Some more of my hypothetical musings on this subject...
I finished these ages ago and then completely forgot about them so, having found them just now, I figured it would be worth posting them anyway...
Before all the new details about the peaked forage caps appeared, I was already thinking along those lines, albeit just for ceremonial or formal occasions. I've included peaked caps for all officer ramnks but, in practice, my intention was really only to include substantive Colonel and above. The caps for field-grade and company-grade officers would be included in any regulations only for completeness, in the expectation that they would not normally be issued or worn except, perhaps, on formal occasions by officers appointed to, for example, certain ADC roles...?
I've slightly amended the Governor General insignia and the gorget patches deliberately include
five maple leaves. This makes them (a) different from the standard general officer gorgets and (b) is, perhaps, a subtle suggestion of the GG's role as Commander-in-Chief, rather than putting five maple leaves on the shoulder straps.
I did consider two rows of maple leaves on the peak for the GG, inplace of the usual oak leaves -- but somehow these just look better. Perhaps that's just because we're more familiar with this look. (There are certainly police and fire departments across Canada that use maple leaves for the caps of their senior officers instead of oak leaves, as do the RCMP/GRC, so the precedent is there, just not for the armed forces, hence the decision to retain the oak leaves for the GG.)
The cuff band for general officers is probably still unnecesary in my view but, if they insist on including it then I figured that something different to the 2" gold would be more appropriate as a generic uniform embellishment for
all general officer grades, especially now that the 2" braid in the RCN and RCAF is specific to the ranks of Commodore / Brig. General.
I did work on a design that used the
Crown-above-crossed-sabre-&-baton device, alternating with an oakleaf-and-acorns motif. I rather like this and the way it reflects the design of the cuff bands for the Gov. Gen but I thought it looked a bit too fussy for a service dress uniform, although it could potentially be used for general officer mess dress. Others may argue the opposite and suggest this pattern as a woven strip for the service dress and the bullion oak leaves for mess dress? Anyway, here they are...
