#APH RCMP

[nakamopapina]

So the RCMP shared a photo of their possible new duty shirts, and they’re going on trial for the next six months.

This is one of three versions, I’ve seen comments on how they look like “cheap amusement park security”, and “Gas station employee”, vibes.

My mom said that this one in particular looks like something a sci-fi pilot would wear.

I think she said it looks like something from Battlestar Galactica.

[tunnels-by-the-river]

I know this is quite late, (I was busy) I was supposed to finish this back on the first. This year marks the 150th year that the RCMP existed. First formed in 1873, as the NWMP.

This comic was made mostly to summarize Moose Jaw, and RJ’s personal relationship. They use a lot of insult humour, thus why the card says what it says. They both have f’d up senses of humour.

Bonus panels below:

A special appearance of the ghosts of NWMP, and RNWMP. NWMP is like the only person who calls RJ, by his full first name. He’s just saying that to try to piss off NWMP.

[doublelsatan]

It was only a matter of time until the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would arrest @markiplier ... Shame. Don’t do crimes in Canada kids.

[allbeendonebefore]

i have been seeing more and more resurgence in hetalia headcanon discussions on my dash which i adore, I just wish I could figure out how to reconcile aph canada in my head in a way that makes me appreciate him again and give me some sort of vision about how this place could be better. 

It’s hard to know immediately how to mobilize stereotypes and history for present-day good when you’re still learning about all of the hidden threads that are still causing harm, and it’s hard to kind of take a step back and re-evaluate what matt’s for exactly when you’ve been repeatedly using him as a shorthand for the villain in most regional stories for a long time. It’s hard to see him as someone who represents everyone and it’s hard to speak about him to people who already have this firm idea of who he is internationally that you would like to sort of challenge or satirize a little bit but like. 

gonna have a miniature ramble here don’t mind me

let’s take for one second the fact that the #1 most visible stereotype used in canon and fanon portrayals of matthew is dressing him up as a mountie. it’s hokey for a lot of people (us included) but it’s also really hard for a lot of us to ignore the role the RCMP have played since they were established, particularly in western canada and particularly today. Racism and sexism remain as much a part of the force as they do in the fabric of this country, and it’s really hard for even canadians ourselves to see that because our national identity Requires deliberately downplaying these things wherever they manifest. (Oh, everyone has problems but at least we aren’t like... at least we don’t... we’re not as bad as...) 

so it’s like... how do you reconcile these things. how do you get to keep the dudley do-right image/attitude without ignoring the rest of it. How do you challenge a characterization that’s reliant on minimizing the darker stuff. How do you mobilize the Good parts of the stereotypes to Directly challenge the bad stuff. I’m not sure I have an immediate or simple answer to that. 

But I really enjoy seeing this resurgence in analyzing Alfred’s character during the culmination of all these horrible events and it’s really made me question what it means to celebrate a history and a culture - however young however complicated - without falling back into these nationalistic mantras that are designed to hurt and to separate. It’s made me think about what I would like ‘canadian-ness’ to mean post-150th. It makes me think about the qualities we tried to celebrate throughout our history and how they need to be shaken up and re-aligned for present day values.

I think some of those qualities include the busy-beaver industriousness, a devotion to the protection of the natural world, a thoughtful pause before rushing in to things, and a genuine care for the health and safety of people- all people- and their diverse beliefs. These are things that we attempted to realign to include more people in the 60s-70s but now we really need to step up in a time where things like anti-immigration sentiments and anti-native racism are still being ignored as if they don’t exist by the ones perpetuating them.

I hesitate to put politeness as a positive quality up there with the others because politeness is one of my greatest frustrations and requires a bit more investigation: it’s like the umbrella that keeps the dual forces of insurmountable-insecurity-low-self-esteem and unbearable-smugness-unwillingness-to-change, or maybe less an umbrella and more a sort of horrible shag carpet that we pile our sins under. Politeness is the most visible canadian stereotype and it’s the one we seem to most often use as a weapon against others rather than an inherently positive trait... but it’s still one that should be reconsidered and used to help and to subvert... like that type of compliance of Lawful Good or whatever that subverts the law by adhering to it to the letter. 

Anyway those are just some loose and unorganized thoughts that I’ll try to expand on and return to....... some day. Back to my niche xD;

[acetechne]

1940s: The Alaska-Canada Highway and the Canol Pipeline

The Hapo Reads Canadian History Comic (which still needs a better title)

[read top to bottom, left to right]

So today is my last day in E-town and my parents are gonna be here any minute to help me get ready for my trip east and I wanted to get this done (though I was set back A lot by school and program crashes wehh. Anyway, my number two non-ancient historical obsession after the gold rush is the post WWII/Cold War era, so here’s a bit of that.

