By Colonel (Ret'd) Michel W. Drapeau
Canada is not the only armed forces losing their edge; England and Germany are two other examples. However, Canada appears to be the only country marking time.
The Minister of National Defence is totally right to observe that when you notice that your policies and strategies haven’t worked for the past decade or so, it is time to change course. A change to dress policy was not the appropriate way to correct the systemic cumulative recruiting and retention shortfalls.
From my perspective, in peace and war, everything flows from the leadership; Leadership is paramount to the success of any armed forces. Military leaders directly control the climate and quality of its armed forces. They provide purpose, direction and motivation to serving military and potential recruits alike.
For the past 60 years or so, Canada has appointed its Chief of Defence Staff from the restricted pool of serving Lieutenant-Generals/Vice Admirals. This practice has ensured the maintenance of the status quo throughout the period as each such officer had been hand-picked by the outgoing Chief of the Defence Staff.
Such bureaucratic rigidity must be put aside to permit the CAF to be led by a younger leader adapted to the modern world realities who can both inspire and tackle increasingly complex and interdependent problems such as recruiting and retention of soldiers.
In my opinion, the current CAF existential crisis demands that government does a ‘deep dive’ into the officer corps (including Reserves and retired CAF personnel) to pick the new CDS; a leader who possess the confidence, enthusiasm, leadership skills and cognitive capacity to lead the CAF out of the present predicament. A leader capable of inspiring both the Canadian public and the serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces
