As well as being the first woman to lead Canada’s armed forces, General Jennie Carignan is also in command as her country pushes to rearm on a scale not seen since the Cold War.
This includes expanding the full-time military, bolstering the number of reservists and attempting to get up to 300,000 civilians to join a “strategic reserve” – a pool of people with some form of training that could be called upon in the event of a major crisis.
“The world has changed,” General Carignan told Sky News. “We have to get ready for large-scale conflicts, more conventional, so we need a different military to do that and different capability.”
PM Carney says the days of sending 70 cents of every dollar in military spending to the United States are over and gets a standing ovation pic.twitter.com/mW6MgLjYwQ
— Scott Robertson (@sarobertsonca) April 11, 2026
