Rusty the Mountie

To most people, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or Mounties, as they are affectionately called in Canada, are one of the defining stereotypically Canadian symbols that define Canada as a nation to the rest of the world. Most kids, at one time or another, dream of becoming Mounties and thus helping to "Maintain the Right", or alternately, "Maintain the Law", as their official motto says when translated from Latin into English. With their big red coats, famous Stetson hats, and brown leather riding boots, even they must admit that their dress uniforms look distinguished.

What if one very special little boy did not just dream of becoming a Mountie when he grew up, but actually was one. Well, for one boy named Honorary Corporal Rusty, being a member of the North West Mounted Police, in the entirely fictitious place of Fort Johnston, North-West Territories, (in modern-day Saskatchewan) is a reality.

The story starts when a group of Mounties on patrol discover a wagon out in the Northern Prairies along the North Saskatchewan River on October 1st, 1873. Corporal Rusty is the little boy who was found along with his dog, Constable Rin Tin-Tin, and adopted by the Mounties of Fort Johnston, just after their Great March West in 1873. Rusty was orphaned when his parents were killed in a wagon accident. Since then, Rusty and his dog, Rin Tin-Tin, were Honorary Mounties in the North West Mounted Police. Rusty was taken back to Fort Johnston and raised as a Mountie by the other Mounties. So, join Corporal Rusty and the other Mounties on their adventures as they ride the rim of the British Empire out on the Western Canadian frontier between 1873 and 1882. All the while they are trying to help bring and also keep peace, law, order, justice, and good government for the citizens of the North-West Territories of the Dominion of Canada!

"They are to be purely a civil, not a military body, with as little gold lace, fuss, and fine feathers as possible; not a crack cavalry regiment, but an efficient police force for the rough and ready - particularly ready - enforcement of law and justice." (Sir John A. Macdonald's introduction in Parliament of the North West Mounted Police Act on May 3rd, 1873.)