Summary and Key Points: Canada faces a severe military recruitment crisis, driven by bureaucratic inefficiencies, insufficient funding, and a limited national focus on defense.
-With only 1.38% of GDP allocated to defense spending, Canada struggles to maintain readiness, hurting morale and operational effectiveness across branches.
Canada’s military training. Sapper Mathieu Riva Maille (front) and Sapper Tommy Cabana (rear) fire a round from the 84mm Carl Gustaf anti-tank recoilless rifle during exercise Rafale Blanche in Valcartier, Quebec, on 04 February, 2016.
-Recent remarks by Prime Minister Mark Carney indicate an urgent need to improve defense capabilities independently, as ties with the U.S. have reportedly deteriorated.
-Canada’s armed forces also lag significantly in modernization, further compounding the recruitment issue.
-Without decisive action to boost funding, streamline recruitment, and embrace advanced military technologies, Canada’s ability to ensure national security remains compromised.
Canada’s Military Has a People Problem
Canada struggles with recruiting for its military. Reasons include bureaucracy, lethargy, and insufficient modernization. Dangerous global circumstances could motivate the Canadian government to take corrective action.
Recruitment challenges might be the case for several reasons, given that the Canadian military is a small force of roughly 95,000 soldiers and the Canadian government spends a small fraction of its GDP on defense.
In 2023, the North American nation allocated 1.38 percent of its GDP to defense, according to the World Bank Group. Part of the problem can be perceived in terms of a broader cultural ethic, meaning that the military is simply not as important to Canada as it is to its neighbor to the South.
Lack of funding is a glaring problem, as Canada only spent $41 billion on defense last year, less than 1.5 percent of its GDP. Low funding numbers make it difficult to attract bright young minds to the military as they seek competitive pay, new opportunities, and a sense of national pride to pursue military service.
Barriers to entry must be much easier because Canadian military recruits have to endure endless bureaucracy to pursue a military profession. Canada’s problems with recruiting are widespread and are already producing consequences, according to an article on the Canadian military in 19FortyFive.
“Across the branches, the shortfall in personnel is affecting readiness. Ships remain docked for lack of sailors, army battalions operate below optimal strength, and the Royal Canadian Air Force struggles to retain pilots and ground crews, raising questions about Canada’s ability to meet its NORAD and NATO commitments,” the article states.
Part of this problem relates to morale and a certain lack of “fighting spirit” within the Canadian military and its fundamental identity.
The Canadian military has a limited and somewhat restrained view of itself, according to the 19ForyFive report, as they see themselves as much more of a peacekeeping force than an actual “combat” or “war-ready” institution.
This attitude speaks to Canada’s very definition of itself in terms of national identity, which could be partly because Canada has enjoyed the protection of the United States and has not necessarily had to develop a deterrence-focused force.
Relationship with the US “Over”
Canada may need to overhaul its military drastically, increase spending, and make specific efforts to improve recruiting to an extent greater than expected. This need is the case because the new Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, recently said Canada’s cooperative relationship with the US … is “over.”
“The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” Carney said in a press conference, according to The New Republic.
It is unclear what this may mean, yet from a military perspective, Canada will be less able to rely on the US for key security assurances and regional military superiority. Carney will need to expand the Canadian military quickly and aggressively, which means fixing the recruiting problem.
Some of the Canadian consternation pertains to recently imposed tariffs; however, there are other ways in which the relationship between the US and Canada was already showing fractures.
Military Modernization
The Canadian military is operating at yet another massive deficit in modernization. This reality immediately limits Canada’s ability to interoperate, keep pace with allies and potential adversaries, and integrate new generations of technologies.
Should the Canadian military be ill-prepared to develop precision-guided weapons, AI-enabled computing, advanced multi-domain networking, and unmanned systems, it will have great difficulty closing the gap with other far more advanced nations.
Pte Allen Jewell 1 RCR providing forward cover with his C9 weapon and wearing a new NBCD suit after coming under a simulation chemical agent attack at CFB Petawawa training area.
Modernization is an iterative process that takes years of planning, anticipatory research, and steady execution across the entire range of military platforms.
The absence of sufficient modernization creates a twofold setback for the Canadian military.
Not only do they not have modern equipment and weapons, but they are also unable to develop the new tactics and concepts of operation necessary to support a new generation of technologies.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is Military Technology Editor of 1945 and the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
