Airaghardt seems to think the Calgary Highlanders don‘t have any schmucks on the rolls...must not parade much....
In any event, the original poster is merely trolling - his comment about saving money on Highland regiments is especially funny, since the majority of highland kit, etc. is purchased at regimental expense.
This too has been discussed often.
However, bear in mind that my previous comments also bear fruit - the German Army in WW II did not have regimental traditions per se, and they fought very well. All the traditions of the "Old Army" were done away with, though an effort was made at first to retain regimental traditions in the companies and battalions of the new Wehrmacht in the 1930s. By 1940, the last outward sign of regimental tradition - the number of the unit - was deleted from the shoulder straps. While regiments still recruited locally, and divisions were given a regional designation (ie Berlin, Württemberg, Rheinland, Westphalia, Saxony, Bavarian, etc.), there were no regimental colours, uniform distinctions, or any of the other "regimental" trappings of the Commonwealth armies.
Unit cohesion was actually drawn from the National Socialist influence - officers ate what their men ate, and were looked on usually as comrades, as class distinctions were officially being done away with. There were exceptions, but the officers of the British Army of the time retained their caste system to a much larger degree, by way of contrast, and some Canadian officers would have preferred that as well (Crerar, Simonds...the lower ranking combat officers tended to have a more modern outlook). The point being that the Germans placed more importance on relationships between men and units, than on ceremonial trappings. And it paid them dividends.
Granted, regimental distinctions are usually retained for their value in recruiting in peacetime, this is just a reminder that in action, cap badges and back flashes and coloured hosetops really count for much less than the respect between men and leaders, and confidence in each other - brought about by training and experience, not dress regulations.
The Canadian Army dispensed with regimental traditions in many units during World War One - the numbered battalions in some cases kept the traditions of their founding regiments, but many (most?) did not. The Calgary Highlanders‘ predecessor is a great example. They were formed from the 103rd Calgary Rifles and the 106th Winnipeg Light Infantry.
The battalion did not adopt a single rifle regiment tradition, nor a single light infantry tradition (no blackened buttons, Sam Brownes, chin strap or rank insignia, they marched at the normal pace, they had no buglehorns or bugle band) and simply called themselves "The Tenth Canadians", and later, "The Fighting Tenth". A wartime effort by one officer to nickname the unit "White Gurkhas" did not stick.
Their fighting reputation was second to none - and done entirely without the benefit of any "regimental traditions". They simply created their own.
So too the other CEF units formed from several regiments in Canada.
So you could probably do away with the kilts (sorry!) and regimental traditions tomorrow and number all the units, and in six months time or a year, there would be little difference in the operational capabilities of the units.
Don‘t get me wrong - you would definitely have lost a lot in the process - but the Army would not come to a crashing halt, and we would pretty much survive. Any Army that could survive Unification could survive anything, though some would argue we are still recovering from Unification, too. Mostly because of the people that left, not because we stopped wearing metal shoulder titles for 15 years or so.
I don‘t know if I buy into the kilt or the pipe band as a recruiting tool in any event. If you‘re not predisposed to the infantry, I can‘t see the incentive of wearing a kilt as being all that crucial to making the final decision. Would be interesting to see some hard data on that, but if anyone is selecting their trade based on the uniform they are going to be wearing, I have to question their ability to make decisions like that at all.
