Stand easy!
In the menu of commands given on the Canadian Armed Forces parade square, this is the one that breaks the tension.
Soldiers have been standing attention as military luminaries inspect ranks, checking uniforms and rifles. Formalities almost over, they’ve just been ordered to stand at ease.
It’s the Sargent Major’s way of saying “chill.” It’s not time to go home…but you can relax.
And so it goes at Jasper’s Royal Canadian Legion, Alberta Branch No. 31; The Stand Easy.
In 1919, with the signatures on the Treaty of Versailles still wet, returning veterans and all Canadians needed places to gather and mourn. The Great War Veterans’ Association was formed. Here in Jasper, using scrap lumber from railway and townsite construction, the two-storey Legion Hall was built.
The building, and the subsequent Legions that replaced it, would end up providing much more than a place to gather for returning Canadian soldiers. More than a century later, the institution at the corner of Pyramid Avenue and Geikie Street welcomes all members of the general public.
The Jasper Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion bills itself as a “progressive, modern, youthful Legion,” using its popularity to help raise funds for programs and events in support of veterans and the community. Keith Henderson, the Legion’s self-styled Coordinator, Operator and Chief Bottle Washer, said that money for renovations and upkeep are funded by, in part, an annual bake sale.
Photos of the the Jasper Legion’s early years portray a comfortable but dark space— a wood stove at one end, men sitting at poorly-lit tables, cigarettes in ash trays, beer steins on the tables. A Jasper senior told me recently that when he was a kid, the Legion was a scary place that he rarely entered. It was comfortable for adults, but intimidating if you weren’t familiar with the music, and the unruly pool players weren’t your parents’ friends. Today’s Legion is more welcoming.
But traditions still stand. There is still a photo of the reigning monarch on the wall, like there has always been. This dictates that you have to take off your hat. That’s the rule—unless you’re in the band, or on duty.
The current Legion building was opened in 1971, 22 years after Bing Crosby hopped on a bulldozer and celebrated with the community in a sod-turning ceremony—before retiring to the bar and hoisting an ale with local dignitaries.
But despite breaking ground with the crooner and despite the existing structure being in rough shape (a condition that a 1937 addition did little to improve) the Legion committee of 1949 couldn’t seal the deal on construction. Instead they pivoted, focusing their attention on another essential element to a Legion: the cenotaph.
If the Legion building is a home away from home for veterans, the cenotaph helps remind everyone else of those who never made it home from war; those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Originally located on Connaught Drive and adorned with plaques commemorating Jasper’s war dead from the two world wars, in the middle part of the 20th century the monument was showing its own battle scars. Funds were raised to rebuild it near the intersection of Cedar Ave (now Pyramid Lake Road) and Connaught Drive, where it would remain for almost another quarter-century.
Finally in 1971, the current Legion was built two blocks away, at the corner of Pyramid Lake Road and Geikie Street. When the Legion was completed, the Cenotaph was moved to where today the Legion’s outdoor patio welcomes locals, tourists and Juno Award-nominated artists.
The Cenotaph was moved once again in the 2000s—just across Geike Street to its current location, adjacent to Commemoration Park. It has one more plaque than its earlier incarnation, one which commemorates Canadians who served and died in the Korean War (1950–1953). And it is once again in need of repair. Henderson has ambitious plans for the upgrade—plaques to commemorate those, like him, who served in Afghanistan, for one, but also plaques honouring Canada’s peacekeepers and Indigenous veterans. If they can raise sufficient funds, Henderson says, the cenotaph will be topped with a statue and surrounded by an inviting space.
The Jasper Legion building has always been something of a utility tool for the community. When it opened its doors in 1919, there was a school upstairs and a liquor store on the main floor. For years it was a social hub for all Jasperites, sponsoring a curling league, hosting live music, and even welcoming overnight guests. It was home to Jasper’s francophone school for about a decade in the early 2000s and thanks to the efforts of former Jasperite Ken Kuzminski, was named one of Canada’s top five small music venues by a former CBC Radio host and musician.
The space has hosted bands, live theatre, countless birthday parties and wedding receptions, and, of course, Remembrance Day ceremonies. After the 2024 Jasper fire, the Legion was home to Team Rubicon and fed up to 1,000 displaced residents a day for nearly six weeks after the town reopened.
Long time Jasper resident Glenda Cornforth remembers the Legion as an important gathering place. During the construction of the Banff-Jasper highway in the 1930s, contractor meetings were held at the Legion. Cornforth recalls dances at the two-storey building, where the second floor was crowded with coats and boots and the main floor was alive with dancers.
As one of the few spaces in Jasper large enough to host receptions and traveling bands, the Legion has built a tradition of welcoming both long-term residents and those folks just passing through—an atmosphere that the Jasper Legion wants to maintain, according to Henderson.
The history of the Jasper Legion is written on its walls, inside and out. In the back hallway is a cabinet with the charter of the Great War Veterans’ Association—all that is left of the original 1919 building. Next to that is a binder with the stories of the many Jasper men and women who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces, including those who gave their lives. Not far away are aging playbills, regimental flags, conflict imagery, and heads-of-state portraits.
Outside, next to the Geikie Street entrance and across from the Cenotaph, you will see the cornerstone laid by Dr. Thomas O’Hagan in 1937, marking the Legion’s expansion.
Its name, The Stand Easy, appears high on the Pyramid Lake Road wall. The drill sergeant’s order to stand easy is a relief to soldiers on parade. Perhaps you heard it at this year’s Remembrance Day ceremony. The command aptly describes an institution with a 107-year history in Jasper, where rules stand (don’t forget to remove your hat!) but you can take it easy.
John Wilmshurst // info@thejasperlocal.com
