The Canadian Rangers stand sentinel in the farthest reaches of our<br>country. For six decades, this dedicated group of citizen-soldiers has<br>quietly served as Canada's eyes, ears, and voice in isolated<br>coastal and northern communities.<br><br>How does this minimally trained and lightly equipped force make a<br>meaningful contribution to national defence and to sustainable<br>communities? One of Canada's leading experts on northern issues<br>answers this question using official records, extensive interviews, and<br>on-the-ground participation in Ranger exercises from coast to coast to<br>coast. Lackenbauer reveals how the Rangers have evolved into a<br>flexible, inexpensive, and culturally inclusive way for Canada to<br>"show the flag." The Rangers offer living proof that<br>military activities designed to assert sovereignty need not cause<br>insecurity for residents of remote regions. Local knowledge,<br>stewardship, and national security prove compatible and mutually<br>reinforcing.<br><br><i>The Canadian Rangers</i> also tells the untold story of a<br>successful partnership that has developed between the Canadian Forces<br>and Aboriginal peoples, a partnership rooted in traditional knowledge<br>and skills and characterized by acceptance and crosscultural<br>understanding.P. Whitney Lackenbauer is an associate professor and chair of<br>the Department of History at St. Jerome's University,<br>and the author of numerous books, including <i>Battle Grounds: The<br>Canadian Military and Aboriginal Lands</i> (2007), and co-author of<br><i>Arctic Front: Defending Canadian Interests in the Far North,</i><br>which won the Donner Prize in 2009.