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North Shore cadets mark 100 years

Youth program has evolved since the First World War
caderts
This illustration merges a photo of the 2014 cadets at Ridgeway elementary (at right) with a photo of the 1914 cadets, also taken at Ridgeway, at left. Cadets are celebrating their 100th year on the North Shore.

The cadet program is celebrating its 100th anniversary since first arriving on the North Shore.

Although the program pre-dates Confederation, it found its way over to B.C. just six months before the First World War.

North Vancouver resident Bob Irvine has been involved with the cadets since he joined the 103 Thunderbird Squadron in 1965 at the age of 13. Now, he is the area cadet instructor cadre officer with the Regional Cadet Support Unit (Pacific) responsible for the five army cadet corps in the area and is the cadet liaison officer supporting 14 different cadet corps and squadrons.

“The cadet movement actually started about some six years before Confederation,” he notes. “It started back east and basically, they didn’t have PE (physical education) instruction in school back then and they thought kids playing games was just that — games.”

Also, because Canada was young, the government encouraged the more formalized physical education in an effort to build patriotism, according to Irvine.

“Because it’s such a huge land, it’s so sparse and the Americans were constantly rattling sabres and threatening to take us over,” he says. “It took a long time to get back west because we were just developing.”

Around that time, the North Shore was really just Moodyville and a handful of one-room schoolhouses.

“Ridgeway (elementary) was the first big school in North Van and it had a basement so kids could march and do stuff in the basement or outside,” he says.

That was about six months before the Great War started, and many of the older youth in elementary school, 16 and 17 year olds, went on to fight in Europe.

But the cadet program has since moved on, includes girls and focuses more on teaching participants survival skills, first aid and other enduring qualities, Irvine says. “It’s the camaraderie,” he adds. “It teaches them organization. There’s all kinds of benefits.”

Since Jan. 28, 1914, there have been 18 different cadet corps and squadrons in both North and West Vancouver. To this day, five remain active including the army, air and navy league cadet corps.