A woman, General Jennie Carignan, has become the top commander of Canada’s Armed Forces and four-star General for the first time.
She officially took over command of the Canadian Armed Forces in a ceremony at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa on Thursday presided by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said that Carignan is the first woman to lead the military of any Group of 20 or Group of Seven countries.
“That could create a model and a change in terms of what is possible for women,” General Carignan said. “It’s a great step forward. It is a result of many, many years within the Canadian Forces.”
Carignan was promoted to the rank of General during the change-of-command ceremony, after being chosen by Trudeau’s government to become Canada’s first female Chief of Defense Staff.
Trudeau called it a historic day and praised Carignan as someone of the right caliber to take over. He named her to the role earlier this month.
“You are the very first woman to ever become Chief of the Defence Staff in Canada, the very first in the G7 and the G20. You are a role model for all Canadians and the world,” Trudeau said during the ceremony.
In 2018, Trudeau appointed the first female head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and his Cabinet has been 50% female since he took office in 2015.
Carignan is no stranger to firsts. She was also the first woman to command a combat unit in the Canadian military, and her career has included deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Syria.
For the last three years, she has been the Chief of Professional Conduct and Culture, a job created as a result of the sexual misconduct scandal in 2021.
Indeed, Canada’s first female infantry officer believes Carignan’s appointment is well deserved, and that young men and women will look up to the new Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS).
“Knowing that there’s a mentor out there, there’s somebody that has broken that glass ceiling, and that it’s possible… There’s no more barriers to the top rank of the Canadian Armed Forces,” Sandra Perron told CTV News in an interview.
While some have seen the Liberal government’s efforts towards inclusivity and gender parity in the military as performative, Perron believes Carignan’s CV speaks to her experience and how deserving she is of the job.
“She’s had strategic planning experience at high levels. She’s commanded and led large and complex operations in a theatre of war as commander of NATO in Iraq,” Perron said.
Carignan’s military career has spanned 35 years, including commanding two combat engineer regiments where she led more than 10,000 soldiers. In 2008, she became the first woman in CAF history to command a combat arms unit. She deployed to Afghanistan the following year, and also served in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Syria.
It is in CAF’s efforts to transform the culture of the military that led to Carignan appointment and service as Chief of Professional Conduct and Culture at the Department of National Defence.
In announcing the new appointment, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters the new Defence Chief was an “extraordinarily important choice,” as The Canadian Press reported.
“Making sure that we have the right person to lead our Armed Forces in this pivotal time was something that I think Canadians appropriately felt that we needed to take seriously, which we did,” Trudeau said at the time.
The Armed Forces is in a transition phase as there are ongoing efforts to change the culture internally and continue to rebuild dwindling ranks. It’s estimated the CAF is short approximately 16,500 troops after years of failure to recruit and retain more members than it has lost to retirement or release. In March, Defence Minister Bill Blair called the situation a “death spiral.”
Carignan replaces General Wayne Eyre as Chief of the Defence Staff who retired after serving in the role since 2021.
However, she inherits a military that some say is in a state of crisis.
“I think the most important problem of lack of personnel (is) that (it) is impacting readiness at a high level,” said Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
On Thursday, Carignan acknowledged the challenges she faces in her new role.
“We consistently have those challenges as military forces across the world. Evolving military forces over time is what we do,” Carignan said. “My job as CDS is to translate Canadians’ investment, what Canadians decide to invest in their defence into readiness and into capacity.”
Carignan also said recruitment is her most important priority.
“The priority is to make sure that we welcome a whole range of Canadian expertise and quality people to ensure that we have the people we need to render our forces ready,” Carignan said.
“Yes, the equipment is part of it, but we will need to get people in, train them so that they can actually effect all of these changes also that we want to do within the institution.”
Duval-Lantoine is also concerned about the “glass cliff” facing Carignan. The term refers to situations where women are promoted to higher positions in a time of crisis where the chance of failure is more likely.
“The threat environment is becoming more and more difficult, and we’re seeing it approaching Canada, from coast to coast to coast. We have fewer and fewer service members being able to service all the capabilities that we’re acquiring right now,” Duval-Lantoine told CTV News in an interview.
Carignan’s predecessor previously described these issues as “crises stacked upon crises.”
“The military that we have right now is not ready to counter the threats that we see coming,” Eyre told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos.
Those who have met Carignan say her kindness and willingness to listen, while also being able to have those difficult conversations, set her apart from other leaders.