Up until 1896, Canada's main arm was still the Snider. Only a couple of select regiments had the Martini. But in that year Canada purchased 40,000 long Lee Enfield rifles.
Manufactured by Enfield (18.850), BSA (13,000) and LSA (8,150), they each ran their own independent serial numbers.
The Canadian rifles all have relatively low serial numbers, they were the first arms off the production lines in England to arm an overseas army. The Brit troops still had their Lee Metfords that had been issued starting a few years previously, they had not yet been upgraded with the new Enfield rifled weapon. So for a brief time, Canadian troops had a more up to date arm than the Brits.
There were a few Lee Metfords purchased by Canada for evaluation and trails. Three orders (25, 2 and 6) between 1890 and 1893. A batch of 1400 in 1895, and another 100 purchased from the Morris Aiming Tube Co in 1900/01 for a grand total of 1533 MLM rifles (Edgecombe p159). They were not general issue, so a Canadian marked MLM would be a rare find. It is my Holy Grail (or at least, one of them). Canadian marked MLE rifles are common, MLM not so much.
A good resource for information on Canadian arms is David Edgcombe's book "Defending the Dominion - Canadian Military Rifles 1855-1955"
