A3 The NEW Canadian Army Badge Series (Post 1970)
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In the year 1968, Paul Hellyer, who I knew personally, started instituting reforms to the Canadian Forces . These included, but were not limited to, the disbanding and bringing to "nil" force most of the prestigious regiments that had fought so valiantly during WWII and earlier. This process of attrition had started in the early '60's but was brought to fruition at the time of the election of Trudeau Ist.
One of the most apparent changes was the adoption of the new green uniforms. Trudeau's deep distain for the Anglos, was, I believe, the reason he decided to adopt these European style uniforms, and proceeded to remove any trace of our army's relationship to the traditional British style uniforms. (keep in mind they changed the flag in 1965, this plan was in the works since the early days of Rene Levesque)
As well, there was the replacement of most of the historic Commonwealth related regimental insignia with a new series of enameled badges, taken right out of the French Army's playbook. These were all corps related. (no more regimental history for you!)
Many of these French Army style badges you may view in this category.
It is also noteworthy to recall that during this time, Trudeau instituted the Bilingualism Act. This resulted in, among other catastrophes, a new requirement that all servicemen, especially, officers, had to be bilingual. Well, in those days, there was not one in a hundred Anglos who could speak French. On the other hand, however, most likely nearly 100% of officer grade Francophones were bilingual.
This was the beginning of the departure of most Anglo officers form the military. Some refused to learn French, but many who opted for the French training offered by Trudeau, never succeeded in learning the language, most due to their age. My brother in law was a Lt Colonel, who fought in WWII, so I know all this from the Anglo side first hand.
But, at least the badges are beautiful, but so is Versailles, and we know its history.
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