Today’s Canadian Rangers had their beginnings in World War II. When a lighthouse on British Columbia’s coast was attacked by a Japanese submarine, it drew attention to the vulnerability of the sparsely populated coast.

Following the end of World War II, the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers role expanded to include other remote and coastal parts of Canada. They were relaunched in 1947 as the Canadian Rangers. In the 1970s, increased interest in protecting Canada’s North renewed interest in the Ranger program.