Canada’s legions have been struggling. So they made civilians an offer that was hard to refuse

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At the legion’s Branch 344 on Lake Shore West, veterans and perfomers Marc Torchinsky, middle, and Andrea Greening, right, chat with a civilian member of the legion, Laura Ruthe…

At the front of a plain square room, silent actors use hand motions to convey the routine, discipline and repetition of military service.

They mimic weapons drills and polishing boots, signal incoming helicopters and stand at attention before telling their stories.

“I’m young. He’s younger,” says one actor, a retired medic. “I hold onto his wrist, not just to know when the end happens, but to offer some kind of touch until the end happens.”

The performance captures the crushing repetition of military life, punctuated by the horror of combat, the carnage of an improvised explosive device.

The show, at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 344 on Lake Shore West on the Friday before Remembrance Day, is a production of the MiCiv Project, which brings military and civilian artists together, at a time when the civilian population of the Canadian Legion has surged.

One hundred years after it was incorporated in 1926, the Royal Canadian Legion — which advocates for the welfare of military members, veterans and their families, and operates legion halls across the country where they can gather — undertook a membership drive. The campaign has added 130,000 members in 2026 so far, bringing the total to 300,000. They did it with a simple offer: First year of membership is free; if you pay for a second year — about $55 online — you’re entered in a draw to win a Ford F150. Existing members are entered if they renew.

“It has just taken off like wildfire,” said Lynn McClellan, president of the Ontario Provincial Command of the Royal Canadian Legion, based in Elora. “I heard that a lot of these folks are within the ages of 40 to 60, which is really encouraging.”

Even with the offer, legion membership in Canada’s largest veterans organization is only half of what it was in 1982-84, when it totalled 600,000. Hundreds of branches have been closed over the decades, down to 1,350 across the country today.

“Without opening our doors to everybody, the branches would be closing far faster than they…

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