DUDLEY DO-RIGHT TAKING IT ON THE CHIN.

Byline: Clyde H. Farnsworth The New York Times

In his scarlet tunic, blue breeches with a yellow stripe and wide-brimmed hat, the Mountie who always gets his man has long been a symbol of Canada. But these days, that figure of fortitude and rectitude is likely - at least in the nation's irreverent press - to wear the face of Mickey Mouse.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have taken a drubbing lately over incidents that have raised questions about their ability to protect the prime minister.

In November an intruder armed with a knife broke into the Ottawa residence of Prime Minister Jean Chretien as he and his wife slept. After hearing footsteps, Chretien's wife, thinking it was one of their aides, confronted the man in a hallway. She quickly retreated, bolted the bedroom doors and sounded an alarm. The couple had to wait nearly 10 minutes before help arrived.

In February, during Flag Day ceremonies in Hull, Chretien found himself before a demonstrator protesting cuts in unemployment insurance and shouting in French, "Chretien to the unemployment line!"

Although Chretien, 62, easily shoved the demonstrator aside, questions were again raised about the Mounties' protection of him.

"It's deplorable that an incident like that occurred," Chretien said. "I should not be confronted with situations like that."

Canadians have long valued relatively easy access to their prime minister. But in the national soul-searching now under way, many are asking how long this will continue.

"The fact is that times have changed," said Bob Fife, Ottawa bureau chief for The Toronto Sun, "and we are as susceptible to loonies as the Americans."

After what the Mounties themselves identified as a "breakdown in supervision and communications," they have strengthened the chain of command and upgraded the prime minister's security systems.

Four junior officers and an inspector were suspended after the incident with the intruder, according to a Mounties report.

The report also said, "The policies are extremely weak relative to what is expected of a member when an alarm situation occurs."

In the Flag Day incident, the Mounties said that Chretien was never in danger. But his staff was furious.

In fact, Chretien made a point of cutting back his personal security, and on Flag Day he got in front of his moving security screen.

The report from the Mounties said that "the perimeter will be tighter in the future while still allowing him the accessibility he wants."

The Mounties' image has also been colored by an agreement last June with Walt Disney Co. Tired of letting purveyors of T-shirts, dolls, coffee mugs and other merchandise profit from the Mounties' stalwart reputation, the force sold Disney the merchandising rights for its image. The proceeds will help pay for community police work.

Canada is one of the safest countries in the world, so it spends less on security than any other industrial country, said Richard Chenoweth, vice president of Intercom Security Ltd., the country's largest security company,

But, with Canadian politics "heating up and getting more personal, the Mounties are not being given a level of resources appropriate to the task," Chenoweth added.

"I have a certain sympathy for the Mounties," agreed Robert Bothwell, a University of Toronto historian. "It's not always their fault that they don't have the right people at the right place at the right time."

But, he added, the latest incidents raise questions about the way the force is managed.