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In May of 1873 the then Canadian Parliament established a central police force. Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald modeled this police force on the Royal Irish Constabulary, and they came to be known as the North West Mounted Police, NWMP. One hundred and fifty new recruits were dispatched to Manitoba.  
 
In July of 1874, 275 mounted police officers moved west heading towards southern Alberta where Traders were selling whisky to the Aboriginals.  
 
Half of the Force established a permanent post at Fort Macleod, and part of the remaining Force was despatched to Fort Edmonton, with the rest returning east to Fort Pelly Saskatchewan, which had been designated as the Headquarters.  
 
During the following summer, Fort Calgary on the Bow River in Alberta, and Fort Walsh, in Saskatchewan’s Cypress Hills were established.  
 
In 1885, the Force had grown to 1,000 men, but in 1896 Sir Wilfred Laurier had been elected Prime Minister who had planned to reduce the NWMP and eventually disband it, but support for the Force in the west was prevalent, and it gained new prominence policing the Klondike Gold Rush.  
 
The NWMP provided support for the successful construction of the Canada Pacific Railway and the subsequent settlement of western Canada.  
 
In 1903, the first mounted police post north of the Arctic Circle was established at Fort McPherson.  
 
In 1904, King Edward VII granted the Force the prefix ‘Royal’ in recognition of its many services to Canada and the Empire.  
The NWMP were contracted from 1905 until 1916 to police the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, but were ended because the provinces wanted to form their own police forces.  
In 1919 the Federal Parliament voted to merge the Royal North West Mounted Police with the Dominion Police, which was a federal police force with jurisdiction only in eastern Canada.  
 
After the Legislation was implemented on February 1st 1920 the new force was named the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and its headquarters were moved from Regina to Ottawa. It was not until 1928 that the RCMP would sign a new contract and return to Saskatchewan to once again police the province.  
 
The size of the RCMP nearly doubled to 2,350 from 1932 until 1938 because it became responsible for policing in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.  
 
After WW II the RCMP continued to expand as a provincial police force, and 1950 they took over policing responsibilities in Newfoundland, and British Columbia.  
 
The 1970’s saw RCMP involvement in airport policing, VIP security and Drug enforcement. The Mounties of today combat organized crime, terrorism, illicit drugs, economic crimes, Child Pornography, Internet scams, and offences that threaten the integrity of Canada’s Borders. They also offer their resources to other Canadian Law enforcement agencies like the Brandon City police.  
 
The image of the scarlet-coated Mountie has been used to promote Canada abroad since the 1880s.  
 
In the 1990s, the RCMP’s role in peacekeeping expanded significantly in countries such as Haiti, Namibia, Kosovo and East  
 
Note: There is currently an exhibition about the North West Mounted Police at Daly House Museum.  
 
Source: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/nwmp-pcno/001032-300-e.html