sse;
Good morning to you sir, I hope that taking into account the tough sledding we're all encountering that all of yours and you are as well as can be.
Having had family - both daughters for awhile - live in Victoria on Vancouver Island where the ex royals first moved to, I'd have to say that if I were forced to live in a city anywhere I've been in nearly 6 decades here on this globe, that's my first choice by a long, long shot.
Perhaps I can be forgiven for a shameless plug/rant intermission here sir, but for those who've not been down there, its well worth the trip and should be on some sort of list of relatively safe places to see when this current morass subsides.
While I can't be certain how many full time RCMP constables would have been assigned to them, I'm going to make a semi-educated guess that at minimum there'd have to be 4 on duty, likely around the clock, so if my math is correct that would make at minimum an even baker's dozen as we'd need spares for holidays, illness or time off to see the podiatrist.
Again, this is some rough math here, but starting wage for an RCMP Constable is $53,144 - indeed it's Canadian Loonies we're discussing, but still - and then quickly rises to $86,110 by the 3rd year of service. It would seem reasonable to me that the good constables assigned to high profile protection units likely aren't fresh out of Depot with the taste of Regina water still on their lips, you know?
Now truly the ex-royals would have been contributing to the local economy through house rental, servants, services and the like, but I suspect that they wouldn't have been spending close to $90,000 a month that the security detail would be costing for wages alone. Seeing as we seldom see RCMP either on bicycles or horses anymore, one assumes they'd require some sort of vehicular stipend to get to and from, etc.
Anyway sir, all that mental gymnastic workout is simply to say that in this BC resident's view, the cost/benefit analysis of having ex-royals live in my home province does not, as my accountant wife is often heard to say 'pencil out"
As well, I am sufficiently certain that I am not alone in being able to make these basic calculations since it's also been pointed out to me frequently, "I'm not that special!"
Therefore in summary, in hopefully true and typical Canadian fashion, I will wish Harry and Meghan all the best in their future endeavors elsewhere...
Do stay well sir.
Dwayne