Character belongs to @ctcsherry Headcanons and interpretations are my responsibility haha

NOTES

[World War II]

A lot of emphasis is placed on the Klondike Gold Rush as the defining part of Yukon history, but the North also played a very significant role in the Second World War and the Cold War afterwards. Anticipating a Pacific attack from Japan, the United States rushed to build the Alaska-Canada Highway, the Alcan Highway or Alaska Highway for short, in order to quickly send goods up to the northern State. This highway goes through Canada and was supposed to be a collaborative project, but Canada was a little too lax and basically let the Americans do whatever they wanted at great cost to the people living nearby. Aside from their complete lack of knowledge re: permafrost and one of the worst oil spills Ever, the Americans also over hunted game- for sport- along the path of the highway, severely injuring what was left of the fur trade industry as well as the food sources of the people in the North (where agriculture, again due to the permafrost, was and continues to be rather unfeasible relative to Southern Canada). The federal government did eventually put a stop to this by banning hunting altogether to create Kluane National Park. 

[Yukon’s Ethnicity]

Canonically Yukon is drawn to be racially ambiguous, which accurately reflects the diversity of the territory. Personally, I tend to headcanon her as a bit of a mixture between white (American, British) and First Nations (Gwich'in in particular, which is where the word “Yukon” comes from, but probably a combination with other Pacific Northwest nations such as Tlingit and Tagish at least in influence if not nationality). Yukon’s population during the late 19th and mid 20th century was 80% American at points, and she is the only one of the territories to operate on a more British conception of government. Whether she identifies as Métis or not is debatable- I tend to understand the identification as more of a particularly prairie-province term but I could be mistaken.

If I were writing this a little more carelessly or a little more ‘honestly’, America would probably refer to her as “some kind of esk*mo”, which is a Cree word for “meat eater” and a slur against the Inuit people. Not only is it a slur, it’s pretty ignorant to assume that everyone who lives in the North is Inuit. I’ve seen multiple aph ocs (often by Americans who don’t know better, but Southern Canadians can also be unaware!) for Yukon that have either snow white hair and skin (w h y is this still a thing) or are primarily of Inuit background- while Yukon does have a small Inuit population, the Inuit are certainly not the sole culture that should be represented. There’s also cultural and legal distinctions between First Nations and Inuit (and Métis!) people that - while they can sometimes be arbitrary - do make a difference historically. 

I personally find it to be a little questionable at best to represent either Yukon or NWT as primarily or solely Inuit just on the basis of the stereotype while Nunavut is easily (and was intended to be!) 80%+ majority Inuit people. That’s me speaking as a white person born in the territories who grew up on the prairies; I’m absolutely willing to hear out other opinions, particularly from people living up there. It’s just frustrating that their First Nations heritage is often left out of the discussion because there’s this assumption that everyone north of the 60th parallel is Inuit and only Inuit: please check out the map at native-land for a visual representation of the many many First Nations cultures that make up the Pacific Northwest.

[The Canol Pipeline]

A 1000m pipeline from Norman Wells to a new refinery in Whitehorse. The only Canadian on the panel of consultants was vehemently against the pipeline, but the Americans went over his head straight to the federal government (who of course didn’t really care and just said ‘w/e go for it’. The permafrost melted, the pipe leaked or clogged; it ended up being five times as expensive to build as predicted and ended up costing 25x more than the original shipping by sea or by rail. The whole project was dismantled- neither the US nor Canada wanted to take responsibility; equipment too expensive to ship was left to rust, the oil left to pool, and the local environment and people to take the damage. The public in southern Canada of course was told that this was an amazing joint project that Canada had full say and control in, and of course it was a bald-faced lie. 

The population explosion in Whitehorse also caused problems- the Americans took over law enforcement and would send American troublemakers home before the RCMP could even investigate. Sewage and housing was a major problem and there were arguments on both sides: Canadians angry at Americans for arrogance and heavy handedness, and Americans at Canadians for apathy and incompetence. In fact, Canada cared so little about what was happening in the Arctic that it was the British High Commissioner who was the first to visit and come back to tell everyone what a threat the American involvement was. 

After these projects, there were a lot of left over supplies including food, blankets, tools, furniture, etc. that Ottawa forbid the Americans from selling locally on the grounds of ‘disrupting the economy’; as a result, the Americans were forced to burn the goods while disillusioned Northerners looked on, some stealing goods prior. 

[nakamopapina]

RJ 7D?

Falling asleep while filling out reports.

I kind messed up RJ's hand, Sorry.

[nakamopapina]

Regina with H8 or RCMP... OR BOTH!!!! PLEASE!!!

Here's Regina, and RJ, going through some panic. I'm surprised that someone requested an OC.

RJ, still prefers to be addressed by his legal name though :,3

[nakamopapina]

I finally managed to get a design for Swift Current, also known as 'Speedy Creek', to some.

The reason for her running, is that RJ, was about to give her a ticket.

