Rum Ration

On June 1, 1876, eighteen young Canadians arrived at Point Frederick in Kingston, Ontario, to begin an ambitious experiment: could a young nation educate and develop its own military leaders?

As the Royal Military College of Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary, the Rum Ration Podcast explores the remarkable evolution of an institution that began in a former naval storehouse and helped shape generations of Canadian officers.

Join Rejoy and Colin as they trace RMC’s journey from the legendary “Old Eighteen” through two World Wars, changing military expectations, evolving traditions, and the challenges facing the college today.

Beyond the history, they tackle a question as relevant now as it was in 1876: what does it really take to develop effective military leaders?

With their usual blend of historical insight, military experience, and humour, they explore what 150 years of Truth, Duty, Valour means for Canada's future.

Leopold Canal: The RMR’s Baptism of Fire

October 1944. The Allies desperately needed Antwerp’s port, but German forces controlled the Scheldt estuary. Standing in their way were flooded fields, fortified canals, and determined defenders.

Enter The Royal Montreal Regiment.

In this episode of the Rum Ration Podcast, Rejoy and Colin recount Operation Switchback, one of Canada’s most gruelling battles of the Second World War. Follow a company of largely inexperienced Montreal soldiers as they cross the Leopold Canal behind a spectacular flamethrower barrage, only to find themselves fighting desperately to hold a bridgehead barely ten yards deep.

Meet Captain Robert Schwob, whose extraordinary leadership earned the Military Cross; stretcher-bearer Stanley Enair, who repeatedly risked his life rescuing wounded comrades; and the remarkable Thomas Cripps Lewis, killed commanding a brigade at just 33.

It’s a story of courage, sacrifice, and ordinary Canadians facing extraordinary circumstances, revealing the human cost behind one of the RMR’s proudest battle honours.

How do you turn 33,000 civilian volunteers into an army in just a few weeks? And what happens when the man in charge is the brilliant, controversial, and occasionally outrageous Sam Hughes?

In August 1914, Canada faced an extraordinary challenge: mobilizing an expeditionary force for a war nobody fully understood. Almost overnight, farmland near Quebec City became Valcartier Camp, a sprawling canvas city complete with railway sidings, rifle ranges, electricity, running water, and mountains of military supplies.

In this episode of the Rum Ration Podcast, Rejoy and Colin explore the astonishing logistics, political connections, questionable equipment, and everyday experiences of the soldiers who arrived from across Canada. From missing rifles and inadequate boots to burnt porridge and 150,000 pairs of socks, it's a story of ingenuity, improvisation, and military chaos.

Was Valcartier Sam Hughes's greatest achievement or proof of his recklessness? As it turns out, perhaps both.

100 Years of the Royal Canadian Legion: Remembering the Dead, Serving the Living

When Canadian soldiers returned home from the First World War, the cheering eventually stopped. But for thousands of veterans, the struggle to rebuild their lives was only beginning.

In 2026, the Royal Canadian Legion celebrates its 100th anniversary. But how did a patchwork of veterans’ associations become one of Canada's most enduring institutions?

In this episode of the Rum Ration Podcast, hosts Colin and Rejoy explore the Legion’s remarkable century of service, from its founding in 1926 to its continuing advocacy for veterans and their families.

Along the way, they uncover the fascinating connection between Montreal’s Royal Montreal Regiment, its legendary officer C.B. Price, and the Legion’s national leadership.

Beyond poppies, parades, and Remembrance Day lies a much bigger story about comradeship, sacrifice, and a nation’s obligations to those who served.

Because remembrance means more than honouring the dead. It means caring for the living.

What drives a young American barber to cross the border, enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and head overseas to fight a war his own country had not yet entered?

In this episode of the Rum Ration Podcast, Rejoy and Colin follow the extraordinary story of Romeo Houle, a French-Canadian barber from New Bedford, Massachusetts who volunteered in Montreal in August 1914 because he “longed for big adventures.”

Drawing heavily on Houle’s own 1916 New York Times account, we follow him from Valcartier and Salisbury Plain into the mud, rats, artillery, gas and brutal close-quarters fighting of the Western Front. Along the way, we examine the “charmed life” that seemed to keep him alive, the comrades he lost, and the strange humanity that sometimes emerged between enemies across No Man’s Land.

Houle went looking for adventure. He came home haunted by it, and he was determined to warn others what war truly meant.

Few fighter pilots have become legends quite like Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. In this episode of The Rum Ration Podcast, Rejoy and Colin look beyond the red triplane, the eighty victories, and the mythology to explore the methodical hunter, combat leader, wounded veteran, and propaganda icon behind the legend.

They trace Richthofen’s journey from cavalry officer to Germany’s most famous ace, examine the tactics that made him so deadly, and revisit his final flight on 21 April 1918. Was Canadian pilot Roy Brown responsible for his death, or did the fatal shot come from Australian ground fire?

The story then comes home to Toronto, where remarkable pieces of Richthofen’s final aircraft, including his seat, survive at the Royal Canadian Military Institute.

Along the way, there is celebrity, controversy, respect between enemies, and, naturally, Snoopy. Because behind every legend is a human story, and this one remains endlessly fascinating.

In 1837, rebellion came to Vaudreuil—and suddenly the people on the other side weren’t foreign soldiers. They were neighbours.

In this episode of the Rum Ration Podcast, Rejoy and Colin are joined by local historian Donald Simpson to explore the remarkable story of the Vaudreuil Loyal Volunteers. At their centre was John Augustus Mathison, a veteran of Trafalgar and the Napoleonic Wars who became a farmer, magistrate and community leader in what is now Hudson.

As political tensions erupted into violence, Mathison organized local volunteers, established a hidden refuge in the woods for women and children, supported British operations during the rebellion, and later helped disarm former Patriotes living in the same communities.

Drawing on original pay lists and local history, we meet the ordinary farmers who served alongside him and discover names still familiar in Vaudreuil-Soulanges today.

It’s a story of loyalty, fear, divided communities—and what happens when your own backyard becomes the front line. You can learn more about the historyof the region here on their website: https://shst-lazare.org/

In CE 9, three Roman legions marched into the forests of Germania—and disappeared. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest was more than a devastating military defeat: it was a masterclass in deception, intelligence failure, terrain, and the dangers of assuming conquered territory is truly under control.

In this episode of The Rum Ration Podcast, Rejoy and Colin explore how Rome’s expansion east of the Rhine created the conditions for disaster; how the Roman-trained Cheruscan nobleman Arminius turned his knowledge of the legions against them; and how Publius Quinctilius Varus led the XVII, XVIII and XIX Legions into one of history’s most successful ambushes.

They also examine the battle’s aftermath, Rome’s brutal revenge campaigns, the fate of Arminius, and whether Teutoburg really “stopped Rome.”

It is a story of imperial confidence, betrayal, mud, lost eagles—and a forest that changed Rome’s strategic calculations forever, without ever making the empire militarily powerless afterward.

For more than three centuries, the rum ration was one of naval life’s most enduring traditions. In this episode of the Rum Ration, Rejoy and Colin explore how rum went from a practical solution for life at sea to a cherished ritual known as “Up Spirits.” They trace its origins from Jamaica and Admiral Vernon’s infamous watered-down “grog” to the camaraderie, vocabulary, and shipboard culture that grew around the daily tot.

The story culminates with Black Tot Day, July 31, 1970, when the Royal Navy finally ended the ration as modern warships demanded greater technical precision and sobriety. But Canada held the line for nearly two more years, issuing its last daily tot on March 30, 1972.

Along the way, Rejoy and Colin explain why two former infantry officers named their podcast after a naval tradition: not for the alcohol, but for the stories, humour, ritual, and camaraderie it represented.

How did a country of just 11 million people become one of the world’s great wartime industrial powers?

In this episode of the Rum Ration Podcast, Rejoy and Colin are joined by David Bensadoun, CEO of the ALDO Group and Honorary Colonel of The Royal Montreal Regiment, to explore the story of the Canadian Military Pattern truck.

From Canada’s shaky industrial footing in 1939 to the “war of horsepower” that followed Dunkirk, the CMP became a symbol of rapid adaptation, mass production and sheer mechanical grit. The conversation covers the rivalry-turned-collaboration between Ford and GM, the cramped “Monkey Face” cabs, crash gearboxes, desert driving, women in wartime factories, and the extraordinary scale of Canadian production.

David also brings a hands-on perspective after helping restore a CMP C60L to running condition.

It’s a story of workers, drivers, engineers and a truck that helped put the Allies on wheels and toward victory.