Royal Military College

The Royal Military College (RMC) is based in Kingston, Ontario and is the only federally-run university in Canada. It is funded with about $70 million annually by the Department of National Defence, and the defence minister serves as its chancellor. The RMC influences academic debate on Canada’s place in the world with its 150+ faculty teaching history, political science, and other humanities. They publish articles and books on foreign policy themes and have schooled a number of prominent foreign policy commentators.

Opened in 1876, the RMC was partly designed to train “proper white gentlemen”, in the words of Canadian Army Journal editor Andrew B. Godefroy, to be officers of British imperialism. Between 1880 and 1900 RMC-trained soldiers participated in at least 28 imperial campaigns, mostly in Africa. Over the next 15 years, ex-RMC cadets fought in dozens of other expeditions.

In 1897, Sir Adolph Caron, an MP and former Minister of Militia and Defense, explained the RMC’s usefulness for Canada: “there was a time, I remember, when Canada did not stand in the proud position which she occupies today in Great Britain. Our present position is due to the fact that our Royal Military College Cadets were able to take their places side by side with the men who had been trained in the [British] military service… Great Britain in her Canadian subject found men who were prepared to take their share in fighting her battles and who were able to fight these battles side by side with the best men that England could send to the front.”