[nakamopapina]

Drew 2p! Nyo! Canada being scolded by Nyo! Saskatchewan for wearing her uniform incorrectly because she should know better.

Rant about how much I dislike 2p Nyo! Canada’s uniform below:

(because the RCMP and their history, (especially with uniforms) is one of my hyperfixations, and I want to speak my mind about, and this way you can just ignore it if you want to)

I personally do not like the outfit that Himaruya gave 2p Nyo! Canada always rubbed me the wrong way because it’s obvious that it’s supposed to be an RCMP uniform, but at the same time, it’s really not, it’s just a tunic with a short skirt, and it really creeps me out because of how short the skirt is.

When I made Nyo! Sask, I made her wearing the real RCMP uniform that had a skirt, (from the 1970s until it was no longer in use in 1981) which the skirt went down to knees, not the thighs, and a different tunic than the other one. Even though it’s no longer in use, it feels more professional compared to what 2p Nyo! Canada is wearing.

Btw, Maddie would get in BIG trouble for wearing her hair down alone. It is not to touch the collar.

I’m gonna stop now before I go further into this rant.

[tunnels-by-the-river]

For context: 

So the Moe Government announced a new Police Force, they want to add within the next few years, called the Saskatchewan Marshal Service, some of us call them Moe’s Marshals. And they claimed in an article that the Marshals were gonna be more ‘Highly trained,’ than the RCMP,  but also they’re not gonna focus on Community based work, as that’ll be the jobs the other cops can have, but who truly knows? Sometimes they say one thing, then another on a different day.

The RCMP, and Opposition responded with “That’s more like a waste of good money that can go to other places, we don’t need another Police Force! It’s not that necessary!” But the Government is like “Are you sure? We’re gonna do it anyways!” 

Of course we, the people of Rider nation responded in memes, with jokes about how we’ll only accept them if they rode on horses, and wore cowboy hats, and the like. Because we like to troll on our Premier on Twitter.

On the other note, I drew a disembodied arm to represent the Government.

[tunnels-by-the-river]

Here is Regina’s introduction comic. (and RJ’s sort of vague intro), I tried to imply that she’s the type of person that’s overly positive, and that’ll talk your ear off with information, even unnecessary info, if given the chance.

Thus the more or less unwanted introduction of RJ in her intro. (his own will be very short, but he will be done last, so don’t expect his anytime soon)

I try to base these characters not on stereotypes of residents (As they’ll pretty much be the same) but inspired off of their History/historical events.

Here, I depict Regina as someone who likes to brag about positive stuff about her, as it’s very much like that here. With all the ads bragging that we’re the birthplace of Universal healthcare in Canada.

She gets all pouty and upset when compared to Edmonton, but no one likes being compared to others, so that’s a normal thing.

More info (about the comment of RJ being a glorified babysitter) below:

With RJ being described as a glorified babysitter, is he? yes he is. 

Explanation, so you don’t have to wait on his intro comic for it:

No denial about that, I figured that some of these personifications need one, given they can get out of control sometimes, and what human wants to be stupid enough to get involved with that? certainly not me. And what Province/Territory has the time to keep ALL of their personifications/municipalities on semi-decent behaviour? He’s also there to convince Mattie NOT to commit Arson against his enemies. (Because Arson doesn’t solve everything)

He’s mostly behind the scenes, and his purpose in this blog is to mostly share history about the Mounties when I want to share them, it helps to have one individual there to share it, instead of making characters of every. single. Fort. and for the occasional gag comic about someone not paying their parking tickets, and RJ’s superiors (i.e. Ollie, Mattie, or his Boss) are on his ass about it.

[nakamopapina]

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Made this for no particular reason, other than I needed to practice animation.

 I made NWMP for the sole purpose of this animation, because I couldn’t figure out who to do this with....

[nakamopapina]

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Warning: Does contain foul language! Merry Christmas, I finished this animation this morning.

Both Reginald and Regina both had redesigns. I did include a power cord to the tree.

I also thought that it might make it a little funny to have the tree hit the truck.

Here’s where I got the audio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zZC_CE6jx8&t=0s

[nakamopapina]

Regina and RCMP wearing World Academy uniforms, I originally intended to post this earlier this week.

I took the photo at work so the lighting makes them look a little bad ;^;.

[nakamopapina]

Finished drawing of the one I posted a while ago.

Took me a long time trying to figure out Moose Jaw’s colour scheme. 

Reggie trying to at least get the food in the oven.

Yes The Jaw does wear a moose hat.

[nakamopapina]

Made some drawings of RCMP in a new sketchbook yesterday.

I fixed him up, his new full human ae us Reginald Joshua Douglas.

On the bottom left corner, you can see him holding his pet snail, Lightning. Who he adores.

He likes cooking and baking, and he's pretty good at it.

He's Regina's kid brother, He was originally supposed to be a Nyotalia version of his big sis, but then I changed the colours around, made him taller and gave him paler skin.