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RCMP Training Academy & Heritage Centre
Off Dewdney Ave. WAbout
This is the primary training facility for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or the Mounties, who function as both Canada's national police and the country's version of the FBI. Tours of the training grounds and academy are offered Monday to Friday at 1:30pm. In addition to visiting the chapel -- the oldest building in Regina -- you can watch fledgling Mounties strut their stuff during Sergeant Major's Parade, which normally takes place around 12:45pm Monday to Friday. The schedule is tentative, so call before you go. In July and early August, the Sunset Retreat Ceremony -- an event that dates from the RCMP's roots -- takes place on Tuesdays just after 6:30pm; it's an exciting 45-minute display of horsemanship by the Mounties accompanied by pipe and bugle bands. In addition to these activities, the RCMP Heritage Centre, opened in 2007, traces the fascinating history of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police since 1874, when they began the Great March West to stop liquor traffic and enforce the law in the Northwest Territories. In six different galleries, the museum documents the lives of the early Mounties and pioneers using replicas, newspaper articles, artifacts, uniforms, weaponry, and mementos to illustrate the Mounties' role in the 1885 Riel Rebellion, the Klondike Gold Rush, the Prohibition era, world wars I and II, the 1935 Regina labor riot, and the capture of the mad trapper (who was pursued in arctic temperatures for 54 days in 1931-32). In addition to the main exhibits, the RCMP Heritage Centre offers an impressive 27-minute multimedia presentation called "Tour of Duty" -- it's definitely worth seeing.
