Governor General presents Petawawa, Ont. regiment with new colours
The Royal Canadian Dragoons, Canada's most senior cavalry regiment, were presented with new colours Friday.
The ceremony took place for just the fifth time in the regiment's nearly 140-year history.
The colours, formally known as a guidon, represent a regiment, its history, and previous battles. They are updated to display the recent commitments of the regiment.
"When you're a part of this type of generational event, it's very, very special," said Dragoons commanding officer Nicolas Forsyth.
Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon, Commander-in-Chief of Canada’s Armed Forces, presented the new guidon.
"That is who you want to present your guidon if it can't be a royal," explained Forsyth.
"It just brings so much more significance to the event. And it allows the Governor General, in their role as commander-in-chief, to really be a part of something special for one of their units."
The new guidon recognizes the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) efforts in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014. Twelve Dragoons were lost during that time.
"[It] signifies all the soldiers we lost in the past," says RCD warrant officer Eamon O'Rourke. "Myself, I lost four of my friends overseas when I served there. And now to have that Afghanistan battle honour emblazoned on the guidon, I think it means more to me."
"In this case I think it was quite fitting that it was a little while after we were out of the conflict, but not too long," said Forsyth.
The history of the guidon goes back to horseback cavalry regiments, where soldiers would ride the colours into battle.
The first guidon presented to RCD was in 1901 by King George V.
The Dragoons have since evolved into one of Canada's three armoured units.
Governor General Romeo Leblanc presented the previous guidon in 1998.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Why wasn't the suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down over Canada?
Critics say the U.S. and Canada had ample time to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it drifted across North America. The alleged surveillance device initially approached North America near Alaska's Aleutian Islands on Jan 28. According to officials, it crossed into Canadian airspace on Jan. 30, travelling above the Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan before re-entering the U.S. on Jan 31.

Thieves cut huge hole in Ottawa restaurant wall to get at jewelry store next door
An Ottawa restaurateur says he was shocked to find his restaurant broken into and even more surprised to discover a giant hole in the wall that led to the neighbouring jewelry store.
Rescuers scramble in Turkiye, Syria after quake kills 4,000
Rescue workers and civilians passed chunks of concrete and household goods across mountains of rubble Monday, moving tons of wreckage by hand in a desperate search for survivors trapped by a devastating earthquake.
New details emerge ahead of Trudeau-premiers' health-care meeting
As preparations are underway for the anticipated health-care 'working meeting' between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada's premiers on Tuesday, new details are emerging about how the much-anticipated federal-provincial gathering will unfold.
Quebec minister 'surprised' asylum seekers given free bus tickets from New York City
Quebec's immigration minister says she was 'surprised' to learn the City of New York is helping to provide free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada.
The world's deadliest earthquakes since 2000
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook Turkiye and Syria on Monday, killing thousands of people. Here is a list of some of the world's deadliest earthquakes since 2000.
Mendicino: foreign-agent registry would need equity lens, could be part of 'tool box'
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says a registry to track foreign agents operating in Canada can only be implemented in lockstep with diverse communities.
Vaccine intake higher among people who knew someone who died of COVID-19: U.S. survey
A U.S. survey found that people who had a personal connection to someone who became ill or died of COVID-19 were more likely to have received at least one shot of the vaccine compared to those who didn’t have any loved ones who had been impacted by the disease.
opinion | Don Martin: Alarms going off over health-care privatization? Such an out-of-touch waste of hot political air
The chances Trudeau's health-care summit with the premiers will end with the blueprint to realistic long-term improvements are only marginally better than believing China’s balloon was simply collecting atmospheric temperatures, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, 'But it’s clearly time the 50-year-old dream of medicare as a Canadian birthright stopped being such a nightmare for so many patients.'