Well, time to resurrect this thread with an update …
It is definitely looking like my second amendment to the original title (when I added "… no, 2022") is actually going to come to fruition! Two fellow Canucks from right here in Medicine Hat, and I, are registered and finalizing our travel plans …
The sole benefit of the hiatus of more than two years since I began this thread has at least afforded me plenty of time to tweak and fine-tune my uniforms and kit …
Recently, I finally got access to a copy of the premier reference "Uniforms of the Canadian Mounted Police" by Dr. James J. Boulton, which was published over 30 years ago, and is accordingly long out of print and very expensive to acquire if you can locate a copy for sale. At almost 550 pages, it is the veritable "bible" on the subject, with the chapters covering the GAF time frame (1870s, 1880s, 1890s, and the first decade of the 1900s) occupying 202 pages of that number. (I know, because I have expended a great deal of time and effort to scan every single page covering those four decades, and converted them into PDF files for my ongoing reference!)
As a result of having access to this detailed further information, my fine-tuning continues! One thing I was unaware of … because it was not specifically mentioned in any of my other references, and I had not actually noticed that detail in any colour uniform depictions I had previously seen … is that NWMP NCO rank insignia (chevrons, crowns, etc) were NOT worked on a red background as I had assumed … in fact, the background was dark blue … and thus would contrast sharply with the red of the tunic material, rather than blending in.
As an example, here is an image I cropped from a colour photo of the Sergeant's insignia on a genuine NWMP tunic (very poor resolution and detail unfortunately when blown up this much) compared to the appearance of the red background insignia (posted a while back) which I had already sewn on my tunic (and also on my cotton duck fatigue jacket) …
I
was aware a dark blue background was the case with later RNWMP and RCMP rank insignia, but had always been of the mistaken impression that this blue background was only introduced in 1904 when the Force was granted the "Royal" designation. That is certainly when the dark blue "facing colour" (i.e. contrasting shoulder straps, collars (or collar gorgets) and sometimes contrasting cuffs, depending on the type of garment), reserved for "Royal" regiments in the British Army, first appeared on Mounted Police uniforms.
Anyway, this late revelation (coupled with my well-known obsession for correct detail) has introduced a new task for me … I have removed the Sergeant's stripes and crown, with their red backgrounds, from both the dress tunic and fatigue jacket to which I had painstakingly sewn them … and have now applied them to a correct blue background. Now I will trim them out and sew them back onto the two garments …