The North West Mounted Police was established by Prime Minister Macdonald in what year?

Discover Canada records this with one direct sentence. The guide writes: After the first Métis uprising, Prime Minister Macdonald established the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1873 to pacify the West and assist in negotiations with the Indians. The year the test wants is therefore 1873.

The political reason was the new geography of the country. Discover Canada notes that "when Canada took over the vast northwest region from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, the 12,000 Métis of the Red River were not consulted," and that Louis Riel "led an armed uprising and seized Fort Garry, the territorial capital." The federal government's response — apart from the eventual creation of Manitoba in 1870 — included a new national police force in 1873 to extend federal authority across the West.

The NWMP shaped much of the geography of Western Canada. Discover Canada writes: "The NWMP founded Fort Calgary, Fort MacLeod and other centres that today are cities and towns. Regina became its headquarters." So the original northwest detachments became permanent settlements that grew into modern Canadian cities — most prominently Calgary and Regina.

The force survives in modern form. Discover Canada notes: Today, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP or "the Mounties") are the national police force and one of Canada's best-known symbols. So the 1873 founding of the NWMP is the direct ancestor of today's RCMP — one of Canada's most recognisable institutions worldwide.

The question is testing whether new citizens have remembered Discover Canada's exact year for the founding of the federal police force in the West. The guide commits to 1873 — and pairs the year with a named Prime Minister (Sir John A. Macdonald), the named force (North West Mounted Police), and a clear political purpose ("to pacify the West and assist in negotiations with the Indians").

The other answer choices each test the reader. 1867 is Confederation year — the country existed but the NWMP did not. 1885 is the year of the second Métis rebellion in Saskatchewan, well after the NWMP had been founded. 1898 is the year of the Yukon Territory's creation. None matches 1873.