The country’s top military commander delivered a keep calm and carry on message on Wednesday in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex Canada.
Gen. Jennie Carignan says the military-to-military relationship between the two countries is solid and has not shown the signs of the political strain that has racked the two nations.
“The relationship that we have with our American military colleagues is very stable and very strong,” Carignan said as the Department of National Defence released an update on how the military will rebuild its recruiting system.
Trump has been critical of Canada’s level of defence spending and its inability — up until late unwillingness — to hit the NATO two per cent of gross domestic product target. He complained Canada relies on the United States to defend it, claiming the country is not viable and would welcome annexation.
Gen. Jennie Carignan, chief of the defence staff, says the Canadian and American militaries ‘complement each other’s capabilities extremely well.’ Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada, Carignan says ‘militarily we are not there at all.’
Carignan said this is not something that has entered the conversation with her American counterparts.
“Militarily, we’re not there at all,” she said, while pointing to the level to which the two nations rely on each other through the continental air defence command, NORAD.
Another senior defence official noted there’s been a steady increase in the number of Canadians volunteering to join the military, but Commodore Pascal Belhumeur, who is running the branch in charge of recruiting, said they’re not able to specifically attribute the rise to the political tension and surge in patriotism.
“So far we’re not tracking anyone who’s coming in saying that that’s the reason,” Belhumeur said.
He said the military’s prospect surveys will provide insight into whether there is a shift in why more people are enlisting.
The Canadian Armed Forces have been making changes to their recruitment process due to low recruitment numbers over the past few years. The CBC’s Mark Carcasole breaks down the new changes.
Andrew Latham, professor of international relations at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., said there is an opportunity for the Canadian military to solve their recruiting woes, but it remains to be seen whether they’ll take it.
“I would just try to build on this renewed sense of Canadian nationalism … and a very old sense that military service is virtuous,” Latham said. “It’s not something that you just do to make a few bucks here and there. It’s something you do because it’s the right thing to do. So they could use this. What Trump saying is to their advantage to try and recruit more people.”
Defence Minister Bill Blair said there’s no doubt Trump’s comments have awakened a new sense of purpose in Canadians, but whether it means they’re going to beat path to the recruiting office remains to be seen.
“I’m hoping that we’ll encourage Canadians in every part of the country to consider serving their country in the Canadian Armed Forces. My job is to make sure that we can bring them in, in a timely way,” said Blair.
And that is the challenge.
The Armed Forces are climbing out of a pretty big recruitment hole, partly created by the effects of the pandemic and partly the result of the reputational hit of the sexual misconduct scandal that affected a number of former senior leaders.
The number of full-time — or regular force — members is currently hovering around 65,000, according to a chart released Wednesday. That’s roughly 6,500 members short of the military’s authorized full-time strength, which was set in the Liberal government’s old 2017 defence policy.
The Defence Department has struggled to hit its recruiting goals and when combined with the number of people deciding to return to civilian life, the military has seen a growing shortage of personnel that Defence Minister Bill Blair referred to last year as a potential “death spiral.”
Throughout the military there are acute shortages in various trades, most especially in the navy.
