

War In Afghanistan

Figure 7. The modern Colours of The Algonquin Regiment and Battle Honours the Regiment received through its participation in both World Wars, Afghanistan mission and through perpetuating battle honours of The Northern Pioneers.332

332 The bolded battle honours are those that are emblazoned on the Regimental Colours. The Algonquin Regiment was awarded the War in Afghanistan Battle Honour in 2014, https://web.archive.org/web/20140512231549/http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2014/05/09/south-west-asia-theatre- honours. Director of History and Heritage, Official Lineages, Volume 3, Part 2: Infantry Regiments, The Algonquin Regiment, http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-3/par2/ar-eng.asp.

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Figure 8. December 1988 Nugget interview with Lt.Col. James Savage, then CO of The Algonquin Regiment, discussing recruitment, retention, nature of Militia service and impact of the 1987 White Paper on Defence. In The Algonquin Regiment, Annual Historical Report, 1988. 5000 Algonquin Regiment, Volume 1 1985-1988 (2 of 3) (Ottawa: Directorate of History and Heritage).

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Figure 9. Photo of Junior Ranks mess, circa 1980's. Chief Ted King (2nd from right, deceased) and Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Aitchison (far right). Photo courtesy of Jacob King.

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Figure 10. News Year's Levee, 1967, a traditional event hosted by government institutions and military units in order to welcome in the 'new year.' Photo courtesy of Jacob King.

Figure 11. The North Bay Nugget photo on New Year's Levee circa, 1972-1979, featuring senior personnel and associate members. Photo courtesy of Jacob King.

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Figure 12. Personnel of The Algonquin Regiment (26th Armoured Regiment), Royal Canadian Armour Corp, conducting training on a Sherman tank, circa. 1954 to early 1960's. Photo courtesy of Bill Alexander.

Figure 13. Young Algonquin soldiers posing for a photo on top of a Sherman tank, circa 1954 to early 1960s. Photo courtesy of Bill Alexander.

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Figure 14. Cpl Fern Taillefer, age 19, in Egypt with the Canadian United Nations Egypt Force 2 (UNEF 2), October 1977 to April 1978. Photo courtesy of Fern Taillefer.

Figure 15. Algonquin Regiment soldiers conducting military training in Grayling Michigan, circa 1970s. Photo courtesy of Jacob King.

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Figure 16. The Algonquin Regiment Guidon with colour guard, most likely during its laying up ceremony in North Bay City hall, circa 1980's. Photo courtesy of Bill Alexander.

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Figure 17. The North Bay Nugget article on The Algonquin Regiment military training with Regular Force during concentrated summer training, July 10 1972. Article illustrates the first early attempts to increase Militia proficiency in combat training in accordance with Total Force concept. Photo courtesy of Jacob King.

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Figure 18. Map used in the Unit Expansion Plan for The Algonquin Regiment, 1987, with then current and potential locations marked. In The Algonquin Regiment, Unit Expansion Plan for The Algonquin Regiment. North Bay: Martin Leo Troy Armouries, 20 June 1987.

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Figure 19. Timmins Daily Press news article on Algonquin Regiment soldiers deployed to Bosnia, January 3rd 1994, in The Algonquin Regiment, Annual Historical Report, 1994. 5000 Algonquin Regiment, Volume 1 1989-1991 (3 of 3) (Ottawa: Directorate of History and Heritage).

Figure 20. Erik Growen of The Algonquin Regiment during tactical military exercises, circa 1985-1987. Photo courtesy of Erik Growen.

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Appendix A: Short Interviewee Biographies

Aitchison, Andrew

Lieutenant Colonel (Ret'd) Andrew Aitchison was born in Cornwall Ontario in 1947. He first joined The Windsor Regiment (Royal Canadian Armoured Corp) in January of 1963 at age 16 as a non-commissioned member (NCM). Aitchison then moved to North Bay Ontario with his wife for civilian work and joined The Algonquin Regiment in September of 1970, transferring to the Infantry Corp. He later became an officer and then commanding officer (CO) of the unit from 1981 to 1985 and again from 1991 to 1993, retiring in 1997. He also held the position of Honorary Colonel of The Algonquin Regiment after his retirement. Aitchison was a high school teacher during his time in the unit. He currently is retired and lives in North Bay Ontario.

Blake, Ursula Jean

Jean Blake was born in London England in 1942. Blake immigrated to Canada in 1956 and came to North Bay Ontario. She joined The Algonquin Regiment, as a member of the Canadian Woman's Army Corp as a clerk, in 1959 at age of 18 and served in the unit until 1964 when she moved to Toronto Ontario to work as a teacher. After her retirement from the workforce, she became involved in the Parry Sound branch of the Algonquin Regiment Veterans Association and Ladies Auxiliary of the Royal Canadian Legion, Parry Sound Branch 117. She still resides in Parry Sound assisting her son in his business.

Drouin, Ron

Captain (Ret'd) Ron Drouin was born and raised in Timmins Ontario. He joined The Algonquin Regiment in 1973 at age 16. He served in The Algonquin Regiment from 1973 to 2015, totalling 42 years in the unit and Canadian Army. He was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) in 1998 until 2007 and then commissioned in 2008 becoming a Captain until his retirement in 2015. As an officer, he had several roles and positions in the unit, including unit historical officer. In civilian life, he served as a letter carrier for Canada Post from 1977 to 2010. He is now retired and lives in Timmins Ontario, and remains active in the Royal Canadian Legion.

Guindon, Stephane

Stephane Guindon was born in Kapuskasking Ontario in 1963 and raised in North Bay Ontario. He served in The Algonquin Regiment from 1980 to 1987 as a non-commissioned member (infantry) reaching rank of . Guindon left the unit in 1987 when he moved to Winnipeg Manitoba with his partner and focused on building his own flooring installation business. He now lives in Winnipeg, still in the workforce, and became a Cadet Instructor Cadre (CIC) officer with the 1226 Fort Garry Horse Cadet Corps in 2010 and currently is CO of the Corp. He also

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volunteers with and Royal Winnipeg Rifle museum. Guindon is also a avid collector of Army and Algonquin Regiment militaria.

Growen, Erik

Erik Growen is the son of a Air Force officer who was stationed at CFB North Bay. Growen joined the unit as a NCM (infantry) in 1985 when he was 16 years old. He left the unit and the Canadian Armed Forces to attend university in Ottawa in 1987, studying History and Political Science. Growen now lives in Waterloo Ontario and works as a teacher.

Kitchen, Midford

Major (Ret'd) Midford Joseph Kitchen was born in 1926 and raised in Parry Sound Ontario. He joined the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Infantry Corp, in 1943 at age of 17. After demobilization in 1945, he went through the Canadian Officer Training Corps at the University of Toronto (Bachelor of Applied Science) and then joined the 2 Field Engineer Regiment (1946 to 1958) as a Militia officer. Kitchen moved to North Bay in 1959 with his wife due to his job with the Department of Public Works of Canada. He served as CO of 8th Field Squadron in North Bay from 1959 to 1963. Kitchen transferred to the Armoured Corp and became Deputy Commanding Officer (DCO) of The Algonquin Regiment (R.C.A.C), serving in the unit from 1964 to 1966. He was retired to Supplementary Reserve in 1966. From 2008 to 2016 he served on executive of the Parry Sound branch of The Algonquin Regiment Veterans Association. He now resides between Fort Myers, Florida during winter and Parry Sound for the remainder of the year.

Savage, James

Lieutenant Colonel (Ret'd) James Savage was born in 1940. The son of a Canadian Army soldier, he was raised in multiple locations during his youth. He joined the Hasting and Prince Edward Regiment in 1957 at the age of 16 as a NCM (Infantry). He later commissioned and completed his first officer qualifying courses in 1964. Though he left the military for several years, Savage came to North Bay as an air-traffic controller and joined The Algonquin Regiment in 1977. He became CO of the unit from 1988 to 1991 before transferring to the Supplementary Reserve and officially retired in 1995. Savage lives in Ingleside Ontario.

Scagnetti, Paul

Colonel (Ret'd) Paul Scagnetti joined The Algonquin Regiment while living in Timmins in 1981 when he was 25 years old, becoming CO from 1997 to 2003. He was a high school literature teacher in Timmins for 29 years. After his time as CO, Scagnetti became 33 Brigade commander in 2006. He deployed as Task Force Commander, Freetown Garrison Advisory and Support Team (FGAST), for Operation SCULPTURE from 2004–2005 in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and was deployed to Afghanistan, Operation ATHENA from 2010-2011, as the Senior Mentor at The

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Afghan National Army Command and Staff School, working on the Junior Officer Command and Staff Course in Kabul. Scagnetti reached the compulsory retirement age in November of 2011 and now lives in Breslau Ontario.

