Yay! My Alma Mater is back from the dead!
The way things were run Back In The Day was that you did 5 years at CMR vice 4 years at RMC or RRMC.
For Quebequois, this was a natural progression as their schooling went high school -> CEGEP -> University where the rest of Canada went high scool -> University.
For us Anglos, attending CMR meant not graduating high school. Instead, we completed Grade 11 and then went to CMR. At the end of First Year (so two years complete) you got a CEGEP diploma, and could transfer to RMC if you wanted an engineering degree.
For some provinces, (BC and Alberta for sure) there were remedial classes in Math and Chemistry to take in the first term of Prep year to get you up to speed. Spazz Math was definately needed; I hadn't seen any Trig before arriving at CMR and Calculus without Trig is a B-I-T-C-H. Spazz Chem I thought was a waste of time; there was nothing there that I hadn't already seen in Chem 11 in high school.
Each year there were 30-35 Preps brought in in 6 squadrons, and an additional dozen or so in 7 Sqn (where the barracks was smaller) The initial intake was about 66% Franco, 33% Anglo but the failure rate in Prep year was horrendous. We went from 32 people to 9 by the end of Prep year, and the ratio in my Sqn went from 66% Franco to about 12% Franco.
Further complicating things was that people getting a BA only needed one year of CEGEP, so they wouldn't do Prep year, but jumped into First Year after the end of recruit camp.
In my Sqn, we lost one or two at the end of Rook Camp (one for sure - he went AWOL after a couple of weeks, was picked up by the MPs at his house, was dragged back, forced to complete Rook Camp, and then released), then a bunch at XMas, and the rest at the end of the term. Then we did BOTC in Chilliwack where I think everybody made it; at least from my Sqn.
Those going to RMC or RRMC, or CMR BAs, would start with BOTC, then do Rook Camp, and then start in as a First Year.
I went to CMR (from Northern BC) on the advice of my recruiting oficer (who I suspect had a quota to fill) and because it got me the hell out of Dodge a year earlier. My Sqn had the lion's share of the BC boys (me, 'Gate, Luke, Attila) but Stress and Chan from 3 Sqn were from BC too. There were also a lot of Neufs running around too.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear it's back.
DG
CMR '92