saskatchewan an early stronghold of legion support and leadership Once the Canadian Legion came to be, it found that its most loyal base of support was in Saskatchewan. As the Legion began its ratification process with the national membership, Saskatchewan was the first stop on Feb. 17, 1926. The convention opened with 128 representatives from 98 communities across the province. The majority were members of the establish Great War Veterans Association, but the Tuberculous Veterans Association, the Amputation Club, the United Services Club, the Royal Northwest Mounted Police Veterans Association and others threw their unanimous support behind the new national body and create the Canadian Legion provincial command in Saskatchewan.
James McAra, a former Lt. Col from Regina who had led the GWVA in Saskatchewan for eight years was unanimously elected president. Among the other officer elected was former Brig. Gen. Alex Ross of Yorkton who became the command's honourary treasurer and would go on to be the dominion president of the Legion from 1934-37. In his speech to the convention, McAra encouraged delegates to work together to the Legion a success. "I cannot appeal to you too strongly to get the broad vision -- broad as our prairies, broad in the national aspect as well as broad in the particular aspect of ex-servicemen. I ask you honestly and sincerely to forget any connection you have had
in the past and look to the future with a desire to accomplish the greatest good. All branches of the service, all ranks of the service, and all classes of the service should, and can, get together if they will." In March, Manitoba followed Saskatchewan's lead in holding its first annual convention. Surprisingly, the third regional element to join the Legion was in March when a 14-member unit of the British War Veterans Association in Spokane, Wash. disbanded and re-formed as the first American-based post of the Canadian Legion. The rest of the provincial councils ratified the Legion before the end of 1926 to establish the organization that lives on today. Saskatchewan embraced the Legion
wholeheartedly. They had the largest number of branches in the early years. The Great Depression couldn't slow the growth of the legion in Saskatchewan. In fact, Saskatchewan grew from 140 to 166 branches by the early 1930s. The province fell on hard times during the drought years of the "hungry thirties." Provincial incomes fell by 90 per cent in two years and two-thirds of the population was on some sort of relief as the Depression hit. The Legion filled an important role during the Great Depression. In 1929, the Saskatoon branch donated nearly $2,000 (more than $29,000 in today's dollars) for community relief and found temporary work for 38 veterans. The Regina branch put together more
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