Stickle, Hugh

Colonel (Ret'd) Hugh Stickle was born in 1937 in Calgary, Alberta. Stickle joined the Reserve in 1954 and later joined the Regular Force in 1956. He served in the RCAF from 1954 to 1965. Leaving the military in 1965, Stickle attended University of Guelph (Bachelor of Science, Honours) and moved to North Bay to become a high school science teacher in 1969. In April of 1969, Stickle joined the Militia, first with the 8 Field Squadron Royal Canadian Engineers and then joined The Algonquin Regiment in April of 1970, becoming its CO from 1975 to 1978. Stickle later served as the first CO of 26th Service Battalion and then Northern Ontario Militia District Commander from November 1988 to October 1992, ending his military career at the rank of Colonel. He was Honorary Colonel of 26th Service Battalion, from July 1993 to 2001. He is now retired and lives in North Bay.

Taillefer, Fern

Fern Taillefer was born in 1958 in Sudbury Ontario. He joined The Algonquin Regiment through the Student Summer Employment Activities Program (SSEAP) in the summer of 1974 at the age of 16. He was deployed to Egypt with Canadian United Nations Peacekeeping Forces (UNEF 2) from October 1977 to April 1978. In 1980, Taillefer transferred to the Regular Force, Military Police. He served in the Regular Force for 16 years, reaching the rank of Warrant Officer. Taillefer went on to work for the Toronto Transit Commission as a Special Constable after the military. He now lives in Barrie and is actively involved in the Royal Canadian Legion in Barrie, Canadian Association of Veterans In United Nations Peacekeeping (CAVUNP), The Algonquin Regiment Association, Canadian Airborne Forces Association and several other groups.

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Appendix B: Information Letter and Consent for Participants

Participant Information Letter and Consent for Identified Participants

You are invited to participate in a research study entitled "'Being Resilient, Being Reliable, and Being Resourceful:' An Oral History of The Algonquin Regiment, 1960s to 1990s" conducted by Nicholas G. McGuire, a graduate student from the Nipissing University History Department. The testimony from this oral history interview will be used to contribute to a research paper on the experiences of former Canadian citizen-soldiers who served in the Algonquin Regiment during the latter half of the Cold War.

If you have any questions or concerns about the research, please feel free to contact:

Nicholas G. McGuire, Primary Researcher, Nipissing University. Phone: Email: or Dr. Stephen Connor, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Nipissing University. Phone: Email:

Participation Procedures and Information

Please read over the following procedures and check the provided options if you agree to them. The contents of your interview will not be used in the researchers final paper unless every procedure is agreed to by the participant.

If you agree to participate in this study you will be asked to participate in 1 one-on-one oral interview with the primary researcher that will be recorded with an audio device. The length of the interview will be approx 2 hours and you will be asked a series of questions related to your time serving in The Algonquin Regiment and Canadian Armed Forces. Furthermore, you will be asked to fill out an initial biographical and general military service survey sheet in order to give the primary researcher basic information about your military service before the interview (see attached questionnaire).

The last phase of this process will include a follow-up letter. This will include the transcript review and a optional reflection exercise. A transcript of the interview will be provided to you when it is completed and you will have one week to review it and return it to the researcher. At this same time, you will be given a work sheet in which you will have the opportunity to reflect or comment on the interview experience, or share any other information you wish to include in your testimony. The additional information you wish to include will be added to your testimony, while any comments on the interview process or personal reflections will only be read by the

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researchers themselves. The contents of the transcript will be used by the researcher with your approval.

You are under no obligation to participate in the interview and are free to withdraw at any time with all of the materials and knowledge you have shared with us. Any data collected from the interview prior to your withdrawl will be immediately destroyed by the reseacher and assistant professor if you decide to do so.

We will respect your wishes with regards to the confidentiality of your indentity. Your identity will not be revealed in the research following your interview with the researcher unless you consent to have it included. The researcher will compile the contributions of your interview with other secondary source material regarding the Canadian military, Reserve Army and Algonquin Regiment in Northern Ontario. No information about your identity will be obtained from other sources.

___ Please acknowledge here that you wish to remain anonymous and identity will not be revealed in the study following the interview.

