If the CAF wants to expand its conventional recruitment pool at institutions like the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., its educational components need to operate more like civilian universities, writes Sarah Elizabeth Wolfe.Lars Hagberg/The Globe and Mail
Sarah Elizabeth Wolfe is a full professor at Royal Roads University.
The world is increasingly dangerous. Canada’s prosperity and sovereignty are under mounting threat from climate shocks, economic protectionism, ideological extremism, and predatory great powers. In this fraught security environment, our Canadian Armed Forces need smart and agile recruits who can leverage new battlefield technologies, navigate socio-cultural ambiguity, and respond quickly and strategically to threats.
But even after hitting a 10-year high in recruitment last year, the CAF is short roughly 14,000 personnel, and it is unlikely to meet Ottawa’s goal of achieving 25-per-cent female participation by next year.
My 17-year-old daughter is just the kind of Canadian the CAF would benefit from recruiting. She’s a high-achieving, almost bilingual, and proactive young person who values public service, and is training in leadership and language. She’s set to graduate high school next year, and as she thinks ahead to university applications, she’s spent months researching the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., drawn by its offerings in international relations and conflict expertise.
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Parts of her early recruitment experience were excellent. On a visit to RMC-Kingston’s campus, she had a long conversation with an inspiring female Major who spoke candidly about officer life and why national service matters. A very generous professor patiently answered a barrage of her questions. And the CAF‘s Regular Officer Training Plan recruitment website made clear the opportunities and commitments that recruits are signing up for. The Armed Forces deserve immense credit for these real wins.
But it looks increasingly like my daughter won’t take this path – not because she lost interest in serving Canada, but because the recruitment system implicitly told her that she didn’t fit and that it wouldn’t be flexible.
If the CAF wants to expand its conventional recruitment pool, keep talented people, and hit its recruitment goals, its educational components need to operate more like civilian universities, with student-centred on-ramps. Here are four ways to do that.
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First, representation matters, even in the small moments. Our daughter had a terrific campus tour from a male cadet who spoke openly and enthusiastically about RMC’s learning and extracurriculars. But she also wanted to ask female-specific, potentially awkward questions: about barracks culture and after-hours safety, about biological realities in the field, about ascending to military leadership when you’re the youngest or smallest on the team. The fix here is simple: with a roster of volunteer guides that includes women and members of other under-represented groups, let prospective recruits request a tour match, and then provide peer-to-peer mentorship throughout recruitment.
Second, decouple the early undergraduate education from the requirement to select a military occupation. The ROTP asks teenagers to pick a “trade” up front, within operations, intelligence, logistics, or public affairs. But as someone who’s been teaching undergrads for nearly 20 years, most high school graduates don’t know what they want to do, and even first-year undergraduates who claim to know exactly what they want often change their minds midway through. So why not start placing cadets in streams after their second or third year, once they have experienced some military training and university coursework, and had in-program exposure to various career pathways? This adjustment would increase recruitment, reduce the administrative inefficiencies of wrong-fit postings or retraining delays, and improve retention over the long term.
Third, make gender and the CAF’s culture change an explicit recruitment issue. The 2022 report by former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour offered practical steps that, if implemented, will be noticed by applicants and their parents. These recommendations included assessing attitudes on cultural and gender issues early, pre- and post-recruitment; transferring Criminal Code sexual-offence cases to civilian police and courts to build transparency and trust; and re-examining the military-college culture, which Ms. Arbour flagged as a locus of persistent problems affecting female cadets. Most importantly, make the fixes public, measurable and celebrated, because potential recruits are watching.
Finally, geography matters. While our daughter is applying to Ontario universities, potentially moving thousands of kilometres to eastern Canada for a military college can be a barrier for many potential recruits. The CAF should pilot a West Coast undergraduate pathway through a satellite campus. There’s precedent for this: for more than 50 years, Hatley Park – which is now Royal Roads University – served as Canada’s primary West Coast officer-training hub. A credible western training option would widen the recruitment funnel in B.C., Alberta, and the North.
None of these changes need to lower the CAF’s high standards. They’d just mean adjusting how CAF extends its invitation to potential recruits, answers their questions, and paces career decisions. These are small and incremental but essential changes if the CAF wants more women, French-speaking anglophones, western recruits, and high-achieving generalists who could eventually defend our country from a cockpit, drone command post, or policy desk – recruits like my daughter, who would make our country proud with their service.