What is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police symbol?

The Red Serge tunic is the most recognised symbol of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and serves as ceremonial dress for the federal force. The tunic is a scarlet wool coat with brown leather belt, gold-coloured buttons, and a tan Stetson hat, worn with brown breeches and brown leather riding boots. The colour and cut date from 1873, when the North-West Mounted Police were formed and given red coats so they would not be mistaken for the blue-uniformed United States Army cavalry on the other side of the medicine line.

Officers wear the Red Serge for parades, state funerals, royal visits, citizenship ceremonies, and the Musical Ride, the touring equestrian display first performed in 1887. The cap badge is a buffalo head circled by a wreath of maple leaves, with a scroll bearing the motto 'Maintiens le droit', meaning 'Maintain the right'. The force's coat of arms, granted by Queen Elizabeth II on July 4, 1954, places the buffalo above a chevron and incorporates a beaver and a thistle.

The Stetson became standard issue in 1904, replacing the white pith helmet brought from imperial India. Female officers, first sworn in on September 16, 1974, wore skirts and pillbox hats until policy was changed in 2012 to allow women to wear the same Stetson and breeches as their male colleagues. The ceremonial dress sword, buffalo head badge, and Red Serge are issued at the conclusion of the 26-week cadet training programme at Depot Division in Regina.

Beyond the uniform, RCMP officers commonly wear a working blue and grey patrol uniform on regular duty. The Red Serge appears on stamps, on the cover of the federal study guide Discover Canada, and at every federal swearing-in ceremony where Mounties form an honour guard.