By Hugo
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) broke a 30-year-old record in 2025-2026, for the number of new members recruited, which stands at 7,310. Although the recruitment-to-application ratio remains at 1:6, the number of applications has exploded by a factor of four in recent years, rising from an average of 10,332 per year between 2020 and 2023 to 44,818 for 2025-2026.
The CAF and the Department of National Defence cite several material and subjective reasons for this phenomenon. These include new platforms to facilitate recruitment, a reduction in processing times from 271 to 134 days, a 20-percent salary increase for entry-level members, and a new recruitment allowance of up to $50,000. Added to this is a heightened public desire to “protect Canada” and a sense of concern stemming from recent wars and deteriorating relations with our southern neighbour. And then there are the advertising campaigns on social media, television and radio.
Although it is impossible to identify exactly the main reason for the rise in enlistment requests, it is striking that the increases in pay for entry-level positions and allowances are aimed at young people, particularly the most disadvantaged and those whose future prospects are increasingly uncertain.
By offering money and lucrative benefits, including full tuition funding with a salary, the CAF (and therefore the government) are feigning generosity and altruism. In reality, they are simply exploiting the economic situation of young people, a situation they themselves are worsening by cutting funding for education and healthcare, and by remaining inactive in the face of the soaring unemployment crisis among 15- to 24-year-olds, which reached a record 14.3 percent in April 2026, surpassing the levels of the 2008-09 crisis. They are simply trying to sell us what they are stealing from us, at the cost of our lives.
In the words of Defence Minister David McGuinty: “What is happening in Ukraine is serious. What is happening in the Middle East is serious. They [young people] are increasingly seeing that the Canadian Armed Forces are a positive choice to make.”
But what are the policies that have led to these “serious” situations? And what is the greater cause for which the sacrifice would be worthwhile and represent a “positive choice”?
This major issue is Canada’s foreign policy, which has always been and is still committed to loyalty with the United States and NATO. It is therefore a policy of imperialist aggression whose ultimate goal is to open markets and plunder all kinds of resources in the name of capital accumulation by major corporations such as ExxonMobil, BlackRock and Barrick Gold, among many others.
Despite all his rhetoric about a strong, independent Canada turning to allies other than the US, Mark Carney never once questioned our neighbour’s belligerent and jingoistic actions against the sovereignty of Venezuela, Cuba and Iran, while Canada’s own sovereignty was rhetorically threatened by the US government. Furthermore, there is no indication that Canada will not once again join the United States in a future theatre of operations.
So, why go thousands of kilometres away to fight a war started directly or indirectly by the US? In whose name? To defend whose interests? Those of people in Canada? Or is it rather to replenish the coffers of the military and oil industries and the large corporations that finance them?
War is an integral part of the capitalist system. It’s the tool of last resort when outlets for capital become scarce and profits dwindle. Destruction is profitable.
There are significant profit margins for those who invest in arms companies, for those who convert to a war economy, for those who transform their factories for weapons production, for those who offer their software to the military. And then, after all this destruction, construction becomes profitable.
Take the example of the war in Ukraine. For the Canadian ruling class, the war in Ukraine represents a market division that benefits Canada. As long as there is a war in Ukraine, Ukrainian exports are disrupted, affecting the purchase price of major exports such as wheat, potash, pork and oil – the same exports that are important to Canadian businesses. And the Carney government is investing billions of dollars in projects aimed at increasing the capacity to facilitate Canadian exports.
Canada’s support for the war effort also represents a massive transfer of public money to the private sector.
Since 2022, the Canadian government has donated $6.5 billion in aid to the Ukrainian war effort in the form of cash transfers, military equipment and operational support. This equipment – including drones, ammunition and vehicles, among other things – is essentially a “donation” purchased by the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a government agency. To support a war that generates profits for Canada’s elite and defends NATO’s sphere of influence, Ottawa buys weapons from major military corporations with public money, and transfers them to the front lines in Ukraine.
In short, Canada is engaging in war speculation with public funds that could be used to support young people, and all people in Canada, in education, health and housing.
Young people are quite literally the future of development and society building. But socio-economic opportunities are dwindling for us, and the CAF is exploiting this to replenish their pool of cannon fodder. Fodder for wars that are not ours, but those of a capitalist class in crisis – a class that, with no regard whatsoever for human life or the planet, seeks to sell reconstruction as a better alternative to the destruction it itself has caused.
Young workers should refuse to participate in this death machine. Youth want to work towards building a harmonious society full of opportunities for everyone.
For a future that belongs to everyone, a socialist future, we need to unite our voices and our actions and reject the militarization of our society.
Rebel Youth-Jeunesse militante
Translated from French by PV staff
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