That's right.
They are fairly austere conditions, but they certainly meet the need for what we need while we're there. It really does bring the teams closer together, because they're in close quarters and really getting to know each other.
Now I'll move on to the who.
The size of the Canadian contingent will vary from year to year. The year that I commanded, 2012, was a big year because of our 60th anniversary. The total size was 270 people.
The command team is small, made up of four people. There are also 14 to 16 teams with 11 people each.
The marching teams, as you see there, are formed from across the country. We have army, navy, and air force representation, both regular force and reserves, and we try to cover geographically every region of Canada each year. You can imagine there's quite a bit of competition to bid to get a team into this. We'll have about 30 teams apply for these 14 to 16 spots.
There are a few extra marchers. We do have a number of VIPs who accompany us. We have a few sweepers who come along the back trail to make sure they're picking up anybody who is having any difficulty. In particular, we notice they end up helping Americans, who don't seem to train as well as we do for this, and the British occasionally as well.
There's quite a large contingent of support staff. We basically have to bring a whole bunch of things to make ourselves almost self-sufficient, so you'll see quite a few medical staff, some public affairs people, and photographers to capture what we do. We have a padre there to bless our feet before we step off each morning. He blesses the soles of our feet—excuse the humour. There are a number of cooks, canteen folks, supply people, drivers, and general duty personnel.
Finally, we had the pleasure of the central band being with us in 2012. To have live music particularly during that victory parade in that last five kilometres leading our contingent through the streets of Nijmegen is just an incredible thing.
This is just a quick slide on VIP participation. I'm just covering through 2011 and 2013. You can see the then defence Minister MacKay on the right with our contingent sergeant-major Chief Warrant Officer Jones. So he did come over for a visit and he did march one day with the contingent.
In terms of the send-off parade, as I said, the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Dutch ambassador—again some very senior folks—come to wish the troops well before we head out.
There's a small list there of VIP marchers, members of Parliament, and there are at least two in the room here with us today: Laurie Hawn and Mr. Lizon. Blaine Calkins has been with us. I marched with Randy Hoback one year, and as I said, an MLA from New Brunswick as well, Brian Macdonald.
Defence and VIP guests as well march with us. David Jacobson, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada, did the full march with us. We've had directors general and directors from Veterans Affairs helping to cement our relationship with that department and to help them understand better who the clients are that they're serving and some of the challenges that we go through from a physical perspective.
We bring a few honorary colonels over as well. We had Honorary Colonel Ryback and Honorary Colonel Rolingher. These folks are great connections with local communities. They support our reserve units very strongly, and we're happy to have them come along.
We also have a representative from the Legion. That person is selected by the Legion. The first year I think what happened was that their primary candidate had to withdraw about six weeks before the march, so they pulled another guy in at six weeks, and that guy had to train like crazy to get ready to go, but he did complete the marches. He was hurting a bit by the end, but he did do it.
During the marches, we have a number of visitors who come to see us as well. I'll just mention two other people who aren't on that list. Minister Alexander and Minister Leitch both completed all of the training. They were both parliamentary secretaries at the time. They managed to squeeze it into their busy schedules, but the week before we deployed, there was a cabinet shuffle and they were appointed ministers and did not get to go, after marching about 1,000 kilometres in training. They were very disappointed, but I think very pleased at the same time since they were getting cabinet appointments.