Canada's Army Needs Youth Recruits

A new national service plan would fill our understaffed military with fit young warriors

- Mark Towhey

I JOINED CANADA’S ARMY IN 1984, when I was 18 years old. As a kid who’d loved Star Trek, the military seemed like the next best thing to Starfleet. I needed a summer job after my first year of university, so I joined the reserves, where I grew to love solving problems, working in teams and leading people. But when it came time to enlist in the regular force, the nine-year commitment gave me pause. That was half of my life so far. What finally got me to sign a contract was the mice type: if I wanted, I could leave after three years. I could do that.

I’ve been reflecting on that experience a lot lately—and what it reveals about the state of Canada’s military in 2025. Like me, a lot of Canadians have been thinking about defence, which isn’t something we often do outside of wartime. But with the world turning increasingly fractious, we're feeling more vulnerable than we have in decades. More than a million Ukrainian Canadians are worried about their families, under assault by Russia. Our Arctic territories are being sized up by Russia, China and even our closest ally. And Donald Trump has spoken openly about erasing our borders.

As defence has returned to the forefront of the national conversation, so has the readiness of our military—an institution Canadians remain proud of, even if we've allowed it to decline to a point where it can no longer stand on guard for us. In June, Prime Minister Carney announced plans to boost this year’s defence budget by $9.3 billion—a positive step, but the Forces will still have to decide how to allocate it. Our warships need replacing. Our fighter jets are 40 years old, effective only against foes whose planes are even older. The roughly 2,000 Canadian soldiers stationed in Eastern Europe to deter Russian aggression can’t defend themselves from air attacks.