List of Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioners
Commissioner is the highest rank of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and of its predecessor agencies, the North-West Mounted Police (1873 to 1904) and the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (1904 to February 1, 1920). The Commissioner reports directly to the Minister of Public Safety.
The Commissioner of the RCMP is the Principal Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces. He or she also serves as the Commissioner of Firearms under the Firearms Act.[1]
The Canadian monarch is the honorary Commissioner-in-Chief and Charles, Prince of Wales, is the Honorary Commissioner of the RCMP.[2] However, neither exercises a substantive role in the operation of the organization.
List of Commissioners
There have been 24 Commissioners since the founding of the NWMP in 1873:
Agency | Number | Name | Term Start | Term End | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
North-West Mounted Police (NWMP)
(1873–1920) |
1. | W. Osborne Smith | September 25, 1873 | October 17, 1873 | First Commissioner of the NWMP. |
2. | George Arthur French | October 18, 1873 | July 21, 1876 | ||
3. | James Farquharson MacLeod | July 22, 1876 | October 31, 1880 | ||
4. | Acheson Gosford Irvine | November 1, 1880 | March 31, 1886 | ||
5. | Lawrence William Herchmer | April 1, 1886 | July 31, 1900 | ||
6. | Aylesworth Bowen Perry | August 1, 1900 | March 31, 1923 | The NWMP merged with the Dominion Police in 1920 to form the RCMP, thus Perry was the final Commissioner of the NWMP and the first Commissioner of the RCMP. | |
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
(1920–present) | |||||
7. | Cortlandt Starnes | April 1, 1923 | July 31, 1931 | ||
8. | Sir James Howden MacBrien | August 1, 1931 | March 5, 1938 | ||
9. | Stuart Taylor Wood | March 6, 1938 | April 30, 1951 | ||
10. | Leonard Hanson Nicholson | May 1, 1951 | March 31, 1959 | ||
11. | Charles Edward Rivett-Carnac | April 1, 1959 | March 31, 1960 | ||
12. | Clifford Walter Harvison | April 1, 1960 | October 31, 1963 | ||
13. | George Brinton McClellan | November 1, 1963 | August 14, 1967 | ||
14. | Malcolm Francis Aylesworth Lindsay | August 15, 1967 | September 30, 1969 | RCMP Patrol Vessel Lindsay was named in his honour. | |
15. | William Leonard Higgitt | October 1, 1969 | December 28, 1973 | RCMP Patrol Vessel Higgitt was named in his honour. | |
16. | Maurice Jean Nadon | January 1, 1974 | August 31, 1977 | RCMP Patrol Vessel Nadon was named in his honour.
The present day RCMP National Headquarters building in Ottawa was named in his honour on October 05th, 2011. | |
17. | Robert Henry Simmonds | September 1, 1977 | August 31, 1987 | RCMP Patrol Vessel Simmonds was named in his honour. | |
18. | Norman Inkster | September 1, 1987 | June 24, 1994 | RCMP Patrol Vessel Inkster was named in his honour. | |
19. | Joseph Philip Robert Murray | June 25, 1994 | September 1, 2000 | ||
20. | Giuliano Zaccardelli | September 2, 2000 | December 15, 2006 | ||
21. | Beverley Busson | December 15, 2006 | July 16, 2007 | Interim Commissioner; Busson was the RCMP's first female Commissioner. | |
22. | William J. S. Elliott | July 16, 2007 | November 20, 2011 | First civilian Commissioner. | |
23. | Bob Paulson | November 21, 2011 | June 30, 2017 | ||
— | Dan Dubeau | June 30, 2017 | April 16, 2018 | Acting Commissioner; Dubeau served in the role at the rank of Deputy Commissioner. | |
24. | Brenda Lucki | April 16, 2018 | Incumbent | Current Commissioner; Lucki is the RCMP's first permanent female Commissioner. |
References
- Meet Our Team Archived 2013-06-26 at the Wayback Machine
- Smith, Joanna (23 May 2012), "Royal visit 2012: Prince Charles collects honorary RCMP title", Toronto Star, retrieved 25 May 2012