If you wish to do so, your knowledge and testimony can either be securely stored and destroyed after a period of 5 Years or with your permission donated to Nipissing University archives with the understanding that it may be used for further research purposes only. You also have the option to share the transcripts with the Algonquin Regiment archives as well. Please choose from the following four options:

____Please acknowledge here that you would like to donate your testimony to Nipissing University archives for future research purposes only.

____Please acknowledge here that you would also like to share your testimony and transcript to the Algonquin Regiment historical archives.

Or

____Please acknowledge here that you would like to have your testimony securely stored and destroyed after 5 years.

___ Please acknowledge here if you would prefer another option. There is space provided to comment on the second page.

You will be provided with a copy of the researchers final paper once it is completed. The final paper will be presented by the researcher in Nipissing Universities Graduate Student Conference, May 2017.

The Canadian Department of National Defence is not funding and has not approved this research.

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Potential benefits resulting from your participation in the interview include:

The opportunity to discuss your experience as a Canadian citizen-soldier during the Cold War and having your voice heard. Providing an opportunity for students and society to learn more about the experiences of Canada’s Army Reservists and to further understand the nature of Reserve service in Canada.

Potential risks resulting from your participation in the interview include:

Given the prevalence of Operational Stress Injuries (OSI) among veterans who have been involved in overseas and domestic operations, some interview questions asked by the researcher may classify as sensitive or highly personal issues for the participant. Once again, you have the opportunity to withdraw from the study at any time if you feel uncomfortable during the interview. Participants looking for resources regarding more information on OSI can refer to or contact: Canadian Mental Health Association: http://www.cmha.ca or call 1-(416)-977-5580 Veterans Affairs Canada: www.veterans.gc.ca or call 1-(800)-268-7708 Operational Stress Injury Support Service: https://www.cfmws.com/en/AboutUs/DCSM/OSISS or call 1-(416)-633-6200 ext2665. North Bay Regional Health Centre – Mental Health Clinic call 1(705)-494-3050 Please comment or outline any specific wishes you have regarding the handling and/or application of the content of your interviews below:

Confidentiality Process

Any information obtained in connection with this study that can be identified with you will remain confidential and will be disclosed only with your permission. Participation in this study is voluntary and you are free to withrdaw at any time. You have the right to refuse to answer any question(s) that you find objectionable or make you feel uncomfortable. You may withdraw your consent at any time and discontinue participation without penalty.

Informed Consent to Participate in Research

As a participant in this research project, I clearly understand what I am agreeing to do, and that I am free to decline involvement or withdraw from this project at any time, and that steps are being taken to protect me. I have read this Participant Information Letter and Consent Form and have had any questions, concerns or complaints answered to my satisfaction. I have been provided a copy of this letter. Name (print) Date

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______

Signature

______

The Ethics Clearance statement: This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through Nipissing University’s Research Ethics Board. If you have questions regarding your rights as a research participant, contact: Ethics Administrator, Nipissing University, 100 College Drive, North Bay, ON P1B 8L7 or

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Appendix C: Biographical and Military Service Worksheet

Biographical and General Military Service Work Sheet Instructions: Please fill this worksheet out to the best of your knowledge, as it will assist the Primary Researcher with preparing for the oral interview.

Personal/Background Information

Name:______Year of Birth: ______Province of Birth: ______Highest level of Education: ______Hometown (if different from town of birth): ______

General Military Service

Date of Enlistment: ______Age: ______Location: ______Branch(s) of Service: ______Enlisted in Regular/ first: ______Unit(s): ______Location of Algonquin Regiment Company you paraded with (i.e. North Bay, etc): ______Highest rank or grade held in the Canadian Armed Forces: ______

Please describe the local recruiting process with which you were involved in: ______Did you transfer between Regular and Reserve Force in your career? If so, when and where to (trade, branch, etc)? ______

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______What was your civilian occupation (during your Reserve service)? ______

What was your initial reaction upon entering The Algonquin Regiment? ______Did you deploy on a overseas or domestic operation? If so, name of Op, where, when and how long? ______

Please List the Training Courses that you received, as applicable:

Place Dates Basic

Trade Training

NCO Leadership Courses (if applicable)

Officer Training Courses (if applicable)

Airborne (if applicable)

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Other Courses (Specify)

When did you release from the Canadian Forces? Can you briefly describe the circumstances of your release (i.e. retirement, relocation, etc.)?: ______

Any questions or concerns regarding this worksheet, please feel free to contact: Nicholas G. McGuire, Phone:

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Appendix D: Basic Interview Questions

For the Record:

This is The Algonquin Regiment Oral History project interview with [interviewee]

Date and Time: It is recorded on ______.

Location: At

Interviewed by [interviewer] Nicholas McGuire

[Interviewee] do I have permission to record this interview?

Who? I am Nicholas McGuire and I am here with [interviewee], a former member and soldier of the Algonquin Regiment who served in the unit from [year] to [year].

What? We are conducting an interview for the Algonquin Regiment Oral history project on the Cold War and the experiences of the soldiers who served in the regiment during that time. These testimonies will be used as research for my own Major Research Project. This project has been approved by Nipissing University Research Ethics board, application number 101172.

A. Biographical Questions and Recruitment:

1. Can you give me a brief biographical sketch, where you are from, your home town, family background? a. Where did you grow up? What was it like living there? b. What did your parents do for a living? c. Were you involved in any youth organizations (i.e. scouts, cadets, etc)? d. What is your family background like? e. Did you have any relatives in the military before you joined? 2. What comes to mind when you think on the presence of the military in growing up in your home town/Timmins/North Bay? a. Was the militia a prominent institution when you were growing up? b. What did you know about The Algonquin Regiment before joining? 3. You joined at [age], why did you join The Algonquin Regiment? a. What was your family's feelings over you joining the military? 4. Recruiting process: a. Can you describe your recruitment process? What was it like? What were the steps in order to join The Algonquin Regiment? b. What information did the Army recruiters provide to you about the nature of part- time military service?

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B. Experiences Upon Joining the Military:

1. When you first joined to the Algonquin Regiment, what were your initial impressions of the unit? a. How big was the unit in ____ ? b. What was the conditions of the unit? Equipment, numbers, training, benefits, etc? c. Who were the CO and RSM? Anything sticks out in your mind about them? 2. What sticks out in your mind as the most memorable experiences from basic training? a. Any unpleasant or pleasant memories from your early training? 3. How did you adapt to military life, including physical regimen, armoury life, food and social life?

C. Citizen-Soldier Identity and Experience

1. Thinking back on your army militia service, in your own words can you describe what being a Militia soldier is and what it means to you? a. During your time, what did you believe was the goal of the Militia/Army Reserves was? b. In your own words, what is a citizen-soldier? 2. What was it like being both a member of the civilian community and being a soldier? 3. In what ways did your career as a soldier impact or shape your civilian life or visa versa during your militia service? 4. In what ways did you manage your life as both a citizen, a member of the civilian community, and a soldier? a. Was there any strategies you adopted in balancing the two? 5. You were a [civilian job] during most of your military career. Did your civilian employer know about your military career? a. If so, what was the relationship like with your civilian employer when it came to fulfilling your military duties? 6. For a majority of your service, as most militia soldiers, you had a civilian life outside the military. Did you see any changes in how people perceived the military over time in your civilian workplace? a. How did your civilian peers respond to your military service? 7. Did you belong to any other community groups or organizations in Timmins while with the Regiment? (i.e. Cadets, Scouts, church organizations, etc.) D. Civil Military Relations

1. The Militia has been described as both being a social/civic and military institution, as a link between the military and civilian population. Would you describe your experience in the Algonquin Regiment as having a social component? *Militia as having a social function, as a vehicle for social mobility, expression of civic or local identity, networking, etc.

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a. If so, how would you characterize that? 2. A prominent Canadian historian, George Stanley described Canada, and I quote, "as a unmilitary community. Warlike her people have often been forced to be, military they have never been."333 What is your reaction to that statement? a. Do you feel as though he is correct in his view? b. Why? c. In what ways do you think that this impacts the Militia? 3. Terrence Willet was a Anglo-Canadian sociologist with a British military background. He observed that while teaching in University during the 1970s, many Canadians, and I quote, "held negative and uninformed attitudes of the military" or held "a general lack of interest[...] that bordered on hostility." What is your reaction to this observation? i. Did you have any similar experiences while serving in [years]? ii. Why do you think that is so? 4. What was the relationship between the Algonquin Regiment and the North Bay community like during your time in the Regiment? a. How knowledgeable were civilians of the Algonquin's during your time in the Regiment? b. Did you encounter civilians while in uniform. If so, what was their reaction? 5. Some historians writing about the Canadian Army and militia after the Korean War emphasise decline of the institution in Canada. Looking back now, was there a sense that the army in general was in decline from the 1960s to 1980s?*Professionalism, numbers, civil-military relations a. What about your years in the Canadian army? 6. In your opinion, what were the most significant negative and positive outcomes to how the federal government treated the Canadian Forces during the 1960s or 1970s or 1980s?

Cold War:

1. What does the term "Cold War" mean to you? 2. What were some of your beliefs regarding the Soviet Union before you entered the Forces? When you were a child, did you hear people talking about nuclear weapons? How were the general feeling about these weapons? 3. The Soviet Union was considered Canada's principal military threat during the Cold War, how was the unit prepared to fight in a potential war with the USSR? a. In your opinion, was there a role for the Militia in fighting the USSR? 4. What if any, were your fears regarding the Soviet Union and nuclear war while in the Regiment? Were you or other Algonquin soldiers afraid that there would be a hot war? When did you feel that way?

333 G.P. Stanley, Canada's Soldiers: The Military History of a Unmilitary People, 3rd edition (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1974), 23.

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5. When it came to military affairs and possibility of war with USSR, what was the nature of the relationship with 22 Wing during your period of service? *North Bay was a nuclear target

6. In your opinion, in what ways did the Algonquin Regiment contribute to the defence of Canada during the Cold War?

Personal/Unit Experiences:

1. Can you give me a sketch of your military career while in the Algonquin Regiment? a. What were your duties and responsibilities? b. Did you have any leadership responsibilities? If so, what was your leadership training like? c. What were your leadership responsibilities? 2. What are the most significant memories you have of your military service while in the Algonquin Regiment? 3. What were your relationship like with your fellow peers? a. NCO's? b. What about officers? 4. Where did you travel while in the service? 5. Was there anything particular that the unit prided itself on? (i.e. unit identity, unit history, etc.)

Military Affairs:

1. What do you think was the biggest challenges the unit faced during the _____? 2. Generally speaking, what did you perceive as the greatest challenge the Regiment faces in being a unit in Northern Ontario? a. In what ways did the unit meet these challenges? 3. How would you describe the morale of the unit during your time with the Algonquin Regiment? a. Why do you think it was that way? 4. What was the nature of Algonquin Regiment training during your time in the Regiment a. What was your typical training year like and what was the training priority? 5. How many women were in the unit during your time? a. What positions did they have in the unit? b. What were gender relations like between men and women in the militia? 6. During your career and time with the Algonquin Regiment, what was the relationship between the Militia and the Regular force like at that time? a. Why so? b. Would you characterize it as a bad relationship between Regular Force and Militia?

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G. On Leaving the Military:

1. Why did you leave the Algonquin Regiment? 2. In what ways was your militia career a positive and negative experience on your life? 3. In your opinion, what is the biggest challenges and benefits in Army Reserve service? 4. Good relationships with other previous members? Keep in touch? 5. Who do you think I should talk to next and who do you think would be willing to talk to me? 6. Is there anything you would like to add that we have not covered in this interview?

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Interviews Conducted by Author Lieutenant Colonel (Ret'd) Andrew Aitchison, North Bay, Ontario, 5 January 2017. Jean Blake, Parry Sound, Ontario, 10 March 2017. Captain (Ret'd) Ron Drouin, Timmins, Ontario, 17 December 2016. Erik Growen, Phone Interview, 14 March 2017. Stephane Guindon, Phone Interview, 19 February 2017. Major (Ret'd) Mid Kitchen, Skype Interview, 11 January 2017. Lieutenant Colonel (Ret'd) James Savage, Phone Interview, 21 January 2017. Colonel (Ret'd) Paul Scagnetti, Skype Interview, 11 January 2017. Colonel (Ret'd) Hugh Stickle, North Bay, Ontario, 7 January 2017. Fern Taillefer, Phone Interview, 03 March 2017.

Interviews - Canadian Military Oral History Collection, University of Victoria. Del Villano, Lorne G. My Cold War Recollections. Martin Roznowski. March 5th 2011. Triplett, Leslie E. My Cold War Recollections. Martin Roznowski. March 4th 2011.

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Miscellaneous Granatstein, J.L., and Lieutenant-General (Ret'd) Charles Belzile. The Special Commission on the Restructuring of the Reserves, 1995: Ten Years Later. Calgary: Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute, 2005.

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