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Description
Mr. Gyselman describes the demographics of the Winnipeg Grenadiers as he saw them, and indicates that he enlisted not out of patriotism but for the steady employment.
Transcription
I wouldn’t be a good spokesman to try and preach patriotism because the only reason I joined the army remember was I needed a job. And also, I think most of the guys in that regiment, the originals did it just for jackpot. You got to remember, a lot of them got sprung out of prison for different things, to join up. The only specification you had to be over 5’10” and relatively healthy. You didn’t have to have a good record or anything. So they were a good bunch of guys. Given any kind of a chance, they would have been a great fighting regiment because they were that type of people but I don’t think there was a lot of patriotism involved in it. They just joined the army because it was better than the alternatives at